The Capitalist Matrix, Part II

Through advertising and sometimes lack thereof, consumer culture tells us stories about what the company represents, and whom we might be if we buy into this culture. Modern capitalism simultaneously promotes individualism and conformity – we are encouraged to find our own unique niche in the world while adhering to social norms. Through personal possessions, we try to create our own life-story. Companies feed us possible stories about who we might be. And if we identify, then we purchase.

Stores, and not just bookstores, are full of stories. Victoria’s Secret is a romance novel about sex, seduction, and desire, about bodies and beauty about femininity and masculinity. Sportsmart is the sports page of the mall, telling stories about striving and success. Abercrombie and Fitch combines adventure stories with coming-of-age stories. The Gap started by telling stories about the generation gap, but now their stories are about “cool” characters and their “casual” lives. The stories of progress at Radio Shack are often futuristic fantasies, and Hot Topic tells stories about individualism and conformity, dissent, and deviance. … All of the retailers tell stories about “the good life” and about America. (Farrell, xix-xx)

We pick and choose which identities we want to be told we are. The person who shops at Abercrombie and Fitch is no different than the person who shops at Hot Topic. Both are mass-marketed stores, selling an image. People who shop at Hot Topic try to buy things to stand out, ultimately conforming to the Hot Topic culture. People who shop at Abercrombie and Fitch seek to fit into Abercrombie and Fitch culture, and ultimately “stand out” from the rest of society AS a member of that culture. Regardless of whether one conforms or tries to escape from consumer culture, the companies selling the products always win – it’s the same way with Anheuser-Busch and PBR.

There is a single goal in Capitalism: create capital. If it serves the interests of a company to please their customers, then they’ll do it. But no matter how happy the customer is, the company must always make money, or else they will go out of business. Anheuser-Busch once made a “documentary” called “An American History of Beer.” “After critics berated the channel for blurring the line between ads and programs, it pulled the program off its afternoon lineup and ran it instead in early hours.” (Scott, 73) This is way our world is. There is a hidden capitalist motive behind everything a capitalist operation does, whether it is a company or the actions of our government. Anheuser-Busch wasn’t interested in creating an objective documentary of beer, it was interesting in projecting the history of Anheuser-Busch. And convince the viewer that their company is more representative of beer than other brands, without ever saying so. Not even PBR is free from these accusations of hidden motives. “In 1985, the brewery was bought by Paul Kalmanovitz, a self-made beer and real-estate baron. While other big brewers were spending to build national, image-based brands, Kalmonovitz’s idea, apparently, was to buy up ailing ales, slash all associated costs and let them “decline profitably.” (Walker, 138) Mister Kalmanovitz could have cried all he wanted about how he was “saving” dying beer companies, his real objective was the extra money in his pocket they’d give him. PBR can maintain it’s no-advertising image all it wants, it is still a capitalist operation under the watch of Mister Kalmanovitz.

What is the Capitalist Matrix? Control. Consumer culture tells us to spend, spend, spend, so those doing the selling can continue to get money. We are batteries to a system that could not run without us. Can we escape the Capitalist Matrix? If we wish to maintain our lifestyles, no. Unplugging from the Capitalist Matrix would require a community to live in effective communism, free from the coercive pressures of buying and selling. “Yet, more directly, Americans fail to oppose corporate domination of the beer culture because they do not see it happening.” (Scott, 79) It is everywhere, yet even if we recognize something is “wrong with the world”, we can’t quite grasp the magnitude. You can see it when you look out your Anderson windows, or when you turn on your Sony television. Consumer power is a misnomer. “I have come to understand that shopping centers are part of a huge conspiracy, a conspiracy of customer satisfaction.” (Farrell, xx) We are slaves in a system that gives us everything we want. We may be the luckiest slaves in history. But we are still slaves.

Works Cited

Farrell, James J. Introduction, “Shopping for American Culture.” One Nation Under Goods. Smithsonian Books: Washington and London, 2003.

Scott, Ben. “Beer.” Culture Works: The Political Economy of Culture, ed. Richard Maxwell. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Walker, Rob. “The Marketing of No Marketing.” The New York Times Magazine. Sunday, June 22, 2003

Grade: C

This hurts. This hits my ego hard. I like my professor. She knows I’m not stupid. I knew when I handed this in that it was off-topic/off-assignment. I can frame, sure. I can use one concept to interpret another. But, now that I understand it, it seems more like a mindless exercise void of any real merit. I put myself in this essay, I suppose. And that’s why it hurts.

She wrote, “You have taken a very imaginative approach to the assignment, but I still don’t see you making your argument by using a theoretical concept from one work to analyze the arguments and examples of 2 others. What is your framing concept? ….”

She told me to not invent any more frames. *laughs* And today she said to me…

“You’re really smart, but you have to realize your potential. … You have to bend a little.”

Every time I hear that NOT REACHING YOUR POTENTIAL line, I want to stab myself.

There’s still the matter of what topic to ultimately do my research paper on. My first idea was to do something political – like how Bush sold the war in Iraq. Or how candidates are sold, period. But eh, too dry. Then last week, I thought I could do computer culture. I’d know all about that. And today, something even more personal hit me. The selling of circumcision. If anybody can do it, it’s me. But. The mere idea of discussing that in a classroom setting makes me very uncomfortable. I’m crushed when a toy idea is rejected, I’m not sure how I’ll be if something very personal to me is put up for argument. I’m think it is too personal.

Oh, and if you couldn’t figure it out, this was for Expo 2. More or less a research paper class. This section has the topic “Shopping Nation”, which seems to amount to consumerism and consumer culture. Such and such.

But again. Where’s the motivation when.. I can probably get a good grade by bullshitting. And independent thought gets stiffled. Maybe I better fit myself into the box and leave my tacos outside.

I’d go cry if I was able to.

Addendum: By the way, this is the only professor that gives a shit about me. She knows the essay is good. She sees what I’m capable of.