In the spirit of not violating Grice's principles of relevancy, I wanted to start a new thread on this subject.
The point I was making in the SPAM thread is that people involved in Network Marketing (using a prior version of myself as an example) can be suffering from social dysfunction and possible mood disorders, and should not be dismissed as "not nice", "creepy" or what have you.
The event that turned me from Network Marketing had to do with the discovery that I had OCD and suppressed depression. That is, I was depressed, but because of my involvement in Network Marketing, I was always pretending to be happy. The depression was probably caused, in part, to my efforts to suppress negative emotions and "act as if," to affirm my eventual success despite my apparent failure, and so forth.
As far as consumerism goes, I'd say it's basically a compulsive behavior that produces an artificial mood-altered state. But I feel that is as wrong in Wal-mart and SUVs as it is in Network Marketing. Wrong for me, anyway. There is something about buying a buttload of Chinese made goods or filling your 11 mpg tank that is similar in a fundamental way to eating a box of twinkies. It is dissociation of cause and effect, which is going to leave a mark on the psyche- small but cumulative.
I did also evaluate my religious and spiritual lifestyles through this event. Things changed and ultimately got better.
P.S. I guess I would say that Network Marketing and Mood Disorders are a bad combination. I can't really put a causal link between the two in either direction.
[ October 16, 2007, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: pooka ]
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I would say that obsessive behavior and/or manipulative behavior of any kind badly aggravates any existing disorders.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
But the question is whether Network Marketing is necessarily obsessive and/or manipulative, more than other aspects of American Consumerism.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
It never even occurred to me that this could be a question. Of course it is. What is Network Marketing but the obsessive and manipulative elements of American consumerism?
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
But Network Marketing aspires to achieve, through a force of distributors, what major consumer cults like Disney, Coca-Cola, and Wal-mart possess. What is it when something is so inculcated, it transcends obsession?
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Disney, Coca-Cola, and Wal-mart did not use network marketing to achieve success. This suggests there is something different about network marketing.
Posted by Phanto (Member # 5897) on :
Network marketing is exploiting natural social cycles for commercial benefit. It tends to a high level of manipulation by its nature.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Perhaps. I'm just trying to figure out how to say "no" next time it comes up without getting too personal or ugly.
I don't think Disney, Coca Cola, and Wal-mart are admirable simply because they didn't use Network marketing. Can it be denied that these brands claim to have a relationship of some kind to Americans?
Posted by Javert Hugo (Member # 3980) on :
"No, thank you."
It's not hard.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
I think it is admirable that they didn't use network marketing. I don't think it makes them admirable any more (or any less) than I think it makes someone admirable to refrain from theft.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I refrain from theft frequently.
And it may be that I haven't been approached by anyone in the last few years because I don't have whatever mark it was that caused me to be approached regularly before that. Plus I moved out of Utah.
Posted by MattP (Member # 10495) on :
quote:Plus I moved out of Utah.
That helps. A lot.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:I'm just trying to figure out how to say "no" next time it comes up without getting too personal or ugly.
The mere fact that you need to do this demonstrates that network marketing is different.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)