Aware Consumers
After watching The Century of the Self I was struck by how easily manipulated we can be and also how quickly we will actually take advantage of this vulnerability.
The goal of the 4-part documentary is to show how Freud’s theories regarding the ways people are controlled by subconscious forces and (in his view) need to be protected and taught to suppress these forces. Then in the 70s, psychoanalysts felt Freud was right and wrong. He was right that our subconscious desires can control us, but wrong about controlling them. Instead, they argued, we should let the out, unleash them, allow them to take control.
Both of these views, the film argues, have led the US and UK to mass consumerism in which we as people are controlled by our desires (even if we aren’t aware of them consciously).
This makes me sad.
I want to propose a third way. It’s not about either suppressing or letting out our subconscious desires, but rather understanding them and becoming Aware Consumers.
From dictionary.com, awareness is defined as: informed; alert, knowledgeable; sophisticated. Is it possible for us to be alert, knowledgeable, and sophisticated consumers of products, services and politics? I think so. It’s not about controlling or letting out, but rather observing ourselves: the ways we consume, why we consume and slowly, gradually allowing this awareness to impact our decisions on what to purchase and whom to elect.
Maybe it’s because I’m a researcher that observing oneself makes sense as a way to combat being manipulated, but I truly do think this could work, although it takes effort and patience, both of which are in short supply in today’s economy.
What do you all think, is there any credence to this idea of Aware Consumers or are we destined to be manipulated?
Oh, and I didn’t even mention that awareness could work on those doing the “manipulating” as well. Why did you choose that font, that word, that picture, that design? Was it to pander to unconscious desire?
