Buy For Happiness (A Short Story By Erwin Wensley)

Wednesday’s words to ponder… if you dare.

“Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men w have never heard of. In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.”  

– Edward Bernays, Pioneer of Corporate PR and Propaganda

 

Edward Bernays was the double nephew of Sigmund Freud. Born in Vienna in 1891, he died in the United States, 103 years later, almost forgotten by the general public when he invented one of the great evils of the twentieth century: mass manipulation. Propaganda, how to manipulate opinion in democracy is now widely studied in American universities, especially in marketing.

 

Some food for thought this Wednesday.

Bisous,

Léa

 

 

L’amour – Creed of Greed

Once again, a challenge from friends at fandango: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/79388113/posts/1958222579  This may not have been the intended response but where the muse directed. 

“It is the logic of consumerism that undermines the values of loyalty and permanence and promotes a different set of values that is destructive of family life.” – Christopher Lasch

“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.”                                                             – Edward Bernays

 

–

 

L’amour – Creed of greed (Love for sale)

A fortunate few
Born to this estate
Others spend their lives
On the quest

Many will promise it
If you wear their clothes
Buy their perfume, make-up
Nothing to do with who you are
That inadequate lump of clay

Corporations take you to the fountain
Where love is hidden
Yet I warn you
It is beyond their reach
Cannot find what they don’t comprehend

Consumerism is a lethal cliff
Closer and closer to the edge
You buy, buy, buy
The next item will complete you
Financing the creed of greed
It will bring you down.

Bisous,
Léa

Trouver-toi

“When one does not find one’s rest in oneself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.”  – François de La Rochefoucauld

“Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they have come to esteem the religious, learned and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Trouver-toi

 

It is something

Many will never do

Focusing on deceit

Masks, costumes they call fashion

Always something to possess

Buy, buy, buy…

 

Adding “friends”

Like charms on a bracelet

While never knowing anyone

Acquire, display, alone

There is always more

To accumulate, fill the hole

 

The need of the masses

To satiate their emptiness

Feed the hunger for what

You will never be able to purchase

Only those who will try to sell you

What they themselves do not have

 

It isn’t the one with the most toys

Who will win in the end

A black hole consumes

Its appetite limitless

Sucking up all vital forces

You, gone, without a trace

 

Bisous,

Léa