Question of the Day, December 4, 2011 ~ Rich traditions to caricatures
What do you think of the Hallmarkization of cultures?
The corporate distillation of rich human traditions to caricatures that are broadcast around the planet in the shallowest of forms – to the point the corporate caricature threatens to displace the actual holiday in the global mind.
Saint Nicholas becomes the CocaCola Santa Claus
Santa Claus becomes an apologist for the marketing tactics of the rich few instead of the inspiration for giving to the poor.
I don’t think that blaming it on Hallmark is accurate.
It seems to me that Hallmark is as much of an effect as everything else we see.
It seems to me that the fundamental issues are deeply systemic.
Perhaps the easiest one to get a handle on is the collapsing of the distinction between market value (monetary value) and human value.
Because money is easily quantified, it is an easy tool for governance – easy to build rules around and create structures that operate largely independent of the individuals within them.
The problem is that monetary value does not equate to human value, and only in very limited circumstances comes anywhere close to equivalent. Lots of examples of this on my blog www.tedhowardnz.wordpress.com/money
What this results in, is societal systems that optimise the flow of money, rather than systems that deliver values that human being cherish. Hallmark is one level of example of this effect, there are many others.
What is required is education on this collapsing, and a creation of a clear distinction between these two valuation systems.
It seems to me that the occupy movement is an indication that many people are intuitively aware that something is deeply wrong, without really knowing what it is.
