How America is like King Lear:
In casting off so cruelly the fruits of his body, his daughter Cordelia, he discloses the fantasy of disembodiment which lies at the heart of the most grossly material of powers. Lear believes at this point that he is everything; but since an identity which is everything has nothing to measure itself against, it is merely a void. Similarly, a nation which becomes global in its sovereignty will soon have very little idea of who it is, if indeed it ever knew. It has eliminated the otherness which is essential for self-knowledge. Eagleton, After Theory (182)
Morris Berman hits a similar note in Dark Ages America:
It seems clear enough that when you put money (or commodities) at the center of a culture, you finally don’t have a culture. Indeed, the Germans have a word to describe this type of situation: sinnentleert (“devoid of meaning”). America can strut and puff all it wants, but on some level, all of us know this (it struts and puffs because it is empty). Berman, Dark Ages America (77)
The latter analogy is particularly interesting from the perspective of a designer: like it or not, the discipline of design is entangled with the capitalist ethos. An unspoken, if obvious, role of design is to make the emptiness of so much commercial activity seem meaningful. The red campaign – a scam if there ever was one – is a cogent example: you can tell yourself when you buy those jeans with the red tag that you’re doing something for the people of Africa – but you should know better. The void does not disappear simply because you avert your eyes.
