King Marketing and His Queen, Pursuit of Happiness

excerpts from

No Stranger to Strange Lands:

A Journey tthrough Strange Coincidences, Connective Thoughts, and Far Flung Places

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To be clear, I had only come across Milton Friedman previously because I was curious as to why the CEO of Whole Foods Market was writing that corporations should never be prosecuted for crimes – WHAT?!? What I learned was that his friends over at the Cato Institute are just insane. Their ideology is radical and dangerous. I know it is impolite to throw around mean labels like “Fascist,” but how do they explain that that is not what they really are? The collusion of business leaders, the media, the state, and military factions (i.e. military contractors – Blackwater, Halliburton, etc.) to create a single-party rule through the marketing of the deceit that the fate of all people will be raised up by the unfettered conduct of the elite leaders – that is Fascism in a nutshell, and it sounds all too familiar. Oh, and a little war is always good for the economy, while institutions like unions and government services that help ordinary people to have some control over their own lives are not. It is the “unfettered” part that is scariest. Of course, these people would deny that the government is involved in the “invisible hand of the marketplace,” that Big Business uses its resources to unduly influence the Law in their favor.

I also learned that Milton Friedman was the patron saint of this idea of laissez-faire economic policy, which is based on the notion that the role of government in guidance of the economy should be severely restricted, because the “free markets” regulate themselves. He connected Capitalism with Freedom, and used phrases like “free to choose” and “tyranny of control” to promote this radical ideology. Supposedly, no regulation or rule of law is necessary, because in the Free Market system, the cream rises to the top; only the best and brightest will prevail; business contracts will be faithfully upheld; and lying, cheating, and stealing will not be tolerated because bad reputations are bad business. Gosh, that all sounds peachy. Trouble is, it isn't really about whose product is best anymore, it's about whose PR is best – branding and name recognition, image, regardless of quality or supply and demand mechanisms. It has come to pass that Marketing has become the driver of the economy. That all involves big bucks, but you advertise like crazy, and once you acquire investment money because of your excellent PR, you just keep it flowing through the proper channels – lobbyists and campaign contributions (because the government is deeply involved in the economy, despite the rhetoric, through government contracts, tax law, immigration policy, etc. etc.), lawyers, more PR – keep that profit margin up by downsizing a little and off-shoring, use your connections to get yourself a juicy government contract, be sure to invite so and so to your next cocktail party... All of the capital ends up in the hands of the elite few, while the rest of society is left free to choose between getting expensive health insurance in case of a medical emergency or trying to pay down their phenomenal debt. Edward Abbey was more correct when he said: “Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you get a lot of scum on top."

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The sadness of bigotry and hardheadedness blanket this entire nation in layers of tragedy and irony. The tragedy of the enslavement of African people – the irony of the original Thanksgiving event, where the native people helped out the struggling Pilgrims, showing them how to survive in this new land, sharing their food and their knowledge, only to later be deemed inferior beings, not worthy of their lands or their cultures – the tragedy of the Civil War, that the righteous on each side were driven to such extreme violence – the irony that many of the romanticized episodes of the Wild West, involving “heroes” like Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody, were the results of so many armed and restless warriors from that horrible Civil War – tragedy that, as time went on, racism continued against the Black people in the South and a new wave of racism arose against the Chinese in the West – irony that the Industrial Revolution threw “modernization” into overdrive, creating a consumer society so completely dependent on corporations for food, clothing, medicine, transportation, communication, time-saving and life-enhancing gadgets, and energy to run those gadgets, all driven by massive media conglomerations that inform us what we need to buy next. The biggest irony here is that we are constantly reminded of how “free” we are, yet we have become slaves to our own existence. We have the right to free speech, religion, assembly, the press, and to petition our government, as Article I of the Bill of Rights declares, but these rights only exist in spirit, and are in practice minimized to apply only to those supporting this administration. And so, irony of ironies, tragedy of tragedies, this country – despite all the technology and information available, despite all of the lessons of history, despite the awareness of millions of people that our leaders have been lying to us and have manipulated the corporate media so insidiously that Orwell's dystopian world of doublethink has come to pass – this country has fallen from the towering heights into the snake pit of Fascism, lead there by fanatics, Capitalist fanatics, who are the snakes themselves, the embodiment of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, who seduced Eve with its shiny perfect-looking waxed pesticide-laden genetically engineered apple – she didn't seem to notice that it was devoid of most of its apple taste... How easy it is to conjure up our symbolic archetypes! How powerful that imagery is, and the image of the Snake goes a long way: the slimy snake oil salesman; the sneaky snake in the grass; the Great World Snake that lives in a pit at the center of the world; the seething snake pit that even that icon of manly fearlessness, Indiana Jones, can't handle. The Snake is the ultimate in creepiness and deception. A massive, nation-wide pit of creepiness and deception has emerged, created by the Serpents of Free Market Fascism, who lead their followers over its edge and into its depths with promises of glorious Freedom and Happiness while curtailing freedom and offering only false choices. And just like in the Bible, from which that Serpent with its apple emerged, they have their own creation myths and lofty ideals that, when examined closely, can be found to be based on tortured logic, questionable constructs of reality, and pure arrogance - the same kind of inflexible self-righteousness that has always led to violence and abuses, always based on some kind of entitlement claims and moral value systems that are devoid of humanistic ethics or empathy for the suffering of others. Their bible is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Herein lies a major source of the sadness behind my anger: that so many have been swayed by the dangerously seductive ideology of this and other “free market” writings, this twisting of what constitutes “good and evil,” “morality,” and the motivations of caring people, without thinking through the inferences or consequences of what these ideas entail. They are meant to inspire and uphold the rights of the individual and connect Democracy with Capitalism, yet they end up vilifying the working and management classes – the very engines of their precious prosperity - and abhorring populism. In fact, it seems to me that the only thing Democracy has to do with their ideology is that it is not Communism or Socialism. They have one-upped the original Fascists in deceptiveness by utilizing that system while claiming to be Democratic. They particularly like to paint the wealthy as the victims of guilt-trips, do-gooders, and those who hate them for their greatness, thus painting taxes as the coercive looting of their wealth by the state. They are paranoid that everyone is after a piece of them. Do people realize that the basis for this ideology is that the wealthy (who are assumed to be so because they have made great achievements and are the productive element of society) should not be pressured by the lower classes (who are assumed to be so because they are lazy and jealous) into parting with any little bit of their wealth because Self-Reliance is the ultimate good and helping out the less fortunate only encourages them to not try hard enough? In their minds, they are wealthy because they are better, and they are the ones who are put upon to hold up all of society, the “atlases” of the world. This is the thinking, and it is sadly arrogant and self-righteous, yet it seems to sucker people in with the empty promise that all they really need to do is to seek Happiness through Self-Reliance, Achievement, and “Rational Self-Interest,” and above all, do not give in to evil Selflessness, and then they, too, can become one of society's moral leaders. Saddest of all is their dangerous determination not to be sad – to deny Sadness – to forget, and thus lose sight of the truth of the past – that this mighty nation has been built on the tears of many, many diverse and underprivileged peoples - enslaved, indentured, in debt – and has not always lived up to the promises that the Founding Fathers made. It all leads to a false sense of entitlement by those who are most entitled, a sentiment that things are the way they are supposed to be, that those who are most trod upon deserve their fate because they are weak and unworthy, and that this system should be supported even by them because it is the best that Humanity has to offer.

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While dwelling on sadness is not comfortable in many respects – it is not fun, it can be downright depressing, or make you frustrated and angry - it's a downer, a buzz kill, a drag – it is vitally important to face sadness, to look at it and accept it, because it is a part of the whole of reality. And when you ignore parts of reality, you miss those parts of the Big Picture. Avoiding this segment of reality skews your entire world view toward the belief that Happiness is much easier to achieve than it actually is, especially for oppressed and abused people everywhere.

The lure, the legend, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the Holy Grail, the Promised Land, Paradise, Heaven, where everyone will be eternally happy, is the best marketing tool there is! Self-help books, dieting programs, pills of all kinds, surgeries, injections, gadgets that will improve your life, accoutrement that will make you appear more attractive, that latest “get rich quick” scheme... Businesses know that promises of Happiness sell their products. They need only to look toward religion as its ultimate mass marketer. The business leaders have taken that message and run, creating a new kind of monarchy where Marketing is King, the Pursuit of Happiness is his Queen, and together they reign over the land by controlling the corporations, the news media, and the politicians. Who knew that sweet and noble Pursuit of Happiness would reach the very top of the power structure? She was raised as the crux of Democratic ideals, to empower each individual to be responsible for themselves and their own fate, the sibling of Justice, Liberty, Freedom, and Rights to the Fruits of One's Labors. But she became corrupted by her seductive power, joined forces with her King, and now only uses the names of her siblings to further her quest for more power. She is willingly granted that power, adored by her subjects, beloved by her peeps. She and the King are honored every year, on Superbowl Sunday, their Big Day, complete with all the grandeur of the Colosseum, the beefy competitors, and the pageantry. So, in honoring this Queen, this has become a nation that prefers to turn a blind eye to sadness and suffering. Sure, she dispatches her top athletes to the United Way, and if we donate some money, we can all feel good that the needy are being helped. All the King's Men create the perfect poster child for the campaign. We give money, and then forget. The monarchs know that too much sadness is not good for the bottom line. Just a dab here and there, for dramatic effect, as a contrast to that Happiness that we can all achieve if we just think positive, happy thoughts, buy all the right stuff, stay strong, and follow the script. If our team looses the game, then we will them to try even harder the next time. And if our team wins, then we glory in our collective superiority, knowing that this means that we deserve more than anyone else, that we are better than all others.