Thread: Austrian Politican Speaks candidly

I think most of the USSR environmental destruction was caused by military activities and trying to meet industrial "plans". Not from private consumption.

You are forgetting one thing that held the USSR people back from being as consumerist as Americans; There were no ads, so manipulation to constantly spur people into wanting things that they didn't need. And of course, I am aware that there were shortages but that's a different problem.

There were severe restrictions on that when I grew up in Sweden and no ads on TV and radio + the ads in papers had to be quite discreet. MUCH, MUCH nicer than now! You could actually enjoy the content without constant distraction. You could turn on the TV or radio or take a trip on public transport without being bombarded with ads.

And you didn't have to feel quite as pressured into having the latest of everything and constantly consuming. Not sure about the USSR, but our media was perfectly adequate without ads - plus there was content from across Europe, not just the English speaking world and local.

After 1-2 years with commercially sponsored TV and radio the novelty was gone and at least to me, it was clear that very little content had been added that wasn't already available before, and that new content had come at the price of constant bombardment with these ridiculous junk messages. Plus the content was dumbed down a lot.

If a product or service can't stand up on it's own merit, without untruthful marketing, then it probably isn't needed!

Originally Posted by Hanna

I think most of the USSR environmental destruction was caused by military activities and trying to meet industrial "plans". Not from private consumption.

Ok, so do you agree the mental link I mentioned is artificial or you do not agree?

Originally Posted by Hanna

You are forgetting one thing that held the USSR people back from being as consumerist as some others; There were no ads, so manipulation to constantly spur people into wanting things that they absolute didn't need.

Ok, you're right, I forgot that thing. Thanks for reminding me. There were other minor issues as well like famine sometimes, very bad quality of anything but weapons and some other insignificant stuff, but you're absolutely right. The ads were very limited. Off the top of my head I could probably remember one or two like: "Fly only with Aeroflot." So, the content of the media was free of ads. That's true there were huge placards on the buildings like: "The Communism is the Soviet Power plus the electrification of the entire country" or "The Glory to the Communist Party!" or alike and the media was full of the phrases lacking any meaning, but the commercials weren't there. You could enjoy the entire one-hour talk on either of the three available TV channels about how great it is to live in the Soviet Union without any interruptions to the commercials. And the issue of the consumerism wasn't there as the distribution was planned: if you belong to the power class (the party, the unions, etc) you'd get a sausage every day, if you're an engineer, you'll get it once a quarter. You couldn't just walk into a store and buy a sausage. So, what would be a point of the commercials? Buy more sausage which isn't there? So, the bottom line there was no Western-style consumerism. But the ecological disasters did happen on a scheduled basis. Period.