The rampant commercialization of the U.S. becomes powerfully evident whenever I return from an extended trip to a country where people don’t wallow in materialism (on this exact point, see this post by Mindy Carney).  Americans are professional buyers and horders of things they don’t need.  

Many people would argue that we can freely ignore advertisements. Therefore, it’s OK to make the all-American deal: allow as many ads as necessary to pay for news and entertainment. 

I disagree. Yes, we can ignore particular commercials or even dozens of commercials.  But the average person is exposed to two million television commercials by age 65.  In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (2005), Barry Schwartz writes that “The average American sees three thousands ads a day.”  As advertising professor James Twitchell puts it, “Ads are what we know about the world around us.”  Just listen to Americans!  They have become the commercials they have been exposed to.   They just can’t stop craving the things they see advertised.  They recite skits they hear on commercials just like people often used to sing the melodies they heard on cigarette commercials from the 1960’s.  It is naive to assume that we can subject ourselves to this onslaught without ill effect.

Again, what harm can such advertising do?  Lots, according to some writers. We are afflicted with “affluenza,” an all-consuming epidemic, according authors of the 2005 book of that title.  The authors quote T.S. Eliot’s “We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men.”  What exactly is affluenza? “A painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.”

I once asked a friend how it was that our government could be so corrupt and unresponsive to the citizens, yet I don’t see any mobs with pitchforks and torches in the streets.   He said that the people will never revolt as long as they have their television.   Sitcoms, sports and glamorous cops solving murders as opiate of the people. 

Our obsessions with advertised goods distracts us and makes us complacent as citizens.  It’s OK to let politicians take huge (mostly legal) bribes from corporations that then get huge amounts of public money.  Just walk up to someone on the street.  Compare how much they know about their own government with how much they know about commonly advertised products. Commercial media favors the manipulation of glitzy images over critical thought. Who cares about our soldiers dying or about the integrity of our voting system as long as we can watch clever commercials.

Again, how can we as a nation expect things to get better in the US if we are too preoccupied with entertaining ourselves with TV, buying the newest thing or latest gadget, or other worthless things? We need to take the time to be involved in our government both local and non-local and hold our elected officials accountable in order for things to get better.

Read the full article, here.

OVC will be demoing their voting system at the Linux World conference. They are working to raise $30,000 by August 4th, to complete and certify their voting solution in the state of California. Mark Shuttleworth, entrepreneur and founder of Canonical, has given his support to the OVC in their mission to provide an open, verifiable voting solution.

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“People I work with seem struck with how grandiose our problems have become and yet how lousy are our choices for a new leader to fix them. It’s almost as though both political parties had too much to drink and vomited McCain, Hillary and Obama onto our kitchen floor and are now asking us to “choose one” to take home for four years… “Never in my entire lifetime have I seen a weaker field of presidential candidates and sadly for America, one of them is going to win” said one fellow.”

Above is an excerpt from Jeff’s (KE9V) blog post of a recent lunch with his co-workers where they discuss the woeful situation that America is in – which I would guess happens to echo the sentiments of many other Americans.

Below is my response, which I left in the form of a comment on his blog (which might also show up as a trackback since I decided to post it here).

I do know of a candidate that I wouldn’t consider a “lousy” choice, but due to the mainstream media largely ignoring him, not as many people have heard of him, or don’t believe that he has a chance of getting elected.

Another problem seems to stem from the fact that even if there is a candidate that is worth voting for, people won’t vote for him because they are afraid of the possibility of voting for someone that isn’t in the lead.

It is kind of a vicious cycle. People won’t vote for candidate “A” (who the United States really needs) because they are afraid that other people will not vote for candidate “A”. They fear that instead, others will vote for candidate “B” who appears more “electable” (based on what they hear from the mainstream media). Then other people with the same mindset will not vote for candidate “A” because he does not have as many votes.
It is a type of “herd mentality”. This is a good analogy – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_behavior#Everyday_decision-making

And at this point, voting for “the lesser evil” really won’t cut it because, as you pointed out, neither McCain, Hillary or Obama are what this country needs. And because people refuse to vote for who they know is really the best for the country, we never get who we need, but continue in a downward spiral continually voting for the most-electable, yet “lesser evil”, until we have come to this.

It is in this light that I ask you and others to investigate, consider, and hopefully tell your friends about presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Even though it is late in the election cycle, I still feel that it is necessary to spread the message that Ron Paul works for – one of limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. His website is http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ .

This is a long-term effort to educate the American people and raise awareness of this message. So even if Ron Paul doesn’t get elected (which is highly likely), the effort is not wasted.

Until we as a nation overcome this “herd mentality” and learn to vote for who we know is best for our country, things can only get worse.

-Jordan
KE5TLB

Update: I found this comic which seems appropriate to mention in light of my herd mentality comment.