Thanks for all that. And "The essence of commodification is the transformation of unique individuality into generic form." Quite the statement! ...with the added ironic trickery that modern marketing often appeals to the individual's tastes, preferences, seeking self-improvement. Yet beware because, “The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.” Tom Waits.
Indeed. I quote Tom's line (he borrowed it...) in my book (p65).
More from my 'corporate person' essay:
'Corporate personality consists of and depends on a generalized substitution of juridical persons for real people. The doctrines of "legal personality" present social relations as a product of legal institutions, dependent on enforcement of an authoritative (legal) discourse, rather than as inherent in "natural" existence.
'These themes are mirrored in mass media where corporate sponsors dictate a normalizing of human anxiety and insecurity, alleviated by the joy and satisfaction of commodity consumption. Advertising promotes the image that life itself is the province of corporate persons: "We bring good things to life," and "GE restores your faith in your own two hands" (General Electric); "Come home to NBC" (National Broadcasting Company); "Life's Worth Litton" (Litton Industries). Real human individuality is replaced by a commodified individualism: "Be yourself," say the ads. "Buy this (mass-produced product)."'
Thanks for providing an example of where things are at with the legal aspects and potential much-needed change. Also, in context, "regulate Commerce" reads like a euphemism for corruption and/or corporatism
The 'commerce clause' quickly became one of, if not the largest, sources of federal power for all kinds of activities. Including corporatism and civil rights. The Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US (1968) decision upheld the constitutionality of the 1964 Civil Rights Act not because of black people's status as human persons, but because of their status as objects in commerce, which the court said congress had power to regulate.
"The Court's commodified definition of civil rights aimed at equality by virtue of the fact that the market equalizes everything: money is the universal equivalent, through which all things are made fungible. The essence of commodification is the transformation of unique individuality into generic form. In this case, the uniqueness of black people's historical relation to the Constitution was transformed into the generic form of the consumer in a market economy.
"The jurisprudence of Heart of Atlanta was not about value in human terms of the freedom to travel or to eat in public. It was about economic value (in terms of the gross national product) to be derived from an expansion of interstate commerce. This market-based civil rights in the promised land of the "Great Society" translated human values into an abstract context. It rested on and reinforced a system of human relations in which people are subordinated to property and have "rights" and "freedoms" only on the basis of marketability."
"Be all you can be"... Army advert. And, "new and improved" like New York, New Jersey, New England... etc. ... products of the Merchants of Veneer.
Thanks for all that. And "The essence of commodification is the transformation of unique individuality into generic form." Quite the statement! ...with the added ironic trickery that modern marketing often appeals to the individual's tastes, preferences, seeking self-improvement. Yet beware because, “The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.” Tom Waits.
Indeed. I quote Tom's line (he borrowed it...) in my book (p65).
More from my 'corporate person' essay:
'Corporate personality consists of and depends on a generalized substitution of juridical persons for real people. The doctrines of "legal personality" present social relations as a product of legal institutions, dependent on enforcement of an authoritative (legal) discourse, rather than as inherent in "natural" existence.
'These themes are mirrored in mass media where corporate sponsors dictate a normalizing of human anxiety and insecurity, alleviated by the joy and satisfaction of commodity consumption. Advertising promotes the image that life itself is the province of corporate persons: "We bring good things to life," and "GE restores your faith in your own two hands" (General Electric); "Come home to NBC" (National Broadcasting Company); "Life's Worth Litton" (Litton Industries). Real human individuality is replaced by a commodified individualism: "Be yourself," say the ads. "Buy this (mass-produced product)."'
Thanks for providing an example of where things are at with the legal aspects and potential much-needed change. Also, in context, "regulate Commerce" reads like a euphemism for corruption and/or corporatism
The 'commerce clause' quickly became one of, if not the largest, sources of federal power for all kinds of activities. Including corporatism and civil rights. The Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US (1968) decision upheld the constitutionality of the 1964 Civil Rights Act not because of black people's status as human persons, but because of their status as objects in commerce, which the court said congress had power to regulate.
Here's what I wrote about it in 1996/97:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08935699608685489
"The Court's commodified definition of civil rights aimed at equality by virtue of the fact that the market equalizes everything: money is the universal equivalent, through which all things are made fungible. The essence of commodification is the transformation of unique individuality into generic form. In this case, the uniqueness of black people's historical relation to the Constitution was transformed into the generic form of the consumer in a market economy.
"The jurisprudence of Heart of Atlanta was not about value in human terms of the freedom to travel or to eat in public. It was about economic value (in terms of the gross national product) to be derived from an expansion of interstate commerce. This market-based civil rights in the promised land of the "Great Society" translated human values into an abstract context. It rested on and reinforced a system of human relations in which people are subordinated to property and have "rights" and "freedoms" only on the basis of marketability."