Joel.Simone

Yesterday, we finished Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller. Mr. Willis played Willy Loman, and I played Willy’s son, Biff. This play was extremely intriguing and fun to preform. Mr. Willis wrapped up the play by sharing his life changing experience, dropping out of his pursuit for priesthood. He also explained how the story represents an American tragedy. In addition, he hinted towards the association to social and moral corruption resulting from capitalism. ¶ A couple of weeks ago, I questioned capitalism’s place in society, far beyond the present. And I had this idea, we, the people of the US, depend on competition based on consuming, or consumption. This resulted from the question, “Competition for what?” The consumer immediately popped in my mind, and I united the words “Consumer Economics” and also “Consumer Capitalism.” I then searched on Google and found some aspects of my vision similar to Wikipedia’s definition, see Consumer Capitalism at Wikipedia. Most importantly, in this definition, I found a very similar perspective to my vision by Bernard Stiegler. “Stiegler argues that capitalism today is governed not by production but by consumption, and that the techniques used to create consumer behavior amount to the destruction of psychic and collective individuation. (Wikipedia.com)” I’m not exactly sure what is meant by individuation, so I will have to research this later. Unfortunately, very little of Stiegler’s critique on Consumer Capitalism is translated. Again, more research is desired. ¶ Now, I can either write on this subject or choose to do 5 poems based on the characters of our recent poems and stories. Soon, I will decide.