Page 141 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 141
bijuklič ■ manufacturing and selling a way of life
all the antagonism of interests in order to bring a harmonious cooper-
ative collectivism into existence, is not addressing this or that industri-
al plant, but calling for a national efficiency, which means »the develop-
ment of each man to his state of maximum efficiency« (Taylor, 1947: p.
9). Although Taylor offered a systemic solution to the question of nation-
al prosperity through maximizing the national efficiency in production
and by application in all other social activities11 and human relation in
general, a paradigm that was fully embraced as a sovereign value soon af-
ter the America’s entry in World war I, there was still an unsolved void
left on the other side of the same process, on the side of consumption. At
this point, as Ellul (1973) shows in his analysis, uniformity was recognized
as an economic potential: »Mass production requires mass consump-
tion, but there cannot be mass consumption without widespread identical
views as to what the necessities of life are« (Ellul, 1973: p. 68). The demand
to enhance a national efficiency in consumption coincide with the emerg-
ing field of scientific techniques like modern propaganda, advertising, PR
etc., which took over this task. However, the need of organising and accel-
erating consumerism was not confined solely to commodities, but was ex-
tended to results of intellectual or educational activity like ideas, practices
and finally to ways of life, which compose the true decisive dimension of
the consumerist society, since disseminating a functional way of life that
would correspond to society’s needs became more fundamental than sell-
ing any kind of commodity. At the same time, consumption ceased to be a
mere necessity of life. Many started to see consumption as a means of rich-
er life in the broadest meaning. Thus the question was not only »how to
consume, but how to desire to consume the “right” things, how to make
consumption genuinely satisfying. Short-term gratification could be de-
rived from the accumulation of material goods, but long-term happiness
required the satisfaction of man’s deeper longings – a sense of individual
worth and dignity and, perhaps above all, a sense of spiritual harmony«
(Qualter, 1973: p. 160).
Conformism Dissolves into Selling and Buying
If even the realm of highest human capacities can become a matter of
consumption, as something that might belong to a person by purchasing
it, then we are facing a new radical form of passivity. Results of human
spiritual or cognitive capacities cease to reside and arise in someone’s in-
dividual or communal activity. Per example an idea, opinion, practice or
worldview can be equally produced and sold by specialists as if they were
11 See Taylor (1947) The Principles of Scientific Management: p. 5-8.
139
all the antagonism of interests in order to bring a harmonious cooper-
ative collectivism into existence, is not addressing this or that industri-
al plant, but calling for a national efficiency, which means »the develop-
ment of each man to his state of maximum efficiency« (Taylor, 1947: p.
9). Although Taylor offered a systemic solution to the question of nation-
al prosperity through maximizing the national efficiency in production
and by application in all other social activities11 and human relation in
general, a paradigm that was fully embraced as a sovereign value soon af-
ter the America’s entry in World war I, there was still an unsolved void
left on the other side of the same process, on the side of consumption. At
this point, as Ellul (1973) shows in his analysis, uniformity was recognized
as an economic potential: »Mass production requires mass consump-
tion, but there cannot be mass consumption without widespread identical
views as to what the necessities of life are« (Ellul, 1973: p. 68). The demand
to enhance a national efficiency in consumption coincide with the emerg-
ing field of scientific techniques like modern propaganda, advertising, PR
etc., which took over this task. However, the need of organising and accel-
erating consumerism was not confined solely to commodities, but was ex-
tended to results of intellectual or educational activity like ideas, practices
and finally to ways of life, which compose the true decisive dimension of
the consumerist society, since disseminating a functional way of life that
would correspond to society’s needs became more fundamental than sell-
ing any kind of commodity. At the same time, consumption ceased to be a
mere necessity of life. Many started to see consumption as a means of rich-
er life in the broadest meaning. Thus the question was not only »how to
consume, but how to desire to consume the “right” things, how to make
consumption genuinely satisfying. Short-term gratification could be de-
rived from the accumulation of material goods, but long-term happiness
required the satisfaction of man’s deeper longings – a sense of individual
worth and dignity and, perhaps above all, a sense of spiritual harmony«
(Qualter, 1973: p. 160).
Conformism Dissolves into Selling and Buying
If even the realm of highest human capacities can become a matter of
consumption, as something that might belong to a person by purchasing
it, then we are facing a new radical form of passivity. Results of human
spiritual or cognitive capacities cease to reside and arise in someone’s in-
dividual or communal activity. Per example an idea, opinion, practice or
worldview can be equally produced and sold by specialists as if they were
11 See Taylor (1947) The Principles of Scientific Management: p. 5-8.
139
