When I was in 10th Grade in Ethiopia (I won't tell you what year), I had a Canadian teacher who was literally a goldmine of both useful and trivial knowledge. I swear he would have made a great "Jeopardy" champion had that TV game been around back then.
Anyways, I remember him telling us about a tiny Japanese town (or island) called USA. At the time, Japan was the up-and-coming economic threat to the United States. This teacher told us that Japan was labeling some of its exported products as "Made in USA" and selling them worldwide. This little piece of information taught me a very wise life lesson: Never put much credence on labels!
The commercialization of patriotism is even more widespread now; and sadly, no one questions the legitimacy or veracity of labels anymore. If you remember back 15 years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Chinese unloaded on us cheap "patriotic" items like U.S. flag pins and even U.S. flags. They were the most bizarre and absurdly exploitative commercial products in anybody's memory !!!
Rampant and dishonest commercialism/materialism is accepted as a fact-of-life. Even the most learned and leery consumers just smirk and stop questioning what is real and what is phony. When we stop questioning the truths behind labels, we are only a step away from forgetting our values. In the end, there is no difference between a phony (deceptive) product label and the phony (unsubstantiated) claims of patriotism.
The commercialization of patriotism is even more widespread now; and sadly, no one questions the legitimacy or veracity of labels anymore. If you remember back 15 years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Chinese unloaded on us cheap "patriotic" items like U.S. flag pins and even U.S. flags. They were the most bizarre and absurdly exploitative commercial products in anybody's memory !!!
Rampant and dishonest commercialism/materialism is accepted as a fact-of-life. Even the most learned and leery consumers just smirk and stop questioning what is real and what is phony. When we stop questioning the truths behind labels, we are only a step away from forgetting our values. In the end, there is no difference between a phony (deceptive) product label and the phony (unsubstantiated) claims of patriotism.
No comments:
Post a Comment