You know, you think you know a topic, but then you find out you don’t.  In the movie, “The Corporation”, they discussed privatization, censorship, globalization, consumerism, marketing, etc. There was a part in the movie where they discussed how protections of the 14th amendment got extended to corporations themselves. You know, I never realized that corporations were also protected by the Constitution as a ‘legal person’, but they are and I loved how the movie defined this ‘person’, mentally, as a psychopath. I also found the part of marketing/advertising to a young age interesting. I’ve always believed and thought that parents had control over what their kids were exposed to. However, how can parents fight a multi-billion dollar sompanies whose goal is to expose their ‘philosophy’ to their target demographic? Companies find different ways to market themselves to children and, as one person said, “manipulating” them into buying their products and inducing consumer loyalty at a young age. Overall, “The Corporation” was a little long (3 hours) but was a great watch.

I also watched the movie Maxed Out today. The movie focused on debt collectors, credit card companies, and people themselves immersed in debt. There was a section in the movie too where they interviewed a parent whose son committed suicide over the stress credit card debt. The parents now fight against the marketing of credit cards on campus because of what happened to their son. And it’s true, that’s how it all starts. There are so many times where Credit Card companies have marketed themselves on/off campus with the allure of a free sub-sandwich or a UConn fleece. It’s just business.

Credit cards have started to affect and change society for the worse. The average amount of credit card debt the American household possesses is around $10,000. And, of course, the credit card companies just keep sending offers to people for more credit cards. The average number of credit cards per person is 4 (geeze, I only have one). Most people carry balances and about 11% only pay the minimum each month (all statistics are here from this same website).

Of course, since more and more people are becoming unemployed, they have to do what they can do get by. However, credit cards, debt, and lending has all morphed into this catch-22. People need money to get by, they don’t have money, they borrow money to get by but they can’t pay back that money that they borrowed. Companies who lend the money make more money off poor consumers and the cycle continues.

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I was at the bookstore today and bought a book for S.P. research called “The Design of Dissent” by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic. I bought it mostly for inspiration, idea-forming and insight. However, there’s an informative interview in the back with Glaser where he discusses the “nature” of dissent and the responsibilities of a designer/good person (how designers themselves are like any other good person, they just have a unique set of skills/traning to help them communicate revolutionary ideas that an average person may not). I’ll upload some of the posters from the book later this week.

And with that, I’ll leave some images by Barbara Kruger. After focusing more and more on consumerism, I remembered her work from Art History class last year:

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And woooo! I’m going to Disney World in a week. AND, just another head’s up, I won’t be able to post anything while I’m away that week (or check my emails—ahh!) because I won’t have internet access (and if I do somehow manage to be able to post anything, it will be sparse). However, I plan on checking out books from the library to take with me (and taking lots of pictures as there will be plenty of inspiration for me) so I can keep working. Okay? Okay!