Commercialization of Culture
Advertisements, mass production, sacrificing quality for time and quantity, the desire for bigger and better, these are the problems of commercialism. Commercialism has been advancing nearly unnoticed by most consumers even since Babylonian times. But, what makes it harmful enough to be explained in a paper? Everyday we sit in our homes desiring goods and services that we do not need or may not even want, and discussing issues that have little or no importance to our lives other than to make small talk. Everyday we work hard to buy stuff that is better or at least equal to what society considers normal. As our former president Herbert Hoover even stated prior to the Great Depression, what he would have liked to see in every American household is "Two cars in every garage" (The American President: Herbert Hoover, 2002). We are fashioning ourselves to be boringly equal cogs in one giant corporate machine, and in turn, are losing our culture to business and propaganda. When a new "hipper" culture appears, commercialists explode the culture across the United States like a plague. What average adult would not know what a skateboard is, what reggae music is, or what Middle East tension is. We have all been commercialized by the news
Also in the middle 1990's former senator, Bob Dole tied the violence in street crimes to sex and violence in movies, television, and popular music. As Ritzer states we accept the infallibility of machines and trust the modern conglomerate to handle our food, our needs, our finances, and our lives. Most early civilizations focused on survival, this included hunting, and fighting for rights to eat first and to mate first, basically, "survival of the fittest. It is known as the mother of modern capitalism, and is the first recognized area to have international trade, finance, and capitalism in one city. government report linked violence on television to violence and aggressive behavior in all people, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) found these same findings inconclusive and unsupportive (Newton, 1996, p. What is stopping future generations from becoming overweight, non-constructive, violence-promoting couch potatoes, who only move to grab something to eat or to procreate? Our society is training us to become such objects, and something must be done. , the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). This again destroys traditions and values, and defeats the purpose of subcultures, to separate from the norm. Markets for goods started to spring forth throughout the world and different types of governments apart from the old monarchies, such as free market economies started to show the true power of commercialism (Beard, 1962, p. Not only are children susceptible to commercialization through violence, but also we actually promote commercialization in our public classrooms. Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1 5.
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beard 1962,
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hirsh 2002,
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president herbert hoover,
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newton 1996 56,
average person age,
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Acceptance Essays
