21 November 2015
Turning the Negative Aspects of Relationships into Positive Ones
The United States of America has come under many attacks in the past decades. Jean Kilbourne’s “Jesus is a Brand of Jeans” and Helena Norberg-Hodge’s “The March of the Monoculture” highlight the negative aspects of American culture, especially with regards to advertising and the diffusion of their culture. Kilbourne at leads people to have relationships with objects, not other people. Norberg-Hodge does not directly address America, but Western culture, blaming it for the advancement of a program that attempts to establish a cultural hegemony, destroying other cultures. Even though they present their arguments in a very logical and sound way, one must take into account that it is always easy to criticize an entity that has as much power as this country. Therefore, even though Kilbourne and Norberg-Hodge both present compelling cases of the United States’ negative influence on the rest of the world, one should take it with caution, as the country is in a position where people usually criticize everything that they do.
The main argument of Kilbourne’s “Jesus is a brand of jeans” is that the American-lead advertising system has changed relationships negatively, having people with relationships to objects, instead of to other people. He begins by gibing examples of two different advertisements that “state or imply that products are more important than people” (Kilbourne). Even though he accepts that advertisers have long tried to make people consumers, purporting that they have the objects to fill their needs and make their human relationships better, “more recently, they have gone beyond that proposition to promise us a relationship with the product itself” (Kilbourne). Therefore, the author characterizes contemporary advertising as changing relationships negatively, by promoting relationships with objects.
However, this obviously brings many problems. Even though, for the author, advertising promotes that “it is easier to love a product than a person” (Kilbourne), he finds many problems with this. Obviously, objects do not have many things that usually bother people about others, yet they do not have the positive aspects of the people either: they are just neutral. “No matter how much we love them, they will never love us back” (Kilbourne). What is most dangerous is that many people do not even see that advertising influences them. “Much of advertising’s power comes from the belief that it does not affect us” (Kilbourne). Therefore, they are being falsely taught that it is better to love an object, even though they do not even see it.
One of the greatest criticisms that Kilbourne advances is that they manipulate people, leaving them in a state of loneliness. “Advertising corrupts relationships and then offers us products, both as solace and as substitutes for the intimate human connection we all long for and need” (Kilbourne). This is something that Norberg-Hodge also decries, seeing it as one of the greatest symptoms of Western culture. “Advertising co-opts our sacred symbols in order to evoke an immediate emotional response” (Kilbourne). This is probably the nastiest aspect that Kilbourne criticizes, as one can see that advertisers constantly abuse of people and culture’s weaknesses to sell products. Even though, as he states, they are just doing their job, it also is leaving a great cultural wound.
Furthermore, Kilbourne warns that addiction is one of the greatest problems that this type of American advertising is producing. “This is especially dangerous when the products are potentially addictive, because addicts do feel they are in a relationship with their substances” (Kilbourne). Even though the author sets the example of different drugs, studies have found that there are various types of addiction, some of which come from everyday substances that many people take for granted. For instance, there are many people addicted to caffeine, present in coffee or tea, but are not aware of it. Furthermore, there are many people that may be addicted to video games as well.
Another article, Helena Norberg-Hodge’s “The March of the Monoculture”, also presents a problem, yet with Western culture as a whole. She believes that it is establishing an only culture, doing away with all the other local ones.“For many, the rise of the global economy marks the final fulfillment of the great dream of a ‘Global Village’” (Norberg-Hodge). She uses this almost mocking rhetoric to buffoon those that believe people have an innate desire to be Westernized.
Even though the author believes that this is nothing new, she demonstrates that marketing people are doing it in a very different way. Colonization was one of the greatest forces in the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Like is happening now, the imperialist factions attempted to change the culture of the people that they were invading. They did this systematically, regardless of how the community reacted to the changes. Nevertheless, Norberg-Hodge believes that the main change is how aware people are of this change, writing that “the destruction of cultural integrity is far more subtle than before”. Therefore, she believes that she is not presenting anything new, just providing a useful diagnosis for an old process that people may not be aware still exists.
Nevertheless, another important difference that she sees is the quickness and power with which it happens. For her, “the scale and effects [of the methods employed currently] are often even more devastating” (Norberg-Hodge) than those that people did before. She blames this on different technologies, such as television and the internet. This is because these artifacts have allowed marketing people to reach every household remotely and at the same time. While the colonialists had to directly interact with people before, the victims in contemporary culture just have to turn on their computer or television.
This type of alienation also extends to the culture itself. “Even more alarming, people end up rejecting their own ethnic and racial characteristics – to feel shame at being who they are” (Norberg-Hodge). The writer feels that this is especially evident in the younger generations, who deeply resent their traditions and culture. Although they want to live in the luxurious first world that the advertisements sell, their lifestyle is often radically different.
Perhaps the greatest social malady that she sees is the divisions and violence that many of these contemporary colonies profess. “The rise of divisions, violence and civil disorder around the world are the consequence of attempts to incorporate diverse cultures and peoples into a single global monoculture” (Norberg-Hodge). She sees Western culture as providing a nihilist point of view: even though it critiques the local cultures, it does not provide any solutions. “For what it destroys, it provides no replacement but a fractured, isolated, competitive and unhappy society” (Norberg-Hodge). Nevertheless, as she argues, this may just be a consequence of this civilization.
Norberg-Hodge laments that the people that advertisement influences do not see the other side of Western culture. Even though she believes that this civilization has many positives, she also enumerates many negative edges: “the stress, the loneliness, the fear of growing old, the rise in clinical depression and other ‘industrial diseases’ like cancer, stroke, diabetes and heart problems” (Norberg-Hodge). To this long list of mental and physical diseases, she adds social and ecological maladies as a consequence of Western culture.
Even though this may be true, it has always been very easy to critique the person or institution on top. It is undeniable that the United States is one of the greatest powers on Earth. Just because of this fact, it should not surprise anyone that people constantly attack it. Many people see them as the country that sets the trends in the world, and thus hold them responsible. For example, if something horrible is happening in another country, people criticize them if they do something, because they see them as imperialists. However, if they do not do anything at all, people say that they are cold and heartless. This part is deeply unfair, as there is nothing that this country can do to get away from this perception, just because of the powerful position that they are in.
Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean. “Jesus is a brand of jeans.” Reading Our World: Conversations in Context. Ed. Robert P. Yagelski. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. 410-418.
Norberg-Hodge, Helena. “The March of the Monoculture.” Reading Our World: Conversations in Context. Ed. Robert P. Yagelski. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 629-638.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|
Are you looking for a similar paper or any other quality academic essay? Then look no further. Our research paper writing service is what you require. Our team of experienced writers is on standby to deliver to you an original paper as per your specified instructions with zero plagiarism guaranteed. This is the perfect way you can prepare your own unique academic paper and score the grades you deserve.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]