This was one of Marx's criticism of capitalism - manufactured needs. A person who does not have his basic human needs met can have all his wants and desires commodified. This is done through manufactured needs. Your car is not the latest model? Time for a new one. Nevermind if it runs fine; that is not the question. Your clothes fit you just fine? Sorry, but they are way out of fashion and you look like a damn slob.
The idea is that if people are kept at a basic level of unhappiness, he can project his desires and fulfillment which he does not have in his daily life, into goods to be bought at some future time. He can save up for them. If he can't afford them, he knows that he is a little less of a person. So he will work harder for industry, he will talk back less, because he knows that he is saving up for something that is going to make him or his family finally be "happy". Or he is scared shitless that he will lose what commodities they do have and can't live without. He will be less of a man, less moral. He is already less of a man, so he clings more to morality. Morality becomes his last resort of self-respect. This is why poor people tend to be more moral or upright, more morally harsh. Meanwhile, the capitalist is smoking his cigar and sitting in conferences deciding his fate.
This can be seen with teenagers. They require not only clothes, but the "right kind" of clothes. These fashions are perpetuated through celebrity worship and advertising. Also, people of lower class will try to increase their "value" by imitating the upper classes. This way the pyramid scheme is perpetuated.
brock, insightful. i wonder how true this self conception through morality which is manipulated by others holds true for us living in todays world? i see there are parts of your statement that unfortunately ring true for me.
what are your thoughts on morals in the first place?
