Entry 4: "Why The Self Is Empty"

"There is no universal transhistorical self, only local selves; no universal theory about the self, only local theories."

I found this quote confusing at first, but after reading it over again, I feel that it has a very profound and interesting meaning. It means that the human "self" is not exactly individual, rather, we live according to what our culture has carved for us - what we believe as our limits in accomplishing something for example. There is no uniqueness whatsoever in society because whatever we do, it is based on some sort of already created idea. I agree with this argument because how we act, how we present ourselves and how we live is pretty much according to what our culture has taught us to be like. For example, people in third world countries act much differently than people living in the U.S. When a person leaves their home for some other place, that person must adapt to that new place's customs and beliefs; if not, they will become outcasts and will not fit in essentially. This is also how human inventions have corressponded to their particular time era. A consuming era makes us produce & buy more products and a, say, spiritual era would transform our actions in a more charitable way. There is no "universal" definition for a "self" because all we need to do is know the culture in which we are living in.

"For those despairing and hopeless about their real lives, the wish to consume and take in a new identity, a new life, can be very compelling. By using the right toothpaste or identifying with the most reassuring or powerful politician, consumers are this covertly promised a magically different, transformed self."

I chose this quote because I agree with it, I find it interesting that I can actually relate to it. Advertisements become increasingly personal and intimate that they compel consumers to purchase a product. It creates a desire to buy a product, a desire that maybe did not exist until the advertisement was viewed. Personally I can relate to many commercials and after watching many I tend to desire the advertised items. Often times celebrities are used to make a product more desirable because the product may make consumers feel more at ease having something a celebrity has. Many times consumers can identify themselves by the product they own to feel in the "norm" of society. This quote is easy to relate to and really proves Cushman's argument that consumerism is psychological.

"For those despairing and hopeless about their real lives, the wish to consume and take in a new identity, a new life, can be very compelling. By using the right toothpaste or identifying with the most reassuring or powerful politician, consumers are this covertly promised a magically different, transformed self."

I chose this quote because I agree with it, I find it interesting that I can actually relate to it. Advertisements become increasingly personal and intimate that they compel consumers to purchase a product. It creates a desire to buy a product, a desire that maybe did not exist until the advertisement was viewed. Personally I can relate to many commercials and after watching many I tend to desire the advertised items. Often times celebrities are used to make a product more desirable because the product may make consumers feel more at ease having something a celebrity has. Many times consumers can identify themselves by the product they own to feel in the "norm" of society. This quote is easy to relate to and really proves Cushman's argument that consumerism is psychological.

''The empty self is soothed and made cohesive by becoming ''filled up'' with food,consumer products,and celebrities...Americans in the post -World War 2 era seem to have become a people who have a deeply felt need to spend money and indulge their impulses.''

Today's Americans have become overly dependent on spending money on unnecessary items simply to make themselves feel better.Money spending has slowly become a necessity in the eyes of many Americans because they feel like that is the only way they will be able to bring joy to their lives.Americans have become so obsessed with spending money that they feel incomplete and unsatisfied if they don't go out and buy things on a regular basis.Over time,Americans have gained the habit of spending money,and it could be said that they have contracted some kind of spending disorder.People have failed to realize that the only reason why they spend so much time and money on food and other products is not because they need these items to survive,but because they have become addicted to spending money just like people become addicted to drugs.Just like drug addicts,people who are addicted to spending money first need to realize that they have a problem,then they have to be willing to do absolutely everything in their power to rid themselves of their ''disease.''

"Individuals do not wish to buy if they do not perceive a need for a product. But with an empty self people always need."

I chose this quote because it confuses me but it also makes me feel challenged. I understand that people are always going to want but you can just assume things are like this. Self is a very complicated and complex topic. It is so diverse because self isn't something you can put in a category and just start writing about. I do agree with the quote though about empty self people always need but i also don't. I agree because if you claim that you are happy and have everything you need why must you go shop for more? At the same time you can feel fulfilled and still go buy more things if you want. I know I'm contradicting myself but it is only because how complicated this topic is. If there is one thing I do agree with it is the fact that we do always have a need to want and it hurts us. We see so many commercials and advertisements that are telling us what we should look like, buy, and wear. Commercials are constantly telling us what is wrong with us. I agree right there that sometimes we can be empty when we buy things because we want to look and feel good. All in all there is no right or normal definition of self because of how complex it is.

"Inner emptiness may be expresses in many ways, such as low self-esteem (the absence of a sense of personal worth), values confusion (the absence of a sense of personal convictions), Eating disorders (the compulsion to fill the emptiness with food, or to embody the emptiness by refusing food), drug abuse (the compulsion to fill the emptiness with chemically induced emotional experiences), and chronic consumerism (the compulsion to fill the emptiness with consumer items and the experience of receiving something from the world).

I chose this quote because if we look at our society now compared to a hundred years ago most of these things didn't exist. People didn't gorge themselves on food or throw up their food. Most were lucky to even have food. In today's society food is so superfluous that people think it's okay to eat whatever they want and as much as they want. They also think it's okay to not eat at all because if they ever do want to eat the food will always be there for them. People used to want to save as much money as they possibly could in order to get ahead and to be able to buy the luxuries every once in awhile. Nowadays people could care less on whether they need certain items or not, if they want something they go out and buy. they don't even need to have the money to do it, they just swipe there platinum credit cards and on there way they go to deal with their debt at a later time. Not only this quote but this article shows how much society has changed and not just economically but physically, emotionally, and mentally as well. When people are sad they don't just deal with their emotions, now they go an indulge themselves in the latest fashion, the biggest slice of cheesecake, or the best drugs. They indulge and indulge and indulge until they become addicted and by then they don't even realize they're addicted. Maybe the way consumerism is and has effected our society is a lot deeper than we've ever thought about.

“Writers such as Lears (1983) and Modleski (1986)have argued that ads sell by convincing the public that a certain product is indispensable to their well-being or by implicitly addressing or exacerbating a personal fear in the consumer that could be reassured or soothed by purchasing the product” (35).
I chose this quote because it made me realize that most, if not all, of advertisements are in one way or another seeking to make the consumer feel inadequate in order to ensure the success of a company’s product. Companies are fully aware that every single person feels insecure at one point or another. And, they use this to their advantage. They present their products in a way that suggests that those products can “magically transform the customer’s life” (32). And in this new era of the empty self, advertising can influence people with ease because consumers are actually seeking to eliminate their “sense of meaningless and absence” by buying products (34). They have become susceptible to these advertisements and often find themselves wishing to be somebody else, usually a person from these ads who seems to have a perfect life. And, they are, for the most part, oblivious to the fact that these products are only an “illusory cure” (35).

"Humans do not have a basic, fundamental, pure human nature that is transhistorical and transcultural. Humans are incomplete and therefore unable to function adequately unless embedded in a specific cultural matrix."

This quote catches me because it relates to my cultural anthropology class which also talks about how humans are influenced by different cultures. This quote describes that humans are incomplete and do not have a pure human nature. Therefore, humans are influenced by a specific culture as they grow up and develope. I agree with this because it is true that people speak, think, and act differently due to the culture that shaped them. This quote lets us understand that it is a specific culture which influenced how each one of us speak, think, and act. Even small matters could show how individuals react differently because of cultural influences. We could see how culture has shaped each individual by observing closely the way each speaks, thinks, and acts. This definitely affects consumerism in a psychological rather than a economical way. Moreover, I think the psychological phenomena influences the economical phenomena. Whatever happens economically has to happen psychologically first.

“ The material objects we create, the ideas we hold, and the actions we take are the consequences or “products” of the social construction of each particular era.”

I chose this quote because its truth caught my attention. We, the society, are the ones that shape and form the era we live in and the way we act within each others. Everything we do or don’t do affects the facts of our own world around us. What we do, good or bad, can take our era through a successful path or a failing path. As we have heard or read in our history books, all the years before the twenty first century have been a lot different. Throughout the years, the people and the social connections between them have brought us to where we are today in the twenty first century. Politics, education, culture, jobs, communities and many more things are factors that influence and play a role in the social construction of each era. The power of the people is greater than what they think and they can make a difference. They make up the nation and without their actions, knowledge and participation in the country we wouldn't be able to make it what it has been and will be.

"The late 20th century has thus become an advertising executive's dream come true: Life-style has become a product that sells itself, and the individual has become a consumer who seeks, desperately, to buy."

There are many items in which they make the inner self feel complete and fill in that emptiness we believe we have. Such as make-up for girls it plays a big role in order to change your imagine or obtain a new looks that attracts peoples attention on you. For myself I don't go against it, make-up in a way does make me feel complete inside and completes my image. My natural look without make-up makes me feel out of place, like everyone is staring and I no longer draw an attention in which people are amazed but an attention in which people are like "woah what happen to her face!" in their head. Make-up has become a part of my life style in which I seek all the time, because without it there is insecurity running all over my thoughts. I much rather fulfill that emptiness and feel secure about my image rather than always being worried about who is staring at me and what they are thinking. I feel like I need to uphold a certain image in order to not get critizied by anyone. I have become a consumer of a certain life-style that I didn't necessarily have to get used to but yet I did, because I feel into the thought that make-up allows me to feel less insecure and that shouldn't have been the case. I do believe insecurity at times plays a big role into the life-style you have because there is the thought that there is a image you need to up hold around people.

" Life has become a product that sells itself, and the individual has become a comsumer who seeks, desperately, to buy."
i chose this quote because it literally sums up what comsumerism has done to our world. Now people are so weak, that they have to buy in order to feel good emotionally. People today are not satisfied with themselves if they are not outside in the stores buying the latest trend. Technically the life of a person is basically working to get money, then using the money to buy the things they desire.

" Life has become a product that sells itself, and the individual has become a comsumer who seeks, desperately, to buy."
i chose this quote because it literally sums up what comsumerism has done to our world. Now people are so weak, that they have to buy in order to feel good emotionally. People today are not satisfied with themselves if they are not outside in the stores buying the latest trend. Technically the life of a person is basically working to get money, then using the money to buy the things they desire.a century ago, people did not waste their money on things that were not necessary. today everything we buy is" necessary". bwcause consumerism has flourished, we now believe that we need so many things when technically all we need to survive is food, water and a shelter. none of the electronics we have today ar necessary. even though alot of us know that, we would not be able to live one day without our cellphones.i believe that advertisements have had a great deal to do with the flourishment of consumerism. asvertisements brainwashes us to think that we really need this product because we need it or because it can be benificiary to ourselves physically and emotionally.

"As big business became increasingly interested in using psychology to boost profits, maximum worker productivity, and influence consumers, new subfields of academic psychology emerged. Applied psychology was used in advertising, marketing, and personnel work."

It's interesting to me that two very different fields are connected in a strange way such as this. The way I see it, the growing aspects of the economy is contributing to this new development of psychology topics. Suddenly there is a need to address the problems of being a participant in this "new" economy. I never thought of consumerism in this light before, but now I am aware that the affects of the market does influence my local culture and ultimately who I am mentally as well.

"Ads seem to criticize and condemn the average consumer while glorifying the model, extolling a standard of beauty and mastery impossible to achieve." (pg. 35)
This quote reveals the true purpose of advertisements. In any ad, a woman or a man use a product and benefit from it. Companies try to hit that soft spot in consumers. Consumers realize that they have too many white hairs and need to dye their hair. Some are overweight so they need pills that burn calories in ten days. Some don't have perfectly white teeth so they buy whitening strips. Companies create products that "glorify" the models in the commercials making consumers believe they, too, will look like the models if they buy the products. According to Phillip Cushman, people began to lose self-esteem after World War II. That is when the advertisements increased, and have been increasing ever since. The human self has become "empty" because it succumbs to the false promises in ads. Ads show a transformation of an average person to a model. Those with low self-esteem will watch the ads and think they need the products to feel better about themselves. Companies have been taking advantage of people and will continue to do so because we fall for the cool advertisements.

“The advertising industry, which Lears thought was another manifestation of “the therapeutic,” attempted to cure by implying that products would magically “transform” the customer’s life.”

I chose this quote because I thought it was very manipulative and corrupt how advertisements began to take advantage of people’s lack of self in the post World War II society. People found that material objects temporarily filled the emptiness inside. They thought this because advertisements almost always portrayed the good life and how one can live this life. By exploiting the minds of consumers to keep them buying, advertisements have only enabled this continual feeling of the “empty self” that has been plaguing our society. I agree with the author when he states that the only way to cure ourselves of the emptiness is to start by looking at society at this particular time and go from there. However, I feel that the advertisement agencies’, driven by greed, will never stop exploiting the consumers’ insecurities and thus humans will only become more and more “empty” as time goes on.

"Because emptiness is, in part, an absence of communal forms and beliefs, individuals in the postwar era are thus particularly vulnerable to influence from cultural forms such as advertising that emanate authority and certainty." (Page 35)

I chose this particular quotation from the text, because I agree that much of the postwar generations have fallen victim into a spiraling consumption habit in order to satisfy their "empty self". The reading made me realize that once World War II ended, the need of war efforts from a community oriented society also came to an end. Thus without the threat of war on the lives of pre-war individuals, who remained self sacrificing during the war for their families and their country, preying industries jumped on the opportunity to direct society to focus on a new life purpose of building individual growth through consumption. Post-war society then quickly avoided "self emptiness" by transforming into a population of self absorbed consumers. Then relying on the consumer industry to dictate what the ever changing sought after lifestyle is, society has become a population of individuals that are never satisfied with what they have. With the expansion of broadcast media, people now only focus on attaining a superficial lifestyle concentrated on materialistic satisfaction. If we continue to build our identity around what we buy or own, then the need to fulfill our "empty self" through mindless consumption will never end.

"The process of studying humans is not the same as "reading" persons as "texts", but more like standing behind them and reading over their shoulder the cultural text from which they themselves are reading."
This sentence caught my attention early in the reading because of the way it describes psychology and the study of self. While it has little to do with consumerism directly, the implications of seeing the world through the eyes of the subject allow us to further comprehend the ways in which consumers interact with producers, sellers, and each other. It also strikes me as a classically "simple but not simpler" concept, describing a basis by which we can review consumer, its development, and its effects on humanity.

"This hope of substituting one identity, one life, for another is used as the sales strategy for many products today..."the consumable life, the buyable fantasy."

This article was by far my favorite of the ones we have read and written blogs for. I feel like the author did an excellent job in presenting his theory of why America is a consumer society. Cushman backs up his theory with statistical data, references to the past and elaborate explanations. He mentions that people consume because they feel like they are missing something, when the consume they feel complete until they need to consume the next latest item. The items are represented by advertisers as necessities. They, in a way, hypnotize people into thinking they need and want their item. they project all of their advertisements as something that will make them happier which relates to the quote "buyable fantasy."