HW 29 - Merchants of Cool

Money is the force behind a great many actions. It is what makes people do stupid things like sit in a cubicle 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. It is what pushes us to want more and do more, because if the money is right we will do just about anything. But this isn't new information. Nothing i am going to write here is new information, just something for you to consider. Self awareness is they type of thing that does make us think about it, not necessarily change right away. If someone calls you out on something you did wrong, like hey, i don't like how you always make fun of my mom or something, will they stop right away? Probably not, but they will start to think about it before they do it the next times. Its like planting the seed of doubt in someones mind. Its not always necessary to culture it yourself, you just need to plant it and their own mind takes care of the rest.

I really enjoyed the class with Matt Fried because he had these great insights into how we are afraid of sadness. I liked that because i wanted to do some research into what kind of role emotion plays in cool and how different emotions could lead to different views on some one's level of "coolness." Anyway, this one point got me because i think that advertising companies have really attacked that. Money cant buy you love, but it can buy you happiness and nowadays that is really all that matters. People want to be happy and even in an unstable economy, money is still just paper that was made to be spent. There are people, like Matt Fried, are paid to tell you are unhappy, but just hearing it makes them happy, gives them the knowledge and permission to be unhappy. There are pills and drugs to make people happy. With all of these new products, happiness really can just be bought in a little pill bottle.

In Merchants of Cool, we are exposed to how the advertising industry is trying to use us and take advantage of our money, because at our age, we want to be cool and we don't need to make money because we are given it by our parents, and whatever money we are given we spend on what we think is cool. Or to make us cool, and cool is happiness. Parents give it to us to make us happy and what we spend it on makes us even happier. We don't always have it, but we always need it.

What i am trying to say but i kind of lost track of along the way, is that they want to make money off of you, while you make money off of them, it is an everlasting circle of fun that comes with a side dish of pain and suffering, all to live the dream, you aren't hearing any complaints from me though