論工業社會及其未來-82

82

對於廣告和行銷技巧有中等敏感度的人可以賺到足夠的錢以滿足自己對商品和服務的渴望，但只有在相當努力的代價下（加班、兼職、爭取晉升等等）。因此獲取物質滿足了他們對於權力進程的需求。但這並不一定意味著他們的需求得到了充分的滿足。 他們在權力進程中可能沒有足夠的自治權（他們的工作可能包括遵守命令）且他們有些慾望可能遭受挫折（例如安全性或侵略性）。（我們在 80-82 段過分簡化，因為我們假設對獲取物質的慾望完全是廣告和行銷產業創造的。當然事情沒有那麼簡單。[11]）

[11] 對於無止盡物質獲取的慾望真的是廣告業和行銷產業的人造物嗎？確實人類並沒有在物質獲取上天生的慾望。在許多文化中人們對超過滿足基本生理需求所必需的物質財富沒有太多渴望（澳大利亞原住民、傳統墨西哥農民文化、一些非洲文化）。另一方面在許多工業化前的社會中物質獲取在文化中扮演重要角色。因此我們不能宣稱今天物質獲取傾向的社會完全是廣告業和行銷產業的產物。但廣告業和行銷產業顯然在創造這個文化上有舉足輕重的作用。花費數百萬在廣告上的大公司若非有扎實的證據能從增加的銷售額拿回這些錢，否則是不會這樣亂花的。一位 FC 的成員幾年前遇到一位銷售經理，直言不諱地告訴他：「我們的工作是讓人們買他們不想要或是不需要的東西。」然後他描述一位未經訓練的新手可以向人們展現一個商品的事實卻完全賣不出去，而一位訓練有素且經驗豐富的專業銷售員可以向同一批人賣很多。這顯示了人們被操縱去買他們不真正想要的東西。

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82

People who have medium susceptibility to advertising and marketing techniques are able to earn enough money to satisfy their craving for goods and services, but only at the cost of serious effort (putting in overtime, taking a second job, earning promotions, etc.). Thus material acquisition serves their need for the power process. But it does not necessarily follow that their need is fully satisfied. They may have insufficient autonomy in the power process (their work may consist of following orders) and some of their drives may be frustrated (e.g., security, aggression). (We are guilty of oversimplification in paragraphs 80- 82 because we have assumed that the desire for material acquisition is entirely a creation of the advertising and marketing industry. Of course it’s not that simple. [11]

[11] Is the drive for endless material acquisition really an artificial creation of the advertising and marketing industry? Certainly there is no innate human drive for material acquisition. There have been many cultures in which people have desired little material wealth beyond what was necessary to satisfy their basic physical needs (Australian aborigines, traditional Mexican peasant culture, some African cultures). On the other hand there have also been many pre-industrial cultures in which material acquisition has played an important role. So we can’t claim that today’s acquisition-oriented culture is exclusively a creation of the advertising and marketing industry. But it is clear that the advertising and marketing industry has had an important part in creating that culture. The big corporations that spend millions on advertising wouldn’t be spending that kind of money without solid proof that they were getting it back in increased sales. One member of FC met a sales manager a couple of years ago who was frank enough to tell him, “Our job is to make people buy things they don’t want and don’t need.” He then described how an untrained novice could present people with the facts about a product, and make no sales at all, while a trained and experienced professional salesman would make lots of sales to the same people. This shows that people are manipulated into buying things they don’t really want.