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Essay / Film and consumerism - 2566
There was a time when everything was simple, uniform, safe and solid. As Marshall Berman once said, “Everything that is solid melts into air.” What we once knew and knew has become something strange, ambiguous, exciting, but also frightening at the same time. We have arrived at a time when differences and changes are considered good. This period is known as “modernization.” Modernity came after the period of industrialization in the late 18th century, when new standards of living and new manufacturing systems were established. Later, the new power of American capitalism emerged in the 19th century, adopting a new economic system focused solely on achieving the highest profit for consumers by creating standardized goods en masse. Accordingly, the economic cycle of supply and demand must be made sustainable, without overproduction of products in relation to consumer demands. It is therefore crucial to encourage people to become good consumers, that is, to continue spending money to maintain the movement of cash and the system of exchange of goods. This is when consumerism emerged, changing the way traditional consumption worked from people relying on basic needs to survive and produce their goods to being integrated into the idea of unlimited desires and possessions. Of course, people were not used to the new concept of consumerism, so Hollywood steps in as the dominant institution that teaches people about consumerism and inspires them to become good consumers. But how Hollywood naturalizes this idea of mass consumption and what factors are used to show people the new consumerism will be discussed in the essay, providing two... (The rest of the paragraph is unchanged as it contains quotes..)