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36 | GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com Over the years as advances in industry and technology increased productivity, we did not slow our pursuit — quite the opposite. We work more, sleep less, and have far more than ever. However, in a world defined by consumption, the price tag on happy continues to climb, thereby accelerating the treadmill of our pursuit. Modern America didn't just happen by accident. Politicians and corporations have been rebranding happiness since the 1920s. ey feared Americans might stop buying the new goods they were so efficiently producing, and thus began the manipula- tion of our cultural idea of happiness into the Gospel of Consumerism. Corporations spend billions of dollars every year to convince us that more stuff will make us more desirable, successful and happy, while politicians preach that economic growth is the key to all that is good. Ironically, neither is true, and our insatiable pursuit of this celluloid happiness has us running in the opposite direction from the real things that truly bring joy to our lives. Scientific researchers and spiritual leaders agree that the cornerstones of sustainable happiness do not come as a "buy one, get one free" special, nor can they be predicted by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We need loving relationships, safe and healthy communities, opportunities for meaning- ful work, and simple practices such as gratitude, helping others and meditation. e possessions we covet, and sacrifice to obtain, only bring us momentary joy. Eventually, all new things become old. Regardless how big our house or pricey our car, at some point, far sooner than anyone expects, they become just a house and a car. If we peg our happiness to such trinkets, we will never have enough satisfaction to fill us up for long. After all, when is enough, enough? The Origins of America- Style Happiness Consumption was not always the way of life in America. In the 1920s, business own- ers and politicians worried that we would stop buying new things once we satisfied our needs. ey attributed the phenomenal rise of America to the growth in consumer goods. If people began to enjoy their daily lives more — thanks to all the new conveniences — they would spend less time buying new things, they feared. To solve the dilemma, Freudian psychologists partnered with advertising executives to develop a strategy to attach our universal desires for status, beauty, love and self-esteem to products. President Hoover's economic report, published just months before the 1929 crash, rejoiced in this phenomenon: "By advertis- ing and other promotional devices . . . a measurable pull on production has been created which releases capital otherwise tied up. Economically we have a boundless field before us; that there are new wants which will make way endlessly for newer wants, as fast as they are satis- fied." Between the 1930s and 1960s, Freudian psychologist Ernest Dichter became famous for his part in the transformation of businesses such as Procter & Gamble, Exxon, Chrysler, General Mills and DuPont. Fleeing Europe in 1931, Dichter recognized that in America, brands had become a substitute for nobility and family pedigree. He noticed that people would seek out products to fit in with a group they aspired to associate with, and that products could have meaning relating to sexual desire, affluence and self-esteem. His theories radically changed the way products from cars to candy were sold in America. He developed new research techniques, including focus groups, and identified the power of word-of-mouth per- suasion. Recognizing the need to counter the negative overtones associated with buy- ing such self-indulgent products as tobacco, alcohol or candy, he encouraged marketers to sell the products as "rewards." Armed with Freudian psychology, airtime to fill, and endless products to sell, the modern advertising industry systematically set out to redefine our beliefs about happi- ness and how we could obtain a new shiny version every season. As Dichter said, "To some extent, the needs and wants of people have to be continuously stirred up." It's not good enough that everyone buys a car. e automakers need to sell new cars every year; they need a perpetual purchase cycle. Dichter attributed his success to the impor- tance of understanding "not how people should behave, but, how they do behave." In his 1960 book, e Strategy of Desire, he observes, "You would be amazed to find how often we mislead ourselves, regardless of how smart we think we are, when we attempt to explain why we are behaving the way we do." Our possessions are extensions of our own personalities, which serve as a "kind of mirror which reflects our own image." Fast forward fifty-plus years and even Dich- ter might be surprised to find the imitations Did you ever think of chewing gum and sugar as beauty secrets? From a 1934 Wrigley's advertisement, the company touted. "The chewing helps keep facial muscles supple and young and chin line youthful." In the 1970s, eating sugar was actually suggested as a diet strategy.

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