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The "Parable of the Democracy of Goods" works to make society more egalitarian in that it stresses the fact that
even middle class consumers can lead the lifestyle of the wealthy by purchasing products that are said to be used
only by the "upper class". The advertising strategies used by manufacturers gave common people the feeling of
"sharing an experience" with the wealthy, because they lowered prices of so called "upper class" products, allowing
the middle class to afford them. The parable was intended to make every person believe that they could enjoy every
pleasure, benefit, and convenience of society, due to the "wonders" of mass production and distribution. The most
common form of advertising according to the Democracy of Goods stressed the fact that although the rich may
enjoy many of life's greatest luxuries, acquiring one of these luxuries would provide one with "ultimate satisfaction".
Also advertising and consumerism played a major role in the acceptance of the capitalist vision and its associated
inequalities. Roland Marchand in his book Advertising the American Dream argued that advertisers repeatedly used
“the parable of the democracy of goods” to sell their products to the middle classes. In this parable, although there
was a social hierarchy with wealth concentrated at the top, ordinary people could enjoy the same products and goods
that the people at the top did. Joe Blo could drink the same brand of coffee as the wealthiest capitalist. Mary Jane
could buy the same soap as the lady with the maid in waiting. The most humble of citizens (although not the poor
who were not the targets of these advertisements) could afford to purchase the same quality products as a
millionaire.[38]
The social message of the parable of the Democracy of Goods was clear. Antagonistic envy of the rich was
unseemly; programs to redistribute wealth were unnecessary. The best things in life were already available to all at
reasonable prices... Incessantly and enticingly repeated, advertising visions of fellowship in a Democracy of Goods
encouraged Americans to look to similarities in consumption styles rather than to political power or control of
wealth for evidence of significant equality.[39]
If the Parable of the Democracy of Goods is essentially a description of the democratization of exclusivity, how
does this system sustain itself? ...
While flipping through a magazine, most of the time advertisements go unnoticed. Surprisingly, if you really look at
them there is a lot more than just selling a product involved. An image an idea, and then lastly a product are trying to
be sold. In Marchand’s “ The Parable of the Democracy of Goods”, he writes, “Thus, according to the parable, no
discrepancies in wealth could prevent the humblest citizens, provided they chose their purchases wisely, from
retiring to a setting in which they could contemplate their essential equality, through possession of an identical
product, with the nation’s millionaires” (130). What he is describing is this idea of equality between classes being
represented through a product.
While flipping through a magazine, most of the time advertisements go unnoticed. Surprisingly, if you really look at
them there is a lot more than just selling a product involved. An image an idea, and then lastly a product are trying to
be sold. In Marchand’s “ The Parable of the Democracy of Goods”, he writes, “Thus, according to the parable, no
discrepancies in wealth could prevent the humblest citizens, provided they chose their purchases wisely, from
retiring to a setting in which they could contemplate their essential equality, through possession of an identical
product, with the nation’s millionaires” (130). What he is describing is this idea of equality between classes being
represented through a product.
Advertising was the medium and it recommended that people disregard the old-time Protestant ideals in preference
of a new truth which was that people could only be happy in proportion to the amount and variety of goods they
consumed
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Masters of Desire
http://fall06engl306-11-group-b.wikispaces.com/americanparadox
That seductive arrangement of arresting words and images is meant to involve you, but never intellectually. Usually,
but not always, to analyze an advertisement is to debunk its message, to deflate its enormous power to persuade us
Indeed, we are bombarded on a daily basis with several thousand advertising messages. We can choose to ignore
them, but their pervasiveness is indisputable. In fact, ad-meisters are counting on slipping into our consciousness
through the back door, safe from critical questioning and rational thought. Very few people when queried will
respond that they take advertising seriously or that it effects their behavior or beliefs. And increasingly, the line
between product advertisement, infomercial, news report, and political campaign are blurred. For some to say that
all this has no effect upon the way we live our economic lives and relate to the environment is to reveal the depths of
our denial and the apathetic lack of desire to critique and question. But there is a certain level of dis-ease in people
nonetheless that needs to be channeled into constructive discussions about visual and media literacy, as well as
economic alternatives. There is a growing sense of the discrepancy between media articulated reality, and the details
of people's daily lives. Paul Hawken addresses the tension created by this gap by citing, "… a type of despair that
people feel when they experience the gulf between the grotesqueness of the world and the business-as-usual tenor
surrounding it. At the level of the family, the gap between what a child feels and knows is right and reasonable, and
what Mom and/or Dad tells the child is right, can lead to schizophrenia. A similar dysfunctionality can affect an
entire society that knows the state of the world is one way, yet is told over and over again that the world is
something else. That disparity finds its most powerful and pervasive form in advertisements" (p. 131).
In the marrow of our culture, this contradiction is embedded in the matrix of our
In the international arena of today, there have been unprecedented, frequent shuttle diplomatic activities carried out
around the question of how to solve the Iraq issue, and hot line phone calls have kept ringing among heads of state.
The world, once full of great expectations on the new century, is now experiencing global anxieties-what does the
war to be unilaterally launched by the United States against Iraq mean to the future of the world?
He hops on the Communitarian bandwagon without critical analysis of how one compels community and whether it
would be worth the price.