Greed=Good

Thursday September 29, 2005

It is often repeated that the 1980s was the era of 'greed is good'. It may well have been. I spent the 80s as a child ages 1-10, so I imagine I was pretty greedy in the way all children are, but not more so.

So what happened after the 80s? Well, is it just me, or is there a rash of advertising in recent times which bases itself on the 'concept' of not sharing your chocolate? I reckon I've seen about five different advertisements cultivating this theme - its almost become a chocolate marketing standard - 'too good to share'. The image always shows somebody attractive hiding away with their beloved chocolate.

And we should not ignore the deeper significance of the intimate way in which the chocolate eater steals away to seclude themselves in chocolatey union. Like all advertising, these images are fundamentally about sex. And at a yet deeper level of capitalist ideology, chocolate is sex, or at least ersatz-sex. Since pre-capitalist social mores still dictate that uncontrollable sexual appetites should not be exploited as a drive for consumerism, capitalism substitutes chocolate as the ultimate hedonism. Chocolate is the acceptable image of wanting to consume more, more, more!

While on this topic, I would also like to highlight Microsoft's systemic encouragement of private-property fetishism. The Windows system relentlessly pushes 'the user' (and let's face it, we are not just talking about a 'user' here but an addict - an addict of private ownership fantasies to which Bill Gates is the ultimate story-teller)... relentlessly pushes 'the user' to envision the world in terms of personal property. My Documents; My Pictures; My Music... etc. What function can this first-person possessive have but to stimulate a ecstasy of covetousness? It surely has no organisational function - for if multiple users were seriously disputing the division of data territory, the labelling of 'My' folders would hardly help resolve ownership to one person or another.

And if you try to relabel these virtual agents of capitalist ideology? The system will become confused. At certain points, its informational architecture will insist on looking for a folder labelled 'My Documents', disallowing any more collectivist approach to data management.

The lesson for concerned citizens is surely this: be vigilant.