manipulation of self-valuing

This is a thread for discussion what is presented in the outstanding documentary The Century of the Self, to which a link is given below, which deals with perhaps the most powerful manipulation of the minds of the masses since the invention of Christianity.

In short, political powers begun to effectively tap and channel the libidinal forces living in the subconscious of the masses, in order to change society, as the mastermind Edward Bernays put it, from a need- to a desire-culture. Where before, a produce was being sold on account of its utility, now it is sold in terms of its ability to increase the buyers sexual power. Effectively, the real-world value of the object does not matter anymore, there is only a strange form of projected value, which I want that we investigate here.

To those who understand value-ontology, it will be possible to confront this problem more effectively than to those who don't. A traditional thinker may not see the difference between need of a product and desire for a product. But if we approach both as valuing on terms of self-value, we see that there is not only a difference, but that this difference is in the valuing of the self. The alteration of the attraction of/to the product has effectively changed the valuing of the self. I would even say, it has shifted its mechanism to a different layer

This sounds and seem like sabotage, and the socio-political consequences do much to sustain this suspicion. However, since we come from a tradition where the masses were indoctrinated by slave-morality (as discussed in the seeds section of this board) I suspect that the consequences of this alteration are not exclusively disempowering. In healthier physiologies, I think that it actually permits a new sort of power.

Anyway, before I go on to a full exegesis, here is the film. It is actually an hour long episode of four, which are all interesting and may all be discussed later on, but of which this is the most fascinating.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9167657690296627941