Is compulsive consumerism the "new opium of the people"?

• By  Germán Gorraiz ,  daily-octubre.com
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The present dominant system or establishment would use the invisible dictatorship of the compulsive consumerism of material goods to annul the ideals of the primordial individual and transform it into an uncritical, fearful and conformist being that will inevitably increase the ranks of a homogeneous, uniform and easily manipulated society through mass manipulation techniques. 

Manipulation of the masses 

Edward L. Bernays,nephew of Sigmund Freud and one of the pioneers in the study of mass psychology, wrote in his book Propaganda (1928), "The deliberate and intelligent manipulation of the structured habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic societies. 

Those who manipulate this hidden mechanism of society constitute an invisible government that is the true ruling power of our country. 

We are governed, our minds are shaped, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. " 

It also bases the support of all systems of government on the "manipulation of public opinion", stating that "Governments, whether monarchical, constitutional, democratic or communist, depend on the acquiescence of public opinion to port their efforts and, in fact, the Government is only Government by virtue of this public acquiescence. " 

In another of his books, "Crystallizing public opinion," he unravels the brain's mechanisms of the group and the influence of propaganda as a method to unify his thinking. 

Thus, according to his words "the mind of the group does not think, in the strict sense of the word. Instead of thoughts it has impulses, habits and emotions. 

When deciding your first impulse is usually to follow the example of a leader you trust. 

This is one of the principles most firmly established by mass psychology, "so the propaganda of the establishment will be directed not to the individual subject but to the Group in which the personality of the one-dimensional individual is diluted and shrouds in fragments of false expectations created and common yearnings that supports it. 

The media manipulation 

American Harold Lasswell (a pioneer in mass communication research) studied post-World War I propaganda techniques and identified a way of manipulating the masses ( hypodermic needle or magic bullettheory ) , a theory embodied in his book "Propaganda techniques in World War (1927) and based on " injecting a concrete idea with the mass media to direct public opinion for their own benefit and that allows to achieve the adherence of individuals to their political ideology without having to resort to violence .  "

To this, contributes the flat encephalogram of the critical conscience of the present society favored by a journalistic practice dangerously mediated by the absence of the exegesis or objectivity in the articles of opinion and the termination of the deontological journalistic code that would have its form in the implementation of self-censorship and in the submission "nolis volis" to the editorial line of its media (fruit of the atavistic endemism of servitude to the factual powers of the status quo) and that would have turned the journalist into a mere transmission belt of the postulates of establishment or dominant system. 

Towards the Multidimensional Individual? 

The German sociologist and philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in his book "The Unidimensional Man (1964), explains that" the basic function of the media is to develop pseudo-necessities of goods and services manufactured by giant corporations, tying individuals to the consumption cart and political passivity ", political systems that will be the breeding ground for the pathogenic virus known as" autos-kratos "or autocracy. 

The autocracy would be a form of government exercised by a single person with an absolute and unlimited power, a kind of endogenous parasite of other systems of government (including so-called formal democracy), starting from the chrysalis of a partisan proposal chosen through free elections, came to power metamorphosed into a presidentialist leader with clear totalitarian tints (inflexible, centralist and authoritarian), which confirms the aphorism of Lord Acton ... 

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute Power corrupts absolutely" . 

However, thanks to the interactivity provided by Internet social networks (the so-called Fifth Power linking and aiding the formation of modern identities), the endemic isolation and passivity of the submissive and uncritical individual of Western consumer societies (One-dimensional Man). 

Thus, a new individual would be emerging, reaffirmed in a solid critical conscience, based on values ​​fallen into disuse but present in our atavistic code as solidarity and collective indignation before the corruption and injustice prevailing and ready to break the rules and imposed laws by the dominant system, Multidimensional Individual generates a popular tsunami denouncing the current democratic, social and values ​​deficit and establishing the constructive chaos that will end up diluting the opioid inhibitor of the critical conscience (compulsive consumerism). 

GERMÁN GORRAIZ LÓPEZ - Analyst