Whats wrong with that? Whats wrong with people achieving their meaning by relating to brands?
Well, the fact is that this is an old argument, the argument that we’re giving the people what they want. They’re voting with their dollars — what could be more democratic than that? It’s an old argument. It goes back to the ’30s at least. Well, it’s profoundly skewed. This argument is deeply wrong in a way that some of the greatest founders of this republic would have understood immediately. The political realm and the realm of consumption are two very different things. Take a look at advertisements. What is their ideology? What is their message? What do they value? What do they ask of us? Commercials say to us endlessly: “You come first, and you can only be empowered if you use this, you buy this. You come first.” Now, what republican democracy requires is what some have called civic virtue; that is to say, a willingness to sacrifice anything, any advantage, any pleasure, even life itself, for the greater good. This is an old, old ideal that comes from the Roman republic. There is a
