"Have you heard of merino wool?"
"Yeah, it's the new stuff right? Warm and light, just like what cashmere and fleece were supposed to be last year and the year before that."
"Yeah, I was looking at this thing to get my girlfriend -"
"That looks neat. But way to expensive... I was never a really into stuff that were seasonally marketed. It feels too much like I'm paying mostly for the marketing value. Look how cheap fleeces are now - and maybe how cheap it even feels!
"I'm absolutely okay with good marketing. It makes it sexy, makes you feel sexy. But the new hot sweater material coming out every season, and seeing the pile of sweaters that lie around after the years - it just left me to prefer whatever is cheap and warm, or whatever you can prove to me scientifically that it is warm."
"Sure, but you can't judge other people's decision to buy that happiness. That marketed value of how sexy and warm it is, no matter how much of it is just a hype, and none of it in science. You're not just buying the material product, but also the psychological reward. You can't blame people for 'buying into marketing', whether or not they know what it is. They buy the manufactured happiness, and marketers create them.
"And that's how the economy works. I came to think it that way more once I started working. I used to bake and cook. More of the artisanal craft. Then now that I'm working, I earning money, but losing time. I find myself to much rather be spending that money for my happiness, however materially efficient or scientifically provable it is. And I have no problem with the marketers, producers, sales staff and everyone else in the supply chain making profit."
'You're right that I shouldn't judge people of their choice. Definitely not if they can afford it - Good for them that they can. The market's status quo works - for the buyers and sellers of the hype. It's a fair deal, and I think your argument of relativism stands. Who am I to judge their seemingly incorrect choice? The standards of fashion and practicality can all just be subjective.
'Regardless, I think I'd much prefer a more functionalist and pragmatic market. Placing premium on luxury that is not based in technology or aesthetics - that creates a false value and materialistic excess. Even distracting misguidance to us all. If merino wool isn't any warmer nor prettier, should we really be pumping out that many sweaters and making more people buy them? Is that the best progress in consumer-driven capitalism can achieve? Buyers and sellers are both encouraging each other to create more excess that the environment, the equality in society, or the development of consciousness does not need. At that scale and scope of view, the purchase is no longer justified and is again under criticism.
'I think - I want to wish and push for a world, as a whole, that does not simply direct itself to solely consumptive happiness. Where, maybe not everyone but at least more people, put value on producing and purchasing innovation in technology, aesthetics, or equality. A more efficient market with more scientifically informed, artistically inspired, and morally motivated buyers and sellers.
Wouldn't that kind of a world make us want something more than the empty marketed hype to be happy?'
Mothagesso.
"Yeah, it's the new stuff right? Warm and light, just like what cashmere and fleece were supposed to be last year and the year before that."
"Yeah, I was looking at this thing to get my girlfriend -"
"That looks neat. But way to expensive... I was never a really into stuff that were seasonally marketed. It feels too much like I'm paying mostly for the marketing value. Look how cheap fleeces are now - and maybe how cheap it even feels!
"I'm absolutely okay with good marketing. It makes it sexy, makes you feel sexy. But the new hot sweater material coming out every season, and seeing the pile of sweaters that lie around after the years - it just left me to prefer whatever is cheap and warm, or whatever you can prove to me scientifically that it is warm."
"Sure, but you can't judge other people's decision to buy that happiness. That marketed value of how sexy and warm it is, no matter how much of it is just a hype, and none of it in science. You're not just buying the material product, but also the psychological reward. You can't blame people for 'buying into marketing', whether or not they know what it is. They buy the manufactured happiness, and marketers create them.
"And that's how the economy works. I came to think it that way more once I started working. I used to bake and cook. More of the artisanal craft. Then now that I'm working, I earning money, but losing time. I find myself to much rather be spending that money for my happiness, however materially efficient or scientifically provable it is. And I have no problem with the marketers, producers, sales staff and everyone else in the supply chain making profit."
'You're right that I shouldn't judge people of their choice. Definitely not if they can afford it - Good for them that they can. The market's status quo works - for the buyers and sellers of the hype. It's a fair deal, and I think your argument of relativism stands. Who am I to judge their seemingly incorrect choice? The standards of fashion and practicality can all just be subjective.
'Regardless, I think I'd much prefer a more functionalist and pragmatic market. Placing premium on luxury that is not based in technology or aesthetics - that creates a false value and materialistic excess. Even distracting misguidance to us all. If merino wool isn't any warmer nor prettier, should we really be pumping out that many sweaters and making more people buy them? Is that the best progress in consumer-driven capitalism can achieve? Buyers and sellers are both encouraging each other to create more excess that the environment, the equality in society, or the development of consciousness does not need. At that scale and scope of view, the purchase is no longer justified and is again under criticism.
'I think - I want to wish and push for a world, as a whole, that does not simply direct itself to solely consumptive happiness. Where, maybe not everyone but at least more people, put value on producing and purchasing innovation in technology, aesthetics, or equality. A more efficient market with more scientifically informed, artistically inspired, and morally motivated buyers and sellers.
Wouldn't that kind of a world make us want something more than the empty marketed hype to be happy?'
Mothagesso.
