“Men and women make their own history but not in conditions of their own choosing.”
Cultural materialism is a form of historiography with a political nature. It takes the political framework of the time in which the literary text comes and the current political situations that the text helped create.
Cultural materialism is used typically to study Shakespearian texts in current situations. Shakespearian criticism changed because of the political influences of Marxism and feminism. With this reading of Chosen, I will focus on the political commitment.
For this cultural materialist reading we must first start with the context. Chosen was released in 2002 and typically I would think that a 7 year period isn’t a significant amount of time to really study any political differences, but two aspects really work in our favor: our countries economy has made a significant swing this decade and our text is a commercial for a luxury vehicle.
The year 2000 had our lowest unemployment rates in the US since the 60s. BMW has its most profitable year in 2001 (http://edition.cnn.com/2002/BUSINESS/03/11/bmw/).
The unemployment rate of 10.2% in October of this year (http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers
&series_id=LNS14000000) was the highest since 1940. BMW is making layoffs (search BMW layoffs in your favorite search engine, there are many stories).
I haven’t provided a fraction of the information out there concerning the US economy or even touched on many of the financial issues concerning American homes. I’m not an economist, but I am a theorist and this is my reading of Chosen in the context of our current economy and the economy at the time of creation.
One reason for our poor economic situation is traced back to loans given by large institutions that were then unable to cover the loan once the party who took the loan could not pay it back. When a bank or other financial institution forecloses on a home, they do not get the same return as they would if the loan was paid back in full.
A lot of fault goes to the poor planning of those many financial institutions that gave loans to those who wouldn’t be able to pay it back. But why were people applying for loans and racking up debt? What was so important that they were willing to go into debt to pay for it?
BMW is selling a luxury car. Luxury cars should be purchased by the 1% with the disposable income available for luxury items. But this commercial isn’t exclusively appealing to the wealthy. If you aren’t Clive Owen in a BMW, then you’re a scum ball in a Ford trying to kidnap a child. Do I really have a choice? Either I go into debt and save the world or I make the fiscally sound decision and everyone thinks I’m a creep.
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2 comments:
I agree with the logic that you present here. We've talked before about how this is a relatively sophisticated advertising campaign, aimed at those who are in the upper echelon of society. However, even within this particular, there are many who can't afford BMW, and who shouldn't be purchasing anything in their current financial state.
Recently, I read an article called "Generation Gimmie" which was all about this generation of people and how we all feel that we are entitled to have certain things. Advertisers do their job well; after all, isn't that the objective of advertising--to convince us that we deserve whatever it is that they're selling?
I think that you're right in implying that this is the source of many of our problems now. Therefore, as for me, I think that I'll stick with being the scum ball in the Ford. (I currently drive a Focus.)
We have a Ford Focus as well. That's where I got that.
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