When I went to the mall, after I had been taught a little more about it when I had watched The Persuaders, and read more about the mall and its ways to try to be heaven on earth, I noticed more of how it really does try to do these things. I saw a car on display with a license plate that said “just4me,” showing how the mall is trying to say “yes this is just for you because you deserve it.” The mall is catering to peoples’ desires and telling them what they want to hear. “You should buy these expensive clothes because you are ‘cool’ enough to have them. You need to buy this crazy-awesome iPhone because everyone who is somebody has one.” Messages like these were clearer to me as I saw how the mall tried to get people to buy its items. I had probably noticed these attempts by the mall before, but it just seemed a lot more apparent to me after I had watched The Persuaders. I don’t think that these are bad things that should make people not want to shop at the mall, but knowing what the mall is trying to do is definitely something that should be understood, and from there, decided on if going to the mall is a positive thing for the person who is thinking about it.
If we think about the mall as a place of consumerist worship, it does indeed raise the question of whether going to the mall on a regular basis is a positive thing. What would our parents think, for example, if we started hanging out every weekend in a mosque or Buddhist temple? They might be worried--but interestingly, not so much when it comes to malls. Good observations, Billy.
ReplyDelete