The Capitalist Matrix, Part I

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you can not smell nor taste nor touch. A prison for your mind.

What is the Capitalist Matrix? To understand it, we must understand ourselves and the culture we live in. We are pawns to a society that feeds on our wants and needs, exploiting our desires to augment what we think we want. We are consumers. We pat ourselves on the back because we have the illusion of choice. But every choice is another lever in the Capitalist Machine. Ben Scott, author of “Beer”, would point to the dualistic blatant/subliminal nature of the Anheuser-Busch advertising department. Rob Walker, author of “The Marketing of No Marketing”, would say that nobody is safe in trying to choose a “political brand” like Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) beer. We have no alternative to this reality, unless we turn to an upheaval of society via communism. And by “we”, I mean all of us. As James Farrell, author of “One Nation Under Goods,” said, “I use “we” because I don’t want to pretend I’m not involved in American consumer culture, and I don’t want to act like an “objective” outsider observing shopping as a different species.” (xviii) Sadly, no matter how educated we are, nobody can fully comprehend how consumer culture dominates our lives.

We live in a society where our daily lives are determined by the buying and selling of goods. Everything we own we have bought, or somebody bought for us, or we bought some raw material and fashioned that material into something. What determines what we buy? We listen to our wants and needs – and so do companies. “Sometimes shopping is a utilitarian act. … We often go to malls to buy things we don’t have – a pair of pants, a toaster, a new lamp, a book, or a CD. Yet we also go to buy more important things – an identity, a secure sense of self, a set of social relationships, a deeper sense of community, an expression of who we are and who we would like to be.” (xiii, xviii) Companies don’t haphazardly choose which products to sell. Some products are marketed towards our needs, others towards our “romanticized” wants.

Companies try to surround their products with desirable qualities. The durable wrench. The chic dress. The soft and chewy cookie. What seems desirable to us depends a lot on our culture – what values we want out of our products. “Understanding a single act of shopping means understanding the culture in which it occurs. … Retailers routinely use our cultural values to stimulate sales.” (Farrell, xv) So it is the goal of companies to sell us things that will make us happy. It’s a very subtle observation. Regardless of our race, gender, or social class, it is the goal of commercial enterprises to keep customers happy. If a company isn’t making money, it won’t succeed. And so companies tell us exactly what we want to hear about their products, so we will buy their products.

Advertising is the way companies actively influence their customers. Marketing departments look at the product in question and create a feeling within us to associate with the product. The respective advertising departments in the beer industry do this all too often. We all know alcohol reduces motor skills and higher reasoning ability. Yet, what has advertising caused us to associate with beer? Sports. The peak of physical performance is associated with a drug that stunts performance. “Further, in advertising, audiences are rarely presented with the negative effects of drinking, and if so, it is a watered-down version of the truth.” (Scott, 77) Advertising promotes images of shiny, happy people having fun during social activities, and with repeated exposure, we realize we want to be like those people. Any public service message by Anheuser-Busch shows the negative sides of beer as if the people who drink and drive are somehow different from the responsible people having fun. Any disclaimer by a beer company amounts to promotion of the designated driver program, or a simple “Don’t drink and drive.” They promote their company, and look good doing it. Much like gun-makers, they deny responsibility for any harm caused by their product; they’re not causing any accidents. The inclusion beer has become a very natural staple of social activities. By associating beer with things we desire (such as fun), the beer industry augments our desires; we learn seek out beer whenever we want fun. The customer is happy, and so the company thrives.

Excessive advertising can make some people aversive to it, to the point where they will casually boycott brands with heavy exposure. Even if a rebellious consumer buys a third-party product, has he really evaded corporate domination? No, because he’s still buying a product. Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) is an example of a company that does not rely on direct advertising to create an image – definitely a third-party beer. As Walker points out, “…Pabst did not set out to fill that niche, but it’s well positioned to do so.” (139) Independent minded drinkers were looking for something different. They wanted a beer that cost a little less, and didn’t have corporate advertising surrounded around it. And that’s exactly what PBR gave them. PBR will not dominate the world like Anheuser-Busch does, but that doesn’t matter. Their goal isn’t to be some political brand of beer; their goal is to make money. Like all companies, they exploit the wants and needs of their costumers, through a consumer culture that is maintained by its customers.