politics – Page 13 – Hopeful Romantics

Pitfalls of a Branded Economic Culture

Brand names have always been important. For years, a good brand can mean everything from quality and reliability to status and social cache. But in the last twenty five years or so brand names have evolved into “branding” as a cultural and marketing phenomenon. Without proper branding, products and services can either fall by the wayside or play second fiddle to those that have been served up to consumers and businesses with the proper branding identification.

We have become dependent upon branding. Without it, it would appear, few consumers could judge the quality of a product on its own merits. Without branding we lack the know how to determine how one product may differ from another in the way it is made, crafted, or serviced. We can’t really ascertain how it performs, whether in the laundry cycle or on the road. Despite the Internet and all the information sources we have available, there are relatively few places the average consumer can educate himself on the true character and craftsmanship of any given product. We know little about the skill it takes to make something just so, the materials used and how they are superior from the knock off varieties.

So we brand products and services and generate enough marketing that consumers believe either the truth or the hype, depending on the goods. The branding culture has had a tremendous effect on consumer habits and they way they shop. Our economy is based largely on consumerism, and the perception of someone’s wealth and position in society is what drives much of our economy. The lines of demarcation is such that without wearing, using or somehow adhering to the socially approved brands, you are considered a lesser person with no taste, no wealth and hardly any social distinction. Some people really don’t care about all that, but most do.

This kind of mindset certainly has its conveniences. You really don’t have to think much about what you are buying in order to cater to your own self-perceptions. You don’t have to know much about the product itself, but just the product elevates you to a certain social category. No matter that the product is actual quality in terms of construction ad design, the fact that it is perceived as such is all most consumers really need to make their shopping day.

To build their client bases, retail outlets especially rely on stocking branded products. You must cater to your targeted clientele. If you stock this product you are considered a lower level, big box type of retailer. If you stock that brand, then you are the mid-line, department store type of retailer. And at the upper echelon, you must stock the brands that cause shoppers to perceive you as exclusive. Coupled with the design of your venue and its geographic location, shoppers know you are ready to service their kind of folk.

But with the economic downturn, branding may have backfired. With reports of store closings, maybe 70 odd thousand retail outlets across the country, it is becoming abundantly clear that no one really needs all these venues. Surely, the economic dowturn is the largest factor, but perhaps this financial crisis has shed light on a problem that has existed for quite some time. Simply put, no matter where you go, you are finding the same merchandise in every place you shop. One store has no distinction from another. It is all the same stuff.
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You can go to any city on the planet and, largely, it is all the same stuff. It may vary from one venue to the other, but each venue offers the same merchandise on its social and economic level as the one you found the the last city you visited. In fact, you might be shopping in the same chain, buying the same stuff. Only the city you shop in is different.

So if everyone has the same offerings, small wonder retailers are going out of business, left and right. Small wonder consumers are reluctant to buy anything. Not only are they short of cash and credit, but they already have a half dozen of whatever it is being offered in any outlet at any given time. I hear friends tell me, “who needs it? I already have plenty of those.”

In a nation that prides itself in originality, there are few places carrying original goods. Perhaps it is time to see more retail outlets offering smaller batches of merchandise from original designers and suppliers. I realize there are economies of scale, but with staples there are alternate solutions to overcoming the challenges of economy of scale. It would be nice for a change to not see everyone wearing the same thing or finding in a house the same layout as the last house. With some merchandise, pots and pans, for example, sure it will be the same. But furniture?

Perhaps we need a more educated consumer. Pundits claim we are educated through the Internet, but do we really know the difference in woods in furniture, the types of finish, the distinctions in quality? Having watched shoppers in furniture stories, I would think not. In fact, the level of ignorance about the goods we are laying out money for is fairly astounding.

Maybe one way to stimulate this economy is to be a little more original. To understand quality and craftsmanship and realize the best things are built to last. Use them, wear them and allow them to take on the vintage textures of an original creation. Don’t buy junk, because it has a label you can recognize.

Of course the original designers in time may become popular. Once they do they will scale up production as people rush to buy their goods. They will buy blindly, with great faith it will boost their status in the eyes of others. And then these original products will become so popular we will have…branding. Oh, well.

Ortega Y Gassett Had It Right On The Nose

The other morning my friend, Alex, and I were having breakfast. As do most friends these days, between nibbles of French Toast we discussed the present economic debacle and society’s ability to recover. We talked about the general mind set out in the world and how our nation of consumers was in for a rude awakening and a major lifestyle change.

Alex is a Mexican National. For those who don’t realize it, most middle and upper class Mexican Nationals are extremely well educated and quite often better read than their American counterpart. There are exceptions to every rule, although upon sitting with educated Mexican and Latin Americans I have seldom if ever thought their formal knowledge lacking. I can’t say the same for many products of American schools. but then I have met considerably more American college graduates than former students from other parts of the world. I dare say, however, in Latin America greater value is put on a more liberal arts education than it is here in the States. It just seems to be the way of things, for one reason or another. But I digress. Or maybe night.

Eventually, Alex and I discussed the current state of civilization and that led to a discussion of Jose Ortega Y Gassett. For those who are not familiar with him, he was a Spanish writer and philosopher who in 1930 wrote his seminal work, REVOLT OF THE MASSES. For those who are familiar with his writing, many find him to have predicted the present state of society and civilization with uncanny accuracy. Mind you, he is not always kind in his assessment, and given the passage of times, certain elements the writer alludes to have taken on a different form. Among the forms that were taken on are political and social leaders, various supposed icons who are revered not for their transcendental ability but for their being, “just like us.”

There is also the matter Ortega Y Gassett addressed back in the thirties, about everyone being entitled to an opinion. True, but not all opinions should be weighted equally. It always helps to have formal knowledge about the subject you choose to address.

Anyway…here are some of his more pointed excerpts. Some will enjoy then, and some will find them discomfitting. But such is life…which is one of his points.

Here ya go…

“There is one fact which, whether for good or ill, is of utmost importance in the public life of Europe at its present moment. The fact is the accession of the masses to complete social power. As the masses, by definition, neither should nor can direct their own personal existence, and still less rule society in general, this fact means that actually Europe is suffering from the greatest general crisis that can afflict peoples, nations and civilization.

Strictly speaking, the mass, as a psychological fact, can be defined without waiting for individuals to appear in mass formation. In the presence of one individual we can decide whether he is “mass” or not. The mass is all that which sets no value on itself — good or ill — based on specific grounds, but which feels itself “just like everybody,” and nevertheless is not concerned about it; is, in fact, quite happy to feel itself as one with everybody else.
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The mass believes that it has the right to impose and to give force of law to motions born in the café. I doubt whether there have been other periods of history in which the multitude has come to govern more directly than in our own.

The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will. As they say in the United States: “to be different is to be indecent.” The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated.

It is illusory to imagine that the mass-man of to-day will be able to control, by himself, the process of civilization. I say process, and not progress. The simple process of preserving our present civilization is supremely complex, and demands incalculably subtle powers. Ill-fitted to direct it is this average man who has learned to use much of the machinery of civilization, but who is characterized by root-ignorance of the very principles of that civilization.

The command over the public life exercised today by the intellectually vulgar is perhaps the factor of the present situation which is most novel, least assimilable to anything in the past. At least in European history up to the present, the vulgar had never believed itself to have “ideas” on things. It had beliefs, traditions, experiences, proverbs, mental habits, but it never imagine itself in possession of theoretical opinions on what things are or ought to be. To-day, on the other hand, the average man has the most mathematical “ideas” on all that happens or ought to happen in the universe. Hence he has lost the use of his hearing. Why should he listen if he has within him all that is necessary? There is no reason now for listening, but rather for judging, pronouncing, deciding. There is no question concerning public life, in which he does not intervene, blind and deaf as he is, imposing his “opinions.”

But, is this not an advantage? Is it not a sign of immense progress that the masses should have “ideas,” that is to say, should be cultured? By no means. The “ideas” of the average man are not genuine ideas, nor is their possession culture. Whoever wishes to have ideas must first prepare himself to desire truth and to accept the rules of the game imposed by it. It is no use speaking of ideas when there is no acceptance of a higher authority to regulate them, a series of standards to which it is possible to appeal in a discussion. These standards are the principles on which culture rests. I am not concerned with the form they take. What I affirm is that there is no culture where there are no standards to which our fellow-man can have recourse. There is no culture where there are no principles of legality to which to appeal. There is no culture where there is no acceptance of certain final intellectual positions to which a dispute may be referred. There is no culture where economic relations are not subject to a regulating principle to protect interests involved. There is no culture where aesthetic controversy does not recognize the necessity of justifying the work of art.

When all these things are lacking there is no culture; there is in the strictest sense of the word, barbarism. And let us not deceive ourselves, this is what is beginning to appear in Europe under the progressive rebellion of the masses. The traveler knows that in the territory there are no ruling principles to which it is possible to appeal. Properly speaking, there are no barbarian standards. Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made.

Under Fascism there appears for the first time in Europe a type of man who does not want to give reasons or to be right, but simply shows himself resolved to impose his opinions. This is the new thing: the right not to be reasonable, the “reason of unreason.” Here I see the most palpable manifestation of the new mentality of the masses, due to their having decided to rule society without the capacity for doing so. In their political conduct the structure of the new mentality is revealed in the rawest, most convincing manner. The average man finds himself with “ideas” in his head, but he lacks the faculty of ideation. He has no conception even of the rare atmosphere in which ideals live. He wishes to have opinions, but is unwilling to accept the conditions and presuppositions that underlie all opinion. Hence his ideas are in effect nothing more than appetites in words.

To have an idea means believing one is in possession of the reasons for having it, and consequently means believing that there is such a thing as reason, a world of intelligible truths. To have ideas, to form opinions, is identical with appealing to such an authority, submitting oneself to it, accepting its code and its decisions, and therefore believing that the highest form of intercommunication is the dialogue in which the reasons for our ideas are discussed. But the mass-man would feel himself lost if he accepted discussion, and instinctively repudiates the obligation of accepting that supreme authority lying outside himself. Hence the “new thing” in Europe is “to have done with discussions,” and detestation is expressed for all forms of intercommunication, which imply acceptance of objective standards, ranging from conversation to Parliament, and taking in science. This means that there is a renunciation of the common life of barbarism. All the normal processes are suppressed in order to arrive directly at the imposition of what is desired. The hermeticism of the soul which, as we have seen before, urges the mass to intervene in the whole of public life.”

Economic Meltdown, When You Finally Get the Memo

The economic meltdown came so fast and so furiously, most of us weren’t sure how to even reaction. With the markets plummeting, housing prices on a steep decline and people getting laid off left and right, we were left with mixtures of anger and grief. To at least some degree, life as we knew it was over.

What I mean by this is that most of us having been living over our heads for years. We all believed we deserved certainly luxuries, everything from the pricey wines to the trendy wardrobes. Men were having their shirts custom made, and women just had to have the bag of the season. Designer, shoes, suits, shirts, dining out, lavish vacations, were no longer anything special but just another part of our regimen.

We made money and then we borrowed more. We bought houses that were way over our heads, automobiles that offered status but at a very high cost. We leased cars we couldn’t afford. We took lavish vacations, ate out in cutsey restaurants. We bought gourmet food and fine wine. We were massaged on a regular basis. We went nightclubbing and sat around over expensive vodka and a bowl of caviar, playing with our electronic gadgets. We actually thought that none of it would end.
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And then it did. Now it’s time to tell ourselves and our families that life as we knew it has at least temporarily been put on hold. The level of disbelief is considerable. Husbands and wives are fighting. The childen, spoiled from years and indulgence, simply can’t believe they have to cool it with the designer jeans and trips to the maill. As for the gourmet foods, it’s the big box store for most of us. Restaurants? Yes, some of the top of the line steak joints are still doing well, as are the lower priced coffee shop. As for that cute little storefront bistro. let’s just say it’s rare that you need reservations.

So after all those years of indulgence, the bottom has now fallen out of the economy. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. A sad but unique experience. Ironic that it comes at such a price.

Bad Economy–Even the Hookers are Hurting

A year ago the world’s hookers were being pinched by their flush clientele. Now the same prostitutes are feeling the pinch. Life is a lot tougher out on the streets and in the bordellos of the world. The economic downturn is hurting the world’s oldest profession.

In Prague, long known for its post-communist bohemian scene and plethora of prostittues, business is bad. There aren’t enough tourists notes a recent article in the International Herald Tribune. Not long ago, because of its low prices and high number of prostitutes, there were sex junkets to Prague, where businessmen could sow their wild oats for a carnal weekend. But prices are up and money is tight. Some still come to cheer themselves up and to forget about the global meltdown. Just not as many as there was a while ago.

In Berlin, known for its bady night life, the sex business is down by 20%. As for the other cities of the world, one has to presume business is off as fewer men are paying to get off. Perhaps sex is on the increase in dating and with partners. But I doubt it. Sex junkets are special. It is the alternative to golf and other escapist weekends that men use to bond. Sex junkets are for distraction. Sex with spouses and partners require more focus.

As for the good ol’ United States, who knows what this economic downturn will mean, sex-wise. As for the changing of administrations, from a conservative to a more liberal government, often that means added sexual congress. But between all the people whose libidos are reduced by anti-depressants and the depressing state of the economy maybe there just isn’t the sex there used to be. It may no longer be a matter matter of “just say no.” Maybe no one wants to bother.
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The article indicates that the lousy economy discourages adultery. No one could afford that expense of the illicit romance, the wining and dining and the ancillary upkeep. When you can’t afford to go to dinner with your spouse or partner, it’s hard to justify spending money for the sole purpose of spreading the seed. Even dating has tapered off, at least on the grand scale and the big splash. You know the illusion of life would be if the two of you got together in a more serious fashion. Now, with cheaper dating habits, you tend to see what you are getting.

Driving through one section of Long Beach, California, one eyes the hookers working the corners in other desperation, the disease it seems practically dripping off of them. Not to pick on Long Beach, or even Sunset Boulevard, where a similar scenario plays out day and night. I am quite sure most cities in this country have its streets where prostitutes ply their trade between heroin benders and sessions at the crack house. One has to think while driving by that in this lousy economy the usual trade for this layer of girls is unemployed or really hurting for money. Times must be really tough.

Crime must be up here and even among the upper class hookers. On the upper level your pockets get rifled, while here the unsuspecting trick may be lured to a remote spot where he is set upon, beaten and robbed. As for what the higher class call girls are doing, that’s hard to say. Most are probably working. Just not as much.

Well it goes to show that when times are tough, times are usually tough everywhere. No one can escape the belt tightening operation. Most are shocked it all came down so fast. Talk about shock and awe. It’s tough to feel libidinous when the world is collapsing all around you. Tough to pay for sex. Tough, even when it’s free.

When Your Mayor is Dressed in Drag

Stu Rasmussen used to be a guy. Now Stu Rasmussen is best known as Carla Fong. Stu as Carla wears plunging neckline dresses and mini-skirts. Stu or Carla is sixty years old, so even on a good day and with movie star looks being sixty and wearing mini-skirts is a questionable strategy. Especially when you look like Stu, who also happens to be mayor-elect of Silverton, Oregon. Talk about “change.”

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Stu had been elected Silverton’s Mayor in 1988 and again in 1990. He just won again. Looking at his photos, augmented breasts and notable cleavage or not, Stu has radio looks. Stu/Carlas photo reminds me of the quote now deceased and noted author Truman Capote issued when appraising the now equally deceased and noted author, Jacqueline Susann. Capote declared, “she looks like a truck driver in drag.”

While Capote’s quote elicits certain emotions about Stu/Carla, I really don’t regard his image as the truck driver in drag. He is more reminiscent of one of the more senior English actresses in one of the uptight, upright, Merchant-Ivory Victorian costume dramas. Or he could be the gracious Earth Mother emanating from the Hippie Period of Stu’s generation. But then again I don’t live in Silverton and see Stu on the street on a regular basis. If I did, I may have other opinions.

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I will assume until better notified that Stu must find it tough to shop for the wardrobe he prefers in the tiny town of Silverton. Shopping for high fashion in Portland is tough enough, yet alone Silverton. In the past, for transgenders and drag queens alike, this would be a problem resolved only by scheduled trips to the larger cities. Today, with the Internet, shopping for the heels, plunging necklines and minis is just a click or two away. Thanks to ecommerce, even buying for the odd-sized is made easy.

As for the important stuff, Stu ran on the promise he would help stem the rapid growth in Silverton. Perhaps his serving as the leader of the welcome wagon would serve to cause many potential transplants relocation to Silverton. Not everyone is tolerant as we last saw in California’s recent proposition to ban gay marriage. But then, perhaps Stu will draw a crowd to the city. You never know.

While I’m sure some are upset about the new mayor’s fashion statement, let us not forget that Stu was elected to office with an overwhelming 55% of the vote. Politicians would kill for that margin. Some have. So it is understood that people in this former lumber town not only tolerate Stu, but they like him. They not only like him, but they trust him. Which is more than most citizens can say for their local elected officials. And that says a lot. About Stu. And Silverton, the town where he serves as mayor.