13urnzz wrote:
Uzique The Lesser wrote:
brand-logo culture and conspicuous material wealth are western inventions.
yeah. they buried King Tut in gold, like all the other egyptians of his time.
for an intellectual lightweight you*re an idiot.
lol. like that's even the same thing. did king tut's sarcophagus have a louis vuitton logo on it? i'm hardly saying that precious metals and jewels are a 'western' invention. they're about as old as the oldest african tribes. what i'm saying is that defining yourself through "what you buy" as a "consumer", i.e. consumerism/materialism, i.e. conspicuous wealth, is a western capitalist thing. lol you berk, king tut. because a king who commands great wealth as a result of his hereditary power and quasi-godlike role is the same thing as a generation of people all buying expensive designer handbags and driving german automobiles. they are predicated on entirely different systems: western consumerism is based on the democracy and (rampant) individualism that promotes the essential driving myth of capitalist labour:
that anyone, who works hard enough (like a good little protestant), can have all this wealth, if you only put your back in enough. that's the myth that sustains the sense of value that 'luxury' goods have on a society-wide level. an autocratic ancient leader ain't really the same thing.
for a person with a drinking problem, you slur your thoughts like an alcoholic.
and cybargs, yeah, exactly, the chinese sensibility and whole concept of 'face' translates really well into a hyperactive modern phase of capitalism. now all those things that were previously immaterial and based on qualitative notions of 'family respect' and 'esteem' and 'propriety' can become manifest in expensive trinkets and icons. quantitative material displays, rather than a nebulous 'reputation'. it's just another way of distinguishing yourself and making out you are doing 'well' and are 'proper'. of course the actual value of logo xyz is pretty arbitrary - but they live in a social culture which sustains the symbolic value of these brands. almost all developing nations that are coming into the capitalist 'world order' have an upwardly-mobile bourgeoisie who clearly feel some structural-level pressure to buy the right goods and bedeck themselves in the accoutrements of 'wealth' and 'luxury'. it's an aspirational lifestyle, through and through.
and why is it easier to get into foreign posh unis, do you think? because it's certainly not a case of their actual admission standards/educational standards being lower. is it just a pure numbers game, back at home? lots of people and not very many world-class institutions? i know for a fact that anyone willing to pay 3x the native tuition fee rate - especially for a postgraduate course - will be very welcomed over here. universities pretty much set aside a certain quota of their annual entry for international students, whose exorbitant fees floats a nice portion of the budget. the best thing? universities in the west get ranked more favorably, as well, for their 'international mix'. lol. it's a win/win. even if some of the students are way below ability.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-03-22 02:17:06)
