It’s 3AM and I am yet again up writing a paper for my polisci courses- last one this time.

But, man, this paper is filled with some good stuff. It’s a paper based off the book by Marcuse called One Dimensional Man… and I keep running across theories and quotes that just blow my mind.

I’m reading one manuscript this dude wrote concerning the book’s theories and frack- this late at night, it’s still slapping me in the face:

“There is a kind of totalitarianism at work in our world.

First think of the total domination our profitable world here has over the poorest pockets of life, how we seem to be totally incapable and/or unwilling to make quantifiable changes to the situation, and/or ignorant of the gravity of the crisis.

Thus the totalitarianism is of those one fifth in the penthouse of the world over the bottom one-fifth of the world, those who are dying in the streets, working in match factories in 35 degree heat, trying to scratch out another day of food and water 

while advertisements for Nike, Hollywood movies, McDonald’s and IBM flicker on the edge of their consciousness…….

The other side of this totalitarianism is the kind that is inflicted upon ourselves, by our transnational corporations. As we have more things to buy, we have to have more money to buy them, all fantastically distanced away from food, clothing and shelter and into realms of breath freshener for dogs, cleaners for the unseen places in our toilets, and automatic garage door openers.

It takes a heroic effort, after being bombarded by all kinds of advertising, not to buy things. Our main “free” entertainment, television, is loaded with direct pleas for purchasing and indirect messages about the importance of quasi-liberal sentiments emanating from television networks that are totally self-reliant on the advertising largesse of transnational corporations.

Just how effective these products are in making us happy and advancing us toward a better world is contentious, a question I force myself to think about when I purchase something.

Do I need it, or do I like it? Will this one thing I like stop me from buying more, will I be satisfied? No, because I continue to earn money to buy more things I like.

But when I am on my deathbed and look back, will I really care how white my shirts were, or how shiny my Dodge was on April 29, 1997?

I know what the answer will be, but I cannot stop buying things I like, I can only modify my needs. And when I am on my deathbed, what I think will bring me the most comfort will be thoughts of my family,

and the achievements perhaps it was the money I raised for flood victims, the completion of formal education, quitting smoking, writing a novel, painting my house, teaching children things that involved very little purchasing, but a lot of quiet thought, discipline, work and initiative, the opposite of buying and putting things in my mouth.”

Damn. but will I change? probably not. I guess capitalism ftw……..
:/