Categories: Education

Pseudo-individuality; The New Conformism

Is has been said that people are likes drones, program to function a certain way to serve a purpose. In the film The Matrix, humans function as an energy source (body heat) to power the menacing machines. The machine created a false reality (matrix) to program a vivid human experience to obscure the true reality of the world. It is hard to envision the idea of being unconsciously enslaved, but in this sci-fi film, tries to allure this revelation. The picture of capsulation of the human race was indeed a horrifying representation of that state. This movie awoke startling awareness. We accept how the world is represented to us. We accept cultural conventions, social conventions and conform to these guidelines that have established. Through these guidelines, we make sense and create meanings of the surrounding world. The over all message of the movie was clear; are we living in a reality created by someone else? This question also makes connection to Pseudo-individuality, where I believe as a process of conformism in popular culture. In this process certain realties are created to makes meaningful experience that separate from the norm (convention). Individuality is one of the meaningful terms that describe separation from the norm. Individuality invokes significant values, like novelty, different, originality and imagination. Does Elvis Presley strike a meaningful imagination? He was one of the earliest super star that capture essence of individuality. But his icon was carefully constructed by cultural industry. According to Adorno who author Pseudo-individuality, explains cultural industry are crafting new meaning to a same old formula; they appear to be different but underneath they are all the same. I argue that the whole wave of individualizing is actually conforming because individuality is not authentic if underneath laid the same formula design by corporations. If we wear the same fabricated formula then we are made to believe a certain way. This is possible because reality might be manufactured, created by media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups- and the electronic hardware exists by which to deliver these pseudo-world right into the heads of the reader, the viewer, the listener.

Brands are very powerful simply because people are willing to pay a premium for it. The symbolic message is very clear they are implying that they can offer a lifestyle. Lifestyle has a lot to do with individuality and fashioning identity. Corporate America has long history telling its stories of the factory, labors and tools to produce manufactory goods. The simple logic of a company was produce as much as can and sell it as much. A large production would require a large labor force with larger payroll. According to Klein author of New Branded World, during the eighties corporate America suffered from long recession that limited their business potential. She wrote “By the eighties, pushed along by that decade’s recession, some of the most powerful manufacturers in the world had begun to falter. A consensus emerged that corporations were bloated, oversized; they owned too much, employed too many people, and were weighed down with too many things (p.2).” New corporations emerge with new philosophies about imaging their brands to have a hypnotic hold and spear a powerful imagination to reach out to more consumers. The new era of brand identity was born. If business was directed to the consumers then marketing became the primary focus instead of production. This made a tremendous impact and a prosperous gain in market share. To some corporations, marketing is all they do when subcontractor from third world countries were made available. Marketing come with many invasion process of surveys to better target their demography.

This setting only scratches the surface of that process. The deeper sense of marketing is personalization towards consumer relationships. Marketing ask one of the question on how to make consumers respond with a fetish fondness on goods? Car corporations have a particular way of speaking fetishism about their brand identity. I have seen so many web site devoted to a certain car maker religiously. BMW auto group have many fans around the world, their slogan “The ultimate driving machine” is like a personality that describe the experience of driving BMW machines. BMW fan websites has comprehensive information that match and narrates like biblical events. In the forums section you can find many information regard on every model made in history. If fans decide to educate and ask question about BMW, other fans will share their personal experience and knowledge. I think this kind of networking help BMW enforce a very powerful brand identity. We wonder how they become the biggest luxury auto maker in the world over taking Mercedes and Lexus.

Corporate obsession with brand identity not only wages a war on public and individual space according to Klein, but also a stepping stone to conform to Pseudo-individuality. There are so many companies fighting to gain the same market share that the best way to win and survive is continuously engineering seductive mottos to inviting more meanings to what the brand already installed. Advertisement is a tool corporation use consistently to broadcast mottos. Advertiser has done a lot of research and they always call upon the values of extraordinary. This function works well because advertiser diverts the attention away from the purpose of the actual product while reciting characteristics of quality. Klein made a connection to Randall Rothberg in her article which declares him the “the philosopher-king of commercial culture (p.2).” in his words she wrote “The search for the true meaning of brands – or the “brand essence,” as it is often called – gradually took the agencies away from individual products and their attributes and toward a psychological/anthropological examination of what brands mean to the culture and to people’s lives. This was seen to be of crucial importance, since corporations may manufacture products, but what consumers buy are brands (p.2).” in Maybelline commercials beautiful women were inserting to enhance the meaning of the product. The company at that time was advertising hairspray. The bottle also had the picture of gorgeous girls stamp on the center. Maybelline hairspray was advertised to women but why did they put good looking girls in a product that is not targeting men?

Well Maybelline plan that maybe they could sell beauty through their brand. If women of no particular beauty would buy their product and make them feel good about themselves then the marketing plan succeeds. Or women of particular beauty buy their product to enhance their already natural good looks. I think this is what Rothberg reflection on the psychological/anthropological examination of what brand mean to the culture and to people’s lives. It certainly looks that the formula to get into people’s lives has side effect of questioning self worth. The message of Maybelline is creating beauty or enhancing it then it makes the awareness of self-conscious, and that certain individuals physical appearances is not the standard where society consider “good looking enough.” Television show like the Swan has this underlying not good looking enough messages. The show appeals a second chance to beauty “outfit” that will change the life a person. These contestants will be given the opportunity to have cosmetic surgery to look wonderful. The surgery will include facial operations, body fat removal, breast implants and other plastic procedures. The cameras were taken to their homes and tell stories of a self-conscious lady who feel unsatisfactory with their lives. So they conclude that it must be their physical attributes that contributes to the disappointing factor of their lives. The contestants seem quite brave to reveal their personal disapproval of themselves on national television. But the audience is somehow made to sympathize and identify with them. The Swan voices a message about change with great promise in making of the show. Pseudo-individuality surfaces here because there is a lot of developed standards that outlines qualities of been more smarter, colorful, intelligent, personality, outgoing, sensational, original, and more other characters that will speak novelty. Conforming to Pseudo-individuality generates a lot of anxiety since labeling of qualities is intensified. Social rejection and alienation is prominent fear help generates anxiety If qualities of “individuality” are not met.

I was told that reality TV in a sense serve as welfare program that will soon replace the actual services. With the decline of these welfare services, reality TV shows are squeezed in to our personal prime time television appeal. Popular reality shows, like American Idol, casts shadows of classic Elvis Pressley musical films. His films wrap around same old formula from rags to riches. He is made to come from a poor or unprivileged background. He struggles to become a singer, enchants many women and makes it to the top. American Idol uses the same rags to riches blue print to captivate to the average person. A bunch of aspire to become artists are put to the contest in front of three judges who are known as Simon crown, Pula Abdul and the other judge which I forgot what his name is. The contestant does their best to make it to the final round. They seem to be average Joes but if winning the contest, they will become stars. Audiences are also invited to judge the performance. Maybe the audiences are made to think they have a significant role in the next American Idol. We don’t know if they do. But feelings of participating in this great event are thrilling. Millions of audiences do call to vote on their idolized future super star. I think they don’t have a voice to select the next American Idol since every body calls more then once to vote on who they like. The act of audience participating is compelling enough to draw so many viewers. Does pseudo-individuality tries to make statements about fulfilling the miss “link” about our individuality?

Keith Negus raises questions about popular music taking us to the front lines of media analysis. He wrote “beginning at the “despair” end of the scale, adherents of the influential Frankfurt school pessimistically view poplar music as the product of a “culture industry” designed to nub the minds and facilitate the domination and manipulation of the “masses. (p.1).” to shorten his ideas is to say culture industry dominate and manipulate the masses for the price of profitability. Pseudo-individuality is a successful continuous process that will change the minds of the reader, the viewer, and the listener. I write this essay with the above support to make awareness of false realities created to buy us in. Is Pseudo-individuality a false reality that will cause problems too big to solve in the future? How would it affect young minds, and how would these ideologies change our society?