The Self-Propagated Voice and Image
In this increasingly globalized world, each person must learn to become his own advocate and his own product. With the recession, capitalism has come to define our identity with greater visibility than any other time in recent memory. As globalization has exposed markets to global competition in the wake of the free trade and general deregulation movement of the 1980s and 90s, wages have subsequently been driven downwards, employment is no longer guaranteed, and formerly qualified and educated individuals find themselves struggling to make ends meet in this contracted economy. The result, and Reader I would ask if you or anyone you know can relate to this, is that job hunters must sell not just their replaceable labor, but must sell themselves as a product in a market that would make Marx cringe. The commoditization of the individual seems to be the mark of a new era in the information age. Social networking, online job applications, online dating, expedi...