A fascinating diavlog. I'll have to read Doug's book.

A text response, in this case, would fail to convey the idea, so I will use another tactic.
@_____@

Quoting JonIrenicus: @_____@

Two snails chasing each other?
Fascinating stuff--I'm gonna read this book!

We are far too materialistic , at the expense of almost everything else. There is something in Bhutan being the most happy / content country according to a number of surveys. I am not saying I would want to live there permanently, but IMO a best option would be somewhere between the USA at one extreme and Bhutan at the other. The nearest current countries would be the Scandinavian countries and Netherlands. I live in UK (somewhere between USA and Scandinavia in terms of the balance ).

Quoting pbx: The nearest current countries would be the Scandinavian countries and Netherlands.

The Netherlands and especially Scandinavia are very materialistic and individualistic. Consumerism runs rampant.

Quoting omd: The Netherlands and especially Scandinavia are very materialistic and individualistic. Consumerism runs rampant.

It depends on how you define materialistic - northern Europeans are, after all, primarily atheist. However I still think you are wrong even in the sense of materialism that you are using. The Scandanavian countries, while fabulously wealthy, are famously inhospitable to luxury brands. It offends their sense of egalitarism. And any society with as advanced a social safety net as, say, Denmark is not as individualist as you claim. Aaaah beautiful Denmark . . .aaah beautiful Danish women . . . but I digress . . . China, where I am, is appalingly materialistic. Wealth is fetishised to a disgusting degree. Then again, I am working as an economics reporter here, so I truly am in the belly of the dragon.

Quoting nikkibong: The Scandanavian countries, while fabulously wealthy, are famously inhospitable to luxury brands.

The consumption of luxury goods is not the only way to measure materialism.

Quoting nikkibong: And any society with as advanced a social safety net as, say, Denmark is not as individualist as you claim.

A publicly provided safety net replaces some of the functions of family and community. The welfare state can thus make people more individualistic and more selfish because all they have to do is consume. The government takes care of everything else. Citizens are then encouraged to keep consuming because the whole system depends on economic growth, employment and global competitiveness.

Alcoholism: Do share your sources, then. I've often heard that FDR used to marvel that there weren't more mass protests and even riots by the unemployed in the 30s, and that he was worried there would be. To get back to alcoholism, and I really don't know, but could it be that the rate of alc rose in the 40s-60s, and started to decline in the 70s-90s? I have no idea.

It's nice to live in CA where you can see the tapestry of materialism, individualism and the social safety net. Illegal alien parents in subsidized housing (albeit with computers and HDTVs) driving their kids (whose delivery and continuing medical care is paid for by taxpayers) to public schools (where their meals are paid for by taxpayers), and then continuing on in their late-model SUVs and pickup trucks to Home Depot to find today's work. Transfer of wealth sometimes just ends up being more spending money for more luxury goods. And if Mr Rushkoff would venture in the areas where 'poor people' live, he'll see bbq grills at many of the homes, some of them even Webers.

I'm skeptical that late-model SUV ownership is non-negligible among day-laborers. Do you have a cite?

So the new welfare Queen in a Cadillac is an illegal alien? Interesting. I think it will be a harder sell, though, at least in most of the country.

I kept wondering where I knew this guy from. Merchant's of Cool. Anyone seen it? A little out of date at this point, but very well made: Frontline: Merchant's of Cool on Google Video"

Quoting stephanie: So the new welfare Queen in a Cadillac is an illegal alien? Interesting. I think it will be a harder sell, though, at least in most of the country.

Not just an "illegal alien." An illegal alien driving an SUV, brandishing a laptop, and firing up a Weber grill. Doubtless, to cook white babies.

Quoting Tyrrell McAllister: I'm skeptical that late-model SUV ownership is non-negligible among day-laborers. Do you have a cite?

Sure, they drive SUVs, but there's 14 of them in there. stereotype humor!

Try Mickey Kaus!

Nice find. Amazing how much has changed since the video was made (death of record stores, rise of facebook etc).

I hear strong threads in Rushkoff about the desire for community. So for him to equate the marketing of religion with the marketing of products is strange. How can he deny the obvious social cohesion that religion brings? Talk about communitarianism - in many ways, that is religion.

oh, ok. Never mind.

Nothing Sacred about Judaism. Full of interesting ideas, as are many of his other books including "Why We Listen to What "They" Say".

According to Gilbert "Ask A Mexican" Arrellano large vehicles are the in thing with newly arrived Mexican immigrants in California. I live in an Hispanic area next to a catholic church and do see a lot of SUV's and pickups but have no figures to back anything up with. Driving an SUV to get day labor is a joke. Go to any car wash and you see lots of bicycles that the Hispanic employees ride to work. John

This dude has what Hayek called "the age-old hatred of the scribe for the merchant." There is absolutely nothing new here. All the fallacies to which dreamers who hate markets are susceptible Mr. Rushkoff shows in spades. Funny thing is, he's hoping we'll all run out and buy his book.

Ahhhh!!!!! Uncle! Uncle! OK, brands are terrible. Companies are terrible. Property is terrible. I can't take any more. I'm gonna go read a book. Just not Rushkoff's.

Quoting rfrobison: Funny thing is, he's hoping we'll all run out and buy his book.

Cheap and unconvincing criticism. Rushkoff was in no way indicting the individual pursuit of material wealth in toto; he was simply criticizing the way that a corporate and competitive model of wealth-seeking has come to dominate contemporary societies. Moreover . . .do you expect the guy to starve? Of course he wants to sell his book; Max Weber (you may have heard of him) noted in Protestant Ethic that we are forced to live in this capitalist society, and that we have to operate under its rules. No choice, really. Oh, and I know you meant it as a criticism, but to include Rushkoff in a list of authors including Marx & Thoreau seems the highest of compliments . . . would that we could all be such failures . . . I don't agree with the entirety of Rushkoff's critique - I'm more of a proponent of individualism than he - but your critique ain't sayin' much. A most excellent diavlog.

Not only is everything terrible but secretly terrible, via codes that only Rushkoff can decipher. We are all sheeople, being tricked into living in a way that is horrible and we aren't aware of it. Social trends are not the result of individual choices, but are led by secret social engineering happening at the very highest levels. But by the way, individual choices that happen are also terrible... turning us all into isolated, brainless consumers. All corporations are secretly monopolies. The middle ages was secretly the best time in all of history, which we know because people were tall and their economies forced them to invest in infrastructure. Central currency only leads to the plague. Big, top-down government is bad, except when it isn't. The experience of local government is demanding bike paths that you can't have. This is grade A bullshit, some of the highest quality bullshit I have encountered in my 45 years. Put it in bags and sell it as compost. When the dude is asked direct questions he can't think in a straight line... everything's filtered through his own special bullshit sauce.

Quoting nikkibong: Cheap and unconvincing criticism. Rushkoff was in no way indicting the individual pursuit of material wealth in toto; he was simply criticizing the way that a corporate and competitive model of wealth-seeking has come to dominate contemporary societies. Moreover . . .do you expect the guy to starve? Of course he wants to sell his book; Max Weber (you may have heard of him) noted in Protestant Ethic that we are forced to live in this capitalist society, and that we have to operate under its rules. No choice, really.

Oh, and I know you meant it as a criticism, but to include Rushkoff in a list of authors including Marx & Thoreau seems the highest of compliments . . . would that we could all be such failures . . .

I don't agree with the entirety of Rushkoff's critique - I'm more of a proponent of individualism than he - but your critique ain't sayin' much.

A most excellent diavlog.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. For me it had all the appeal of fingernails against a blackboard. A point-by-point critique is just too exhausting to contemplate. I don't have any beef with an author trying to make a living. More power to him. But

Quoting rfrobison: ... romanticized the primitive past in a way that only someone who has escaped it can.

Nice.

Quoting rfrobison: ....I don't have any beef with an author trying to make a living. More power to him....

What about with enablers like his publisher and bhtv's booking department? I'd rather read a whole book by Naomi Klein than listen past minute 8 to see whether this guy has anything substantive or original to say, and I'd rather be waterboarded than do either. Plus, I don't trust anyone who wears a Snuggie(TM) in public. Did I miss something? Brendan? Anyone?

Quoting bjkeefe: Not just an "illegal alien." An illegal alien driving an SUV, brandishing a laptop, and firing up a Weber grill.

Yeah. The SUV, with laptop and grill (what, no flat screen TV? I'm disappointed) is the new Cadillac and color TV. I think it's an upgrade.

Quoting claymisher: Sure, they drive SUVs, but there's 14 of them in there.

stereotype humor!

"Hispanics are gifted in family structure. You can see a Hispanic person and they can put 20 or 30 people in one home. They were gifted in the family structure." -Reggie White

Quoting rfrobison: Different strokes for different folks, I guess. For me it had all the appeal of fingernails against a blackboard. A point-by-point critique is just too exhausting to contemplate.

That's interesting. I haven't listened to all of it yet, so should probably shut up until I do, but so far I don't think a point-by-point would be possible, as it's not really a consistent program, whatever it is. It goes back and forth between sounding horribly stifling or just a little too paranoid to me (the thing with the plague and the currencies and various aspects of the corporations stuff) and appealing in a "incorporate some aspects of this, but take with a grain of salt" kind of way. The appeal is to my more conservative side (granted, to the extent I'm conservative, it's in more of a crunchy con kind of way) and echoes ideas that I hear more often from conservative and religious sources (importance of local involvement and local control over much else, for example, communitarianism).

Douglas lost me when he stated FDR was planning with his psychiatrists to pacify the returning World War 2 veterans.
Sounds as crazy as a 9/11 truther.
Also Levittown was built after FDR's death.
I like when Douglas mentions "False construction"? Sounds like Pot/Kettle/Black.