Ignoring the problem

I think one of the most interesting quotes from Jameson is where he says “the underside of culture is blood, torture, death and horror” (485). What I found so interesting about this is not its degree of negativity, but rather its reflection of reality. This is one of the major elements that plays into consumerism that most people don’t ever look at or think about. Think about the way that our goods are produced, and the way that they get into our hands. I’m not talking about the salespeople who you buy from, or even the truck drivers who transported the goods to the store, I’m talking about the people involved from the creation of the good, the originators. And I’m also not just talking about material goods, but ideological institutions as well. To feed the demand of a consumerist culture, the pressure on the supply is tremendous. Tie this in with the necessity to turn a profit, and one will find that democracy frequently yields neglect somewhere along its lifeline. A very basic example of this would be a sweatshop. Nike is the cliché example to use here so lets go with it; when one buys a Nike shoe do they look at it and wonder how the sole got stitched into the base? Or do they admire the fabric and colors as the new owner is strapping them on. Here comes the second reason for the affluence of what Jameson is talking about; ignorance. In a society so infused with the ideals of greed and selfishness, we are not taught to look deeper than the surface, or think about the negative result to us receiving something positive. We accept and move on, having paid $150 for a pair of Nikes that were made by a 14 year old getting paid below a percent of that per week. The demands of the well-off in the world are fed by the blood, sweat and tears of the exploited lower class…and this is not a recent development.