Posted on 06/07/2007 7:41:54 AM PDT by umgud
They probably let her go because she was corrupting the other inmates.
I’m sure she could make crabs go airborne.
I really don't know. Of course money and/or the appearance of wealth is part of being in this celebrity royalty, but attitude and having been "anointed" (which is hereditary to a degree -- Hilton, Kennedy, Richey, etc.) includes more than wealth. Anyone with "working class values", cannot belong (ie. Most of country music). I really would dislike myself if I aspired to this "noble class".
From time to time, this debate resurfaces in academic circles: can marketers create a need for a product? can the sell something that people do not "need?"
To the best of my knowledge, the answer is in the negative. What a marketer can do, via advertising and promotions, it to make one need more salient than others. That is, make the need we already have felt more acute. But they cannot create it.
We all have a bundle of needs --- for food, shelter, security, self-actualization, etc. At any given time, we work on satisfying one or few of them: when eating dinner, we are not trying to get promoted at work, for instance. What a marketer can do is to shift our priorities, bring into ficus a need that was previously secondary. Although a minute ago you were thinking about purchasing a new car because the old one is worn out, upon seeing a commercial of a Caribbean vacation, you may realize how tired you are lately, and decide to take a vacation instead. You had both needs --- for transportation and for recreation --- but their priorities may be reshuffled by advertising.
Promotion may have the same effect. You may have a need for a new couch, but feel that at $1000 the satisfaction of that need will have to wait. Seeing that couch on sale at $700, you may shift your priorities may buy that couch ahead of other goods.
What's the point here? Hollywood does nothing more than any other producers: they provide goods and services. Just as marketers in other industries, they cannot create our needs or sell to us what we do not want. You and I feel disgusted by what they produce nowadays only because you and I do not have any need for that garbage (and have unsatified need for wholesome entertainment). The fact that they sell those products tells me that people like you and I are in a minority. It well may be that such people are not among our friends, but who are the people that watch the MTV garbage, buy celebrities' gossip, etc.? Who can they be but some of our neighbors and acquaintances? What I am trying to say is that it is our fellow Americans that DEMAND garbage from Hollywood.
Hollywood merely responds to that demand. When we were patriotic as a nation, Hollywood produced patriotic movies. When we were proud of our history, great many Westerns were produced, movies with real heroes. When we as a nation were generally well-mannered, there were no profanities in the movies. When we as a nation valued decorum, we did not have presidents receiving fellatio in the Oval office.
We have changed as a nation in all these respects. One half of the country is anti-American and wants its defeat in war (Vietnam, Iraq), economics (hate corporations and change the market system to socialized -- medicine, education, etc.), and culture (speaking proper English is now elitist and even sounds false to many). Hollywood successfully satisfies that need. You get blatantly anti-American documentaries such as "Sicko." You can hardly find a movie with a wholesome character. Most men are week and unsure of themselves to satisfy the feminists. No traditional families either, since most moviegoers grew up without one. And, when good manners are despised, you cannot find a movie (other than cartoons, perhaps) without swearing and cussing.
We only get from Hollywood what we ask for. We have met the enemy and it is... us.
P.S. Thank you for your reply. If something irked you in my previous post, please accept my apology: no offense, I assure you, was intended.
Call Leonard Peltier and tell him to complain about the food.
I bet he never tried THAT .
Oh absolutely no offense, in fact I have enjoyed the responses. Nice to get a thoughtful reply.
“Authorities are saying her release was due to a “medical condition.””
And yet they released her to her mansion, not to a hospital. Interesting, that.
“Now I see the Reverend Al Sharpton is all upset about her release. If Sharpton is against it, I’m all for it!”
The problem is, Sharpton is right to be angry about this. Forget the color component. If this had been you or me, we would still be languishing (can you languish with just a month long sentence?) in that cell until the time was up. That should concern everyone, regardless of their political affiliation.
I just don’t see them a noble or part of royalty in any way. Although there are those that do and I suppose that support encourages the whole class thing. We need to not have classes in the US - it’s the stupid people that support that sort of thing in my opinion.
Do they make designer ankle bracelets? In 24 Kt. gold?
How is your post related to mine? Could you please elaborate?
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