Chapter 20 The Fourth Truth of Contemporary New Imperialism: Consumer Religion

Reading tips: The new imperialism is working hard to promote this consumer religion to the world all the time.Our consumption concepts are not produced by ourselves, but instilled by them.The older generation is not easy to indoctrinate, and their indoctrination mainly starts with young people, through various media, movies, TV, newspapers, and magazines to instill this consumption concept in young people. I wanted to explain this topic myself, but I was afraid that it would be too obscure for you to understand. Fortunately, I found an article that is better than I said. I copied the full text. Please read it first, and then I will make comments and explanations :

"Maggie Cheung is wearing a cheongsam, a Shanghai-style style", "Zhang Ziyi has gone to America in a bellyband", "Julia Roberts' antique Armani dress is more stylish"... When it comes to fashion, petty bourgeoisie are always talking about it. There are strings of terms, what is popular in every corner of the world, what styles and brands are worn by stars, they are all clear, and they can imitate them in time. .And the proletariat is always absent-minded, pretending not to be interested.In fact, they all heard it in their ears, remembered it in their hearts, and were thinking about how to copy it at a lower cost.

Fashion is manipulated by the bourgeoisie, who have a lot of money and control designers, artists, models, factories, media, distribution channels and presentations.The petty bourgeoisie is imitating or disseminating fashion, they are the players of fashion myths in the world.The larger class of heads of state is the killer of fashion. They can spread fashion to flea markets overnight and pronounce the death sentence of fashion in time. But from another perspective, it can be found that the frequency of fashion updates depends on the rhythm of the proletariat's popularization of fashion.For example, when camouflage uniforms are a fashion and the proletarians of the world all unite to wear pirated popular camouflage uniforms, the mission of camouflage uniforms as a fashion is over.Therefore, it is not necessarily accurate to say that only the bourgeoisie is the manipulator of fashion.As fashion imitators and disseminators, petty bourgeoisie are the most direct performers of fashion, and only they are the most obsessed with fashion.At the same time, isn't the proletariat who has rapidly popularized (downgraded) fashion also the manipulator of fashion?It is they who force fashion experts to keep updating, just like hackers force anti-virus software to keep upgrading.It seems that the so-called fashion is a social conspiracy.Makers, disseminators, and rebels are all controlling the rise and fall of fashion.

Fashion has become an international event. A sneeze on a Paris flyover will startle a white-collar worker sleeping in southern Africa or the Far East. The speed at which information spreads and the extent of its popularity is really staggering.Movies, TV, newspapers, advertisements, the Internet, various fashionable leisure places, and all the most advanced means of communication have become channels for fashion communication. Of course, film and television is one of the most important communication channels.Madonna showed 85 sets of costumes, 39 hats, 56 earrings, 42 hairstyles in "Argentina, Don't Cry For Me". She even used a variety of "Evita" shoes handmade by Ferragamo in Italy.The famous fashion designer Giorgio Armani has successively engaged in costume design for films such as "Natural Born Killers" and "The President of the United States".Movies, TV, and Hollywood are always the best channels for fashion communication.Audiences, especially petty bourgeoisie, are always the first to discover the shining points in the film: you see, Bonte in "007" wears an Omega watch; Sophia Loren's black mourning dress in "The Storm in Clouds" comes from Dior Hands; Nico Kidman wore Calvin Klein in Watchmen, and more.

People will pay close attention to what the window displays on the Champs-Elysées in Paris are, and what avant-garde writers and artists in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York are thinking and doing. These are the cutting-edge tentacles of international fashion.Petty bourgeoisie generally understand English, and they keep abreast of the market through English newspapers and English websites.Because by the time "ELLE" in Hong Kong, China and "VOGUE" in Taiwan, China come out, you will already be two or three months behind. The talent show is also a very important communication channel, for example, the World Elite Model Grand Prix, Chanel's spring and summer fashion show, celebrity underwear auction, Miss Hong Kong, Miss Asia and so on.This type of activity is a passport to fashion.

The streets of the metropolis have now become popular fashion exhibitions, quietly spreading fashion information.Especially bars and various high-end entertainment venues are places where petty bourgeoisie with spending power often come and go.These places have thus become fashion hubs.It is mainly responsible for spreading avant-garde fashion to more people, and it is a transit station for popularizing fashion. In this era of information explosion, not every kind of information can be unimpeded.In order to let their product information rush to the forefront on the crowded information channels, manufacturers must invest a lot of advertising costs.In this regard, the intensity of fashion information release is probably beyond the reach of other products.Because it is always good at adding one of the most effective lubricants in the distribution channel in time-movie stars, super beauties (models).The temptation of beauties and stars, no matter the rich, the petty bourgeoisie, or the boorish, can't resist.The high cost of a celebrity or a super beauty is unimaginable to most people.The benefits she has produced are of course beyond our imagination.Therefore, beauties have become the best lubricant for fashion information release channels.With them, fashion can become a household name, become an object of pursuit, and be converted into currency.

In 1998, when the 17-year-old German super beauty Claudia Schiffer appeared on the cover of the French "ELLE", the reward was only 1,000 francs.Today, her asking price can rise to 300,000 francs.Cindy Crawford, who was born in an American working family, has appeared on the covers of more than 500 fashion magazines around the world.Cindy Crawford has become a famous brand together with Omega watches, and has become an eternal dream of petty bourgeoisie. Of course, not everyone can understand this kind of thing and will be interested in them.Especially the relationship between celebrities, super beauties and brand-name products, many people do not understand.Therefore, the fashion paparazzi plays an important role here.The paparazzi are responsible for inquiring about news and explaining it in layman's terms.This is an important means of disseminating fashion information to a lower level.

For example, why didn't Lin Qingxia gain weight after giving birth to her second daughter?How does she control her weight?What brand of corsets are you wearing?What pain relief did Cindy Crawford use during childbirth?It is said that yoga is used, so practicing yoga has become a fashion.For example, what brand of T-shirt Chen Huilin wore when she had a tryst with someone, that brand would become popular. In other words, movie stars and super beauties are the lubricants for fashion communication.The capitalist is an applicator of lubricant.They hit every corner and smeared everywhere, making the world oily and slippery.

At the movie Golden Globe awards ceremony, when movie star Denzel Washington came on stage, he was wearing a pair of elegant black velvet slippers with embroidered toe caps, worth 200 US dollars, equivalent to about 1,800 yuan.This is not something everyone can afford.As a result, slippers became popular, but most of them were knockoffs. That is to say, in the process of fashion consumption, the real object is often not present, and people are only consuming a kind of video, a kind of information, just like watching a third-grade movie, to satisfy their hunger and thirst.If you really want to imitate, you can only wear fakes.Those who are more capable, buy second- and third-line goods of famous brand clothing.But people are not disappointed, they know it, watch it, and still feel very satisfied.You know, people's love for fashion is pure, like the love for God.

Religion has been out of favor for many years.Traditional religion is too distant and impersonal to be without it.Now, people have finally found a new religion - fashion.In the new religion of fashion, money is Jesus Christ, and movie stars and supermodels, like redeemed people, are dancing in heaven.Watching models twist their butts on the flyovers in Paris, New York, and Milan is like going to church.Reading celebrity gossip and watching entertainment programs on TV is like making the sign of the sign of the cross and praying before eating. I want to tell you that the modern economy is an economy that enters the world of human minds.What does that mean?That is to say, a large part of contemporary consumers' daily consumption expenditure is used to satisfy spiritual needs and spend money to "comfort" their souls.Some expenses are 100% to satisfy spiritual needs, and even those consumptions that are not related to spiritual satisfaction have some spiritual components attached to them. For example, clothes are used to keep warm, but now they are more fashionable and show off; for example , when you buy any product, you must not only care about the quality of the product itself, but also the packaging and appearance of the product, which are all spiritual needs; According to a survey, 50% of consumers who go to Starbucks to drink coffee have never had the habit of drinking coffee. They go in just to experience a kind of sentiment and fashion.

This kind of consumption is indeed comparable to the religious beliefs of thousands of years in human history.They are all mesmerizing, and they are all satisfying spiritual needs. In fact, it is not only fashion that becomes a religion, but a more general consumption religion is formed in all areas of spiritual consumption.Hollywood movies, international brand coffee chain stores, luxury worship, KTV, fashion industry... It has countless specific forms, which constitute the whole of consumer religion. Admittedly, the pursuit of spiritual gratification is not a bad thing in itself, but once you realize that this is a new imperialist conspiracy, when it becomes a tool of new imperialist international exploitation, the nature of the matter changes. I can tell you with certainty that the new imperialism is working hard to promote this consumer religion to the world all the time.Our consumption concepts are not produced by ourselves, but instilled by them.The older generation is not easy to indoctrinate, and their indoctrination mainly starts with young people, through various media, movies, TV, newspapers, and magazines to instill this consumption concept in young people. Almost all the new generation who grew up during China's reform and opening up became followers of this religion.Which Chinese kid doesn't want to go to KFC or McDonald's?Who doesn't want to wear Nike and Adidas?Who doesn't admire European and American brand clothing?Who doesn't adore American Hollywood movies? Of course, the post-50s, post-60s, and post-70s are also indoctrinated. Which rich people in this generation do not pay homage to European and American luxury goods, from perfumes, clothing, leather bags, watches, wines to cars, these are all of them. equipment. How does the new imperialism exploit us?It's very simple, they monopolize the product supply of consumer religion, and what they monopolize is the most high-end.This is like the church in the Middle Ages monopolizing the Bible. All ordinary people have become exploiters of the church, and they go to the church to buy amulets from time to time. Why do you say that they are exploiting and plundering us by selling these products?Quite simply, these products are products that consume very little labor, and most of them are no different from our similar products, but the price is ten times, hundreds or even thousands of times ours.To put it bluntly, they make money on the "value" of the symbol.For example, the headquarters of KFC does not need to pay labor for production. As long as the Chinese join a store and use their trademark symbols, they have to pay it several million franchise fees; for example, Nike shoes are produced in China. You To put a Nike logo, you have to pay Nike a lot of money. In particular, I want to point out the luxury goods, which is the highest form of consumer religion.Worship of luxury goods is a perverted pursuit of perfection and extremes. It is not too much for you to regard this as a mental illness.A small leather bag costs 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands of RMB, and the material is nothing more than animal skin. The manufacturer’s pretense is that their workmanship is super fine, and the design is leading the global fashion. Isn’t it just a bag for stuffing, no matter how fine you are He is still a bag.For example, the price of a Rolex watch is tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of RMB. No matter how accurate the watch is, what is the use?Isn't it just to master the time? Should the time of your life be accurate to the second?No matter how good the quality is, can it be worth a hundred high-quality ordinary brand watches?A Rolex can be used for 500 years. I can buy 500 ordinary watches and use them one by one. I can’t spend so much money.Only when a man has reached religious fanaticism can he pay so much for something that is not worth it.Sadly, such religious fanaticism has become commonplace.Religious belief does not reason with you, because you believe, so believe. Luxury is the highest form of human consumption religion.Luxury is not for use, but for feeling.Luxury has spirit and emotion, it connects with you heart to heart, calling your name in the open and in the dark.It is worse than death for rich Chinese to leave French luxury goods, just as Christians leave God and the Bible, that is not acceptable. To sum up, we can know that Professor Lang did not realize the main truth of contemporary new imperialism, but only limited to the research and description of some microscopic and specific financial manipulations.Neither did they realize that printing money for shopping is the primary means of international exploitation by imperialism, nor did they recognize other important means of international exploitation, such as branding, entertainment, technology patents, etc., and any of these aspects are more concerned than Professor Lang The so-called financial war has greater significance to the new imperialism, and any aspect will bring greater, more lasting and more daily benefits to the new imperialist countries than the financial war. In addition, Professor Lang did not realize the history of the emergence, formation, and development of new imperialism and its characteristics and manifestations in different stages. Professor Lang did not know that the early 1970s was the dividing point between old and new imperialism. Next, we turn to the topic of the new imperialist economic crisis. So, has Professor Lang realized the truth about the new imperialist financial crisis and economic crisis? In the first three chapters, I actually talked about the difference between the old and new imperialist economies.Although the old imperialist countries also plundered backward countries, they can also engage in production. Their real economy is also real. The products and production capacity of the manufacturing industry are real, and most of the GDP is real wealth. (Product Composition. The new imperialist country (the United States) is a shell economy that prints money for shopping. The service industry accounts for the vast majority of the proportion. The real economy only retains a few high-tech industries. Most of the general products are not produced by them, but Buy by printing money. The difference between old and new imperialist economies determines the difference between old and new imperialist economic crises.