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I have long heard that French education emphasizes critical thinking, but only recently have I had the opportunity to experience it myself. Learning to learn French, and finally not boring daily survival topics, began to enter the discussion stage. So in our French textbook, a chapter “Faith” appeared. I accidentally got cold on this topic, thinking it was just adding a bunch of religious-related vocabulary. To my surprise, it’s not just a collection of vocabulary, but an interesting essay on religious beliefs and current consumerism. Hey, I have observed this topic a little bit, it is very interesting.
The original text will not be repeated in detail, after all, it is presented for teaching French. What made me think about it was the way the article was introduced: 60 to 70% of French people do not have traditional religious beliefs, so what is filling their spiritual world? The article lists two very interesting points: the luxury goods brought about by consumerism and the star-making movement.
These two are probably the hot spot detonators on the Xiaohongshu platform. (As an aside, my thoughts on Xiaohongshu are just one sentence: how did she make people take the initiative to show the worst side of human nature?) Then, let’s analyze their similarities with religion in detail.
For me, consumerism is marketing brainwashing in a broad sense. Anyway, it is nothing more than three tried-and-tested things: 1) Believe it or not if you repeat it too much, 2) People always believe what they want to believe, and 3) People always follow the crowd. As long as more money is spent, the brand will always come out. Luxury goods cater to people’s need for comparison, thus creating utility for consumers (another digression, I have been reflecting more and more on economics and its utilitarianism over the years), making the brand bring The premium goes far beyond the utility of the item itself. In fact, this is no different from the underlying logic of religion, which creates a “sacred” brand label.
The star-making movement, or fan culture, is more straightforward. Consumerism focuses on adding an illusory sense of superiority to material life, while the star-making movement starts from the spiritual level and directly hits people’s essential needs for a perfect image. It doesn’t matter how good an idol is, as long as they can perform an appearance that conforms to the fantasies of fans, that’s enough. (In a broad sense) Love is actually very difficult to define the object of emotional pouring, for example, is it the real him I love, or the appearance of him in my mind? If it’s the latter, then how did I construct the perfect image in my mind? Going back to the previous logic, people’s preferences are actually very easy to be influenced. The so-called perfect image reflects the “rareness and lack” in life experience over the years. The so-called rare is the most expensive. Once it is not rare, it will soon empathize with another. The rare feeling is actually easy to be influenced and brainwashed. The gods in religions more or less have some characteristics that are different from ordinary people, such as supernatural abilities, such as unique personalities (usually positive), such as beautiful appearance, such as extraordinary thinking. These are rare and can easily arouse people’s admiration. As for idols, there is no difference in logic in this respect.
Thinking of this, we can probably summarize what the three have in common: the satisfaction of spiritual needs. I think, therefore I am, people naturally long for spiritual fulfillment. The way this is done can vary, but there is no right or wrong way. Religion is belief in gods, consumerism is belief in brands, star-making is belief in idols, and even science cannot escape a belief in reason. So far, it can be seen that everyone will have their own choice for the way of spiritual satisfaction, and after understanding the logic, it is not difficult to understand the different choices of others.
Say it slyly. Although I personally think that everyone should have their own choices and be responsible for their own choices, but it is inevitable that some people always hope that others will agree with and turn to their own choices. There may be various ways of brainwashing, but here is just an underlying logic: what is the most scarce of the opponent, and whether the new choice can replace or even surpass the previous choice in this regard. Of course, knowing this logic, it is easy to counter-brainwash, as long as you hint that you don’t lack that, haha…
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