Troop Hunting - Society

It is worth touching on the topic of the crisis in a conversation with a friend, client or neighbor on the staircase - and immediately you find yourself in a fascinating world of transformations that the "philosophy of consumption" has made in the mass consciousness. How will the stereotypical relationships between people and things change in the near future?

Survive after

How is the general decline in purchasing power reflected in the mirror of psychological assistance? It is clear that those who have been brought to the level of survival by the crisis will not be seen by a psychologist. Simply because they have no money. However, the experience of communicating with such people shows that they are just quite quickly rearranging their needs for a new level of capabilities. The habit of poverty insures against great psychological upheavals, since a person is already accustomed to the fact that he cannot afford anything. And in his relationship with money there is fatalism - "it will be as it will, there is still no money." A poor person only begins to worry about a crisis when it comes to physical survival. The psychologists, on the other hand, get those who, even in a crisis, can pay for their services - representatives of the "middle class".

Illusion of grandeur

The share of the "psychological component" in any product is increasing every year, sometimes reaching up to one hundred percent. Since everything that the huge advertising industry does, it attributes impossible properties to various things - from the ability to create a feeling of home comfort to the ability to feel like a "real macho" or "awesomely beautiful woman." As a result, quite ordinary goods begin to serve the same psychological needs and problems as tabloid novels and movies. Only if in the cinema we plunge into the fictional world for an hour and a half or two, then in the case of a “brand” purchase, the illusion of our own greatness may not leave us for weeks or even months. In addition, advertising also prompts the consumer what kind of emotions and feelings he should experience, becoming the owner of the coveted purchase. Works great for thosewho never learned to generate feelings on their own.

Dual philosophy

In addition, there has been a revolution in the mass understanding of what kind of product can be called good and of high quality. Today it is useless to recall with nostalgia the first Japanese tape recorders, the manufacturers of which gave a guarantee for fifty years of correct operation without jokes. Because the same manufacturers very quickly realized that such durability of the equipment would ultimately leave them without work. And the philosophy of consumption quickly changed its vector from reliability and durability to novelty and exclusivity. In general, this is a brilliant notion - the mass production of exclusive items!

Moreover, the last two indicators at some point became a consumer goal in itself. Because the supporters of the "old" consumer philosophy are quite difficult to explain what are the advantages of an iPhone, the maximum service life of which is two or three years, over a simple, but "unkillable" mobile phone for years. Of course, if you do not follow the logic of the developers of more and more software gadgets, but remember about its original "telephone" purpose.

Against the background of the contemptuous attitude towards the durability of the equipment, the exclamations of ecologists about the pollution of the planet with waste look funny. And where do you want to put all this "outdated" equipment?

The race for "improvements"

By the way, this is also one of the methods of creating demand - to squeeze more and more functions into one "gadget", while the quality of the additional features themselves is no longer worried about, since the supply has been shaping demand for a long time, and not vice versa. Fortunately, the younger generation has already been reliably drilled into their heads with a simple axiom: "The new is always better than the old."

For example, we can take at least the epidemic of "selfie", which became possible solely due to the emergence of built-in homing cameras. At the same time, “selfies” have nothing to do with photography, satisfying the adolescent psychological need to take pictures of themselves as often as possible in order to form an idea of their rapidly changing body appearance.

The duration of the use of the thing at some point began to testify not to its quality, but to the ability of its owner to earn money for a mandatory new thing. As the surprised supporters of endless renewal say in such cases, "according to his status, he has long been supposed to," meaning the obligatory change of the brand of car, watch, footwear and girlfriend in connection with climbing the social ladder.

The pressure of a consumption philosophy should not be underestimated. Indeed, at some point, the use of an outdated model of the same phone begins to be perceived by others not just as "lagging behind fashion", but as a manifestation of marginality.

You are not like everyone else

For this reason, from a certain level of the social hierarchy, only very rich people can afford to dress in a simple way. In other words, in order to appear in jeans and a T-shirt at a public event, you need to be at least Zuckerberg.

By the way, society as a whole must also live to see such an appearance. No wonder the fashion for rich people to dress “like everyone else” was introduced in countries dominated by the so-called “old capital” - where the first millions were earned (as a rule, not in a very moral way) by the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of the current owners of billions of dollars.

Brand traps

It is clear that in such a situation there are much fewer problems with the crisis for those who, even before the crisis, did not care much about which iPhone model would soon go on sale. And, please note, not because there is nothing to buy it, but simply because a person does not care deeply about this super important fact for the world community. It's just that his self-awareness and self-esteem have nothing to do with what brand of watch he wears on his wrist, what brand of car takes him to work and the name of which designer is on the label of his suit. But as a result of mass processing, very few such people remained. Indeed, over the past twenty years, the second generation of young people who keep up with world trends has already grown up - from those who, during their school years, bullied their classmates for their lack of "cool" mobile phones or expensive clothes.

Folk wisdom

Each of us psychologically defends himself against impoverishment as he can. Here are several versions of what to do in today's situation, peeped by the author on various forums.

• Include "self-discipline". Some people think that it is enough just to think: “Hurray! I discipline myself! Finally, there is an opportunity not to buy any garbage that spoils health and shape "- and" excesses "will instantly become unnecessary.
• Leave only the most important. For example: “I will save on everything! I will minimize expenses on food and clothes, but I will continue to drive to work. This will allow me to maintain my status! "
• Treat saving like a quest. “What could be easier? I will find goods of the same quality, but cheaper. I’ll get to the right place on foot, and at the same time I’ll pump up my ass”.

In addition, one should not forget that for a significant part of the current population, the famous nineties loom behind their backs, which are for them a measure of social disadvantage. And since the psychological bar for economic decline has been set, anything above its level cannot seriously scare.