WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Welcome to the Read Multiplex podcast. Today 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:06.540 we are looking at, well, a really profound, almost 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:09.060 unsettling realization about the world around 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:10.480 you. Yeah, it's one of those things that once 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:12.980 you see it, you really can't unsee it. Exactly. 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:16.160 We are diving into part 18 of Brian Remmel's 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:19.960 sweeping, masterful series on readmultiplex .com. 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.940 It's titled, You Have 5 ,000 Days to the End 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:25.460 of Work as We Know It, The Hidden Sacristy Architect. 00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:28.899 Okay, let's unpack this. We really need to because 00:00:28.899 --> 00:00:31.800 the scope here is massive. Right. We are going 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:33.979 to explore a hidden architecture that dictates 00:00:33.979 --> 00:00:37.079 how you live. The core premise today is something 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:38.820 that affects you from the moment you wake up 00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:40.759 to the way you look in the mirror to the specific 00:00:40.759 --> 00:00:44.039 anxieties you feel when you walk down a grocery 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:46.780 store aisle. Those everyday moments. Yeah. That 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:48.700 fundamental consumer mindset we all walk around 00:00:48.700 --> 00:00:51.780 with, that persistent whisper that you need to 00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:54.320 buy something to feel whole or successful or 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:56.439 attractive. None of that was a natural human 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:58.460 evolution. It wasn't an accident of history. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.039 No, not at all. It was carefully, scientifically, 00:01:01.159 --> 00:01:05.540 and deliberately manufactured. Exactly. Manufactured. 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:09.319 And Brian's work provides a totally unique, frankly, 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:12.459 mind -bending way to understand our own insecurities. 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:15.599 We are going to unmask the architect of those 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:18.150 desires. What's fascinating here is how Brian 00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:20.909 Ramal acts as an investigative historian in this 00:01:20.909 --> 00:01:23.349 text. He's connecting these massive economic 00:01:23.349 --> 00:01:26.170 shifts from the 1920s and post -World War II 00:01:26.170 --> 00:01:30.980 America to a very hidden, almost... almost invisible 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:33.280 psychological blueprint he really pulls back 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:35.379 the curtain he does he takes us into the literal 00:01:35.379 --> 00:01:37.659 boardroom meetings where our modern insecurities 00:01:37.659 --> 00:01:40.459 were designed by hand but what makes this deep 00:01:40.459 --> 00:01:43.159 dive so crucial is the duality of the timeline 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:45.299 right because we aren't just staying in the past 00:01:45.299 --> 00:01:48.379 exactly brian takes this historical revelation 00:01:48.379 --> 00:01:50.900 and projects it forward into our immediate future 00:01:51.740 --> 00:01:54.200 Specifically, this impending age of abundance 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:56.359 that we are rapidly approaching over the next 00:01:56.359 --> 00:01:59.159 5 ,000 days. So it's a look back, but also look 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:01.840 forward. Yeah. On one hand, we are looking backward 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:04.480 at a grand psychological manipulation. On the 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:06.060 other, we're looking forward to a world where 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:08.560 artificial intelligence, robotics and limitless 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:11.340 energy are going to completely shatter that exact 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:14.379 manipulation. We are standing on the precipice 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:18.479 between a fabricated past and a deeply liberated 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:20.719 future. That's a great way to put it. I want 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:23.300 you, the listener, to do something for a second. 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:27.159 I want you to imagine your deepest, quietest 00:02:27.159 --> 00:02:30.169 insecurities. Think about that lingering guilt 00:02:30.169 --> 00:02:32.250 you might feel when you sit on the couch and 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:34.270 feel like you, I don't know, aren't working hard 00:02:34.270 --> 00:02:36.629 enough. Or the anxiety surrounding body image. 00:02:36.889 --> 00:02:39.310 Right. Or those sudden overwhelming urges for 00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:42.110 retail therapy when you are having a rough week. 00:02:42.330 --> 00:02:45.289 What if I told you that you didn't invent those 00:02:45.289 --> 00:02:47.629 feelings? That someone else put them there. Exactly. 00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:50.229 What if I told you that a man named Ernest Dichter 00:02:50.229 --> 00:02:53.330 literally designed those exact feelings in the 00:02:53.330 --> 00:02:57.180 mid -20th century specifically to sell... It 00:02:57.180 --> 00:03:00.180 sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it's just 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:02.780 documented history. It is. That is the journey 00:03:02.780 --> 00:03:06.319 we are taking today. But to truly grasp the magnitude 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:09.539 of this psychological heist, we have to set the 00:03:09.539 --> 00:03:11.580 stage. We need to go back to the actual birth 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:14.319 of the consumer. Because for most of human history, 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:16.840 that wasn't even a thing. Right. As Brian lays 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:20.000 out, that concept didn't even exist. Before World 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.379 War I, humans simply weren't viewed as consumers. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:25.860 We were producers or we were citizens. Buying 00:03:25.860 --> 00:03:28.280 things wasn't an identity. It's true. The shift 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:30.919 in identity from citizen to consumer is basically 00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:34.080 the foundational block of modern society. In 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.719 the 1920s, we saw the aggressive rise of what 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.560 became known as the new economic gospel of consumption. 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.539 The new economic gospel. Just the name alone 00:03:42.539 --> 00:03:44.539 tells you everything. Yeah, it became a religion. 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:47.060 After the First World War, America experienced 00:03:47.060 --> 00:03:50.740 this massive wave of industrial capacity. Factories 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:53.030 were incredibly efficient. But! And here's the 00:03:53.030 --> 00:03:55.210 catch. Efficiency creates a problem. Overproduction. 00:03:55.430 --> 00:03:58.009 Exactly. If you make a million shoes, you need 00:03:58.009 --> 00:04:00.750 people to buy a million shoes. So the messaging 00:04:00.750 --> 00:04:03.110 from business leaders had to fundamentally change. 00:04:03.550 --> 00:04:06.090 Buying goods was no longer just a simple transaction 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:08.629 for something you physically needed. It was suddenly 00:04:08.629 --> 00:04:11.789 promoted as a patriotic duty. It's crazy to think 00:04:11.789 --> 00:04:14.509 about buying a toaster as patriotic. But that's 00:04:14.509 --> 00:04:18.069 how it was framed. And crucially, the 1920s introduced 00:04:18.069 --> 00:04:20.930 the massive expansion of credit. Installment 00:04:20.930 --> 00:04:24.189 plans became available for cars, radios, household 00:04:24.189 --> 00:04:26.889 appliances. Suddenly you were encouraged to buy 00:04:26.889 --> 00:04:29.050 things you didn't have the cash for right that 00:04:29.050 --> 00:04:31.769 second. It's like we received a massive software 00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:34.410 update for society. A software update. We went 00:04:34.410 --> 00:04:37.410 from a save and build operating system where 00:04:37.410 --> 00:04:39.629 virtue was found in thrift and producing value 00:04:39.629 --> 00:04:42.649 to a spend and consume operating system where 00:04:42.649 --> 00:04:45.459 virtue was found. in acquiring new things. Advertising 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:47.800 experienced an absolute boom during this time. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:50.500 You even had consumer activism arising, ostensibly 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:53.319 educating people on spending wisely, but ultimately 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:55.279 just reinforcing the idea that their primary 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:57.720 role in the world was to spend. So by the end 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:00.639 of the 1920s, consumerism had shifted from an 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:03.980 elite novelty to a core aspect of American identity. 00:05:04.889 --> 00:05:06.569 Now, the Great Depression and World War II put 00:05:06.569 --> 00:05:09.370 a temporary, brutal halt to its momentum. But 00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:11.790 the psychological seeds had been planted. And 00:05:11.790 --> 00:05:14.110 the real explosion, as Brian highlights, happened 00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:17.589 in the late 1940s. The post -WWII explosion. 00:05:18.069 --> 00:05:20.189 You had all these wartime production factories 00:05:20.189 --> 00:05:22.949 that were churning out tanks and airplanes, suddenly 00:05:22.949 --> 00:05:24.930 transitioning to making consumer goods. They 00:05:24.930 --> 00:05:28.050 had to build something. Yeah. Between 1945 and 00:05:28.050 --> 00:05:31.750 1949, Americans were buying millions of refrigerators, 00:05:31.769 --> 00:05:35.250 cars, and stoves. The GI Bill. And the new highway 00:05:35.250 --> 00:05:38.050 systems fueled the explosive growth of the suburbs. 00:05:38.310 --> 00:05:41.129 It created this astronomical demand for homes 00:05:41.129 --> 00:05:43.550 and appliances. If we connect this to the bigger 00:05:43.550 --> 00:05:46.149 picture, we really have to look at the collective 00:05:46.149 --> 00:05:48.709 psychology of the populace at that exact moment. 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:51.209 You have an entire generation suffering from 00:05:51.209 --> 00:05:54.410 a collective, unspoken PTSD. They had just been 00:05:54.410 --> 00:05:56.910 through hell. Absolute hell. They survived the 00:05:56.910 --> 00:05:59.529 grinding poverty of the Great Depression, followed 00:05:59.529 --> 00:06:02.029 immediately by the horrors and the strict rationing 00:06:02.029 --> 00:06:05.029 of a global war. Then suddenly the war is over. 00:06:05.110 --> 00:06:07.629 The troops are home. Science and technology are 00:06:07.629 --> 00:06:09.790 rapidly advancing, lifting a massive amount of 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:11.129 people into the middle class. They were getting 00:06:11.129 --> 00:06:13.089 their very first taste of abundance. It must 00:06:13.089 --> 00:06:15.730 have felt miraculous. It did. But Brian makes 00:06:15.730 --> 00:06:18.230 a critical, vital distinction here in his text. 00:06:18.410 --> 00:06:21.050 This was a false abundance. Wait, let me push 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:23.579 back on that for a second. Why call it a false 00:06:23.579 --> 00:06:26.639 abundance? There was actual, tangible wealth 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:30.660 being created. People had houses, cars, indoor 00:06:30.660 --> 00:06:33.100 plumbing, food security that their parents never 00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:35.959 dreamed of. That sounds like real abundance to 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:39.040 me. The material goods were real, yes. The psychology 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.839 underpinning it was false. Okay, unpack that. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:44.019 True abundance would have leveraged that amazing 00:06:44.019 --> 00:06:47.000 technology to reduce human toil, granting people 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.660 more leisure time, more freedom, and less anxiety. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.370 Like Keynes predicted? The 15 hour work week. 00:06:52.490 --> 00:06:54.730 Exactly. But that's not what happened. Instead, 00:06:54.870 --> 00:06:56.910 the public was emotionally and psychologically 00:06:56.910 --> 00:07:00.569 manipulated to become relentless, anxious consumers. 00:07:00.970 --> 00:07:03.550 The technology didn't free them. It just shifted 00:07:03.550 --> 00:07:06.470 their labor into a new gear to afford an endlessly 00:07:06.470 --> 00:07:10.050 moving goalpost of consumer goods. Wow. So society 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:12.149 could have taken a deeply liberating path with 00:07:12.149 --> 00:07:14.689 that post -war wealth. Instead, it was hijacked. 00:07:14.769 --> 00:07:17.629 The tragedy is that the manipulation worked flawlessly. 00:07:17.850 --> 00:07:19.629 And before we pull back the curtain on the man 00:07:19.629 --> 00:07:22.319 who built that hijack. mechanism, we really need 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:25.040 to locate ourselves within Brian Rommel's overarching 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:28.180 narrative. Yes, context is key here. Remember, 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:31.680 this deep dive is exploring part 18 of a massive 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:34.980 multi -part series on readmultiplex .com. For 00:07:34.980 --> 00:07:36.720 you listening, whether you've been with us since 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:39.839 part one or are just jumping in now, these first 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:42.240 17 parts are critical because they arm us with 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:44.720 the vocabulary to understand the future. They 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:47.720 absolutely do. Brian structures this entire 5 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.579 ,000 -day series as a monomythic arc, the classic 00:07:50.579 --> 00:07:53.480 hero's journey. Parts one through four outline 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:56.259 the call to adventure. The wake -up call. Right. 00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.439 This is the initial startling realization of 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:01.600 artificial intelligence's massive disruption 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:05.019 of labor and the true dawn of abundance. It also 00:08:05.019 --> 00:08:07.019 covers the refusal of the call house society 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:09.600 naturally resists this terrifying change. Like 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.980 the player piano analogy Brian uses. Yes. The 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:13.899 disruption caused by the player piano in the 00:08:13.899 --> 00:08:16.040 early 20th century is a perfect frame for how 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:18.220 we instinctively react to automation. We fight 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:20.459 it. Right. And then in parts five through seven, 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:23.160 the hero, which is you, the listener, crosses 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:25.699 the threshold into what Brian calls the interregnum. 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:28.360 The interregnum is crucial to understand. It's 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:30.800 the chaotic, terrifying transition period we 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:33.340 are entering right now. It's the gap between 00:08:33.340 --> 00:08:36.179 the old economy dying and the new abundance economy 00:08:36.179 --> 00:08:38.539 being born. It's the messy middle. Very messy. 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:41.919 In these parts, Brian dives deeply into the pain 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:44.379 of de -skilling. When we talk about de -skilling, 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:46.740 think about the anxiety a highly trained graphic 00:08:46.740 --> 00:08:49.299 designer feels today watching an AI generate 00:08:49.299 --> 00:08:52.539 a complex logo in three seconds. It's gut -wrenching. 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:55.120 It is. That loss of a premium on your hard... 00:08:55.149 --> 00:08:58.509 skills leads to what brian describes as the dark 00:08:58.509 --> 00:09:01.129 night of the soul it's the profound realization 00:09:01.129 --> 00:09:04.250 that the old world the old ways of proving your 00:09:04.250 --> 00:09:07.350 worth are fading away forever but then moving 00:09:07.350 --> 00:09:10.309 into parts 8 through 14 the journey enters the 00:09:10.309 --> 00:09:12.830 ordeal this is about saving your wisdom it's 00:09:12.830 --> 00:09:15.210 the artisan's awakening finding your unique human 00:09:15.210 --> 00:09:17.769 value exactly It's the realization that you can 00:09:17.769 --> 00:09:20.070 actually reverse obsolescence. It's about how 00:09:20.070 --> 00:09:22.529 to seize the sword and navigate that chaotic 00:09:22.529 --> 00:09:25.590 interregnum. And most recently, in parts 15 through 00:09:25.590 --> 00:09:28.350 17, we started on the road back. Brian illuminated 00:09:28.350 --> 00:09:31.330 the IBM COBOL shock. We should briefly explain 00:09:31.330 --> 00:09:34.970 the COBOL shock for clarity. COBOL is a decades 00:09:34.970 --> 00:09:37.429 -old programming language that runs a massive 00:09:37.429 --> 00:09:40.009 percentage of the global financial system. But 00:09:40.009 --> 00:09:42.610 almost no one alive knows how to code in it anymore. 00:09:42.889 --> 00:09:45.690 It's just aging out. Right. So the shop is the 00:09:45.690 --> 00:09:48.789 sudden, desperate need to translate these ancient, 00:09:48.909 --> 00:09:52.610 crumbling legacy systems into modern code. And 00:09:52.610 --> 00:09:55.210 how AI has suddenly emerged as the bridge to 00:09:55.210 --> 00:09:58.090 do exactly that, practically overnight. It's 00:09:58.090 --> 00:10:01.149 a powerful metaphor for how rapidly AI can solve 00:10:01.149 --> 00:10:03.440 deeply entrenched structural problems. problems. 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:06.679 And Brian paired that with a profound warning 00:10:06.679 --> 00:10:09.779 about the universe 25 mouse utopia. Yes, the 00:10:09.779 --> 00:10:12.779 John B. Calhoun experiment from the 1960s. Calhoun 00:10:12.779 --> 00:10:15.940 built a literal physical utopia for mice. Endless 00:10:15.940 --> 00:10:18.559 food, water, perfect climate, no predators. Sounds 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:20.840 great, right? You'd think so. But he found that 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:22.840 without challenges, without a struggle for survival, 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:25.080 the mouse society collapsed. They lost their 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:27.360 purpose. They descended into behavioral sinks, 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:29.840 hyper -social isolation. The beautiful ones. 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:32.700 The so -called beautiful ones who only groomed 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:35.419 themselves and refused to interact. And eventually 00:10:35.419 --> 00:10:38.799 it led to catastrophic depopulation. Brian uses 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.500 Universe 25 to warn us about the dangerous pitfalls 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:44.559 of modern depopulation narratives. Because physical 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:47.519 abundance without human purpose is a trap. Exactly. 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:51.379 He emphasizes human agency. We are not passive 00:10:51.379 --> 00:10:54.200 victims of abundance. We must be the actor agents 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:56.940 who shape it. So those 17 installments were a 00:10:56.940 --> 00:10:59.279 rigorous training ground. They equipped you with 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:01.379 the armor needed for what comes next. And that 00:11:01.379 --> 00:11:03.580 brings us to the discovery in the shadows, meaning 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:05.740 the architect of desire. This is where it gets 00:11:05.740 --> 00:11:08.399 really cinematic. Brian's personal discovery 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:11.000 of this is a story in itself. Imagine a crisp 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:14.519 autumn day in the late 1980s. Brian is wandering 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:17.159 the quiet academic halls of the Hagley Museum 00:11:17.159 --> 00:11:19.659 and Library in Wilmington, Delaware. Just doing 00:11:19.659 --> 00:11:22.120 pure historical legwork. Right. He's chasing 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:24.419 whispers of corporate secrets, a rumor about 00:11:24.419 --> 00:11:27.059 a mid -century psychoanalyst who engineered the 00:11:27.059 --> 00:11:29.779 subconscious drivers of America. An archivist 00:11:29.779 --> 00:11:32.299 leads him down into these dim climate control 00:11:32.299 --> 00:11:35.000 vaults. The kind of place where history is actually 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.139 hiding. The air is thick with that distinct smell 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:42.779 of aged paper. And sitting there... are 126 unassuming 00:11:42.779 --> 00:11:45.519 cardboard boxes. There are no glowing artifacts, 00:11:45.980 --> 00:11:49.279 no gold -embossed covers, just plain boxes labeled 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:52.039 the Ernest Dichter Papers. Just sitting there 00:11:52.039 --> 00:11:54.019 in the dark. Brian describes pulling out the 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:56.580 first folder, expecting dry sales figures and 00:11:56.580 --> 00:11:59.679 market chairs. Instead, he uncovers yellowed 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:01.960 memos and transcribed interviews that outline 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:05.220 a terrifyingly systematic dissection of the human 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:08.590 psyche. So who is Ernest Dichter? Dichter was 00:12:08.590 --> 00:12:10.710 a Viennese refugee with a Ph .D. in psychology. 00:12:11.110 --> 00:12:13.889 He was deeply steeped in the psychoanalytic teachings 00:12:13.889 --> 00:12:16.629 of Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Stickle. The heavy 00:12:16.629 --> 00:12:19.029 hitters of the subconscious. Exactly. He fled 00:12:19.029 --> 00:12:21.409 Nazi Europe in the late 1930s and arrived in 00:12:21.409 --> 00:12:23.990 America. When he looked at the booming post -World 00:12:23.990 --> 00:12:26.710 War II American consumer market, he saw something 00:12:26.710 --> 00:12:28.850 fundamentally flawed in how corporations were 00:12:28.850 --> 00:12:30.610 trying to sell things. Because up until that 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:33.529 point, classical economics operated on a very 00:12:33.529 --> 00:12:36.679 simple, logical assumption. that people are rational 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:39.820 actors. Right. It assumed that if a company makes 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:42.659 a refrigerator that is cheaper, colder, and uses 00:12:42.659 --> 00:12:45.679 less electricity, a rational consumer will naturally 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:48.240 choose it over a worse one. And Dichter looked 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.200 at all these companies trying to sell products 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:53.080 based on logical utility, and he basically said, 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:55.700 you are completely wrong about human nature. 00:12:55.860 --> 00:12:58.720 He turned the whole model upside down. He hypothesized 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:01.480 that human buying habits weren't driven by logic 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:04.309 or utility at all. They were driven by the exact 00:13:04.309 --> 00:13:07.690 same dark, unconscious forces that drive human 00:13:07.690 --> 00:13:11.309 neurosis. He believed we buy things to satisfy 00:13:11.309 --> 00:13:14.889 the id. The Freudian id, the primitive, impulsive, 00:13:14.909 --> 00:13:17.470 chaotic part of the human psyche that is boiling 00:13:17.470 --> 00:13:20.830 over with suppressed sexual desires, hidden fears, 00:13:21.090 --> 00:13:24.289 aggressive impulses, and deep -seated anxieties. 00:13:24.529 --> 00:13:26.289 And it's important to note that Dichter wasn't 00:13:26.289 --> 00:13:28.879 working entirely in a vacuum. Brian notes his 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:30.919 deep connection to his friend Edward Bernays. 00:13:31.059 --> 00:13:33.299 Ah, yes. Brian refers to them as the two -headed 00:13:33.299 --> 00:13:35.740 snake. The two -headed snake of modern manipulation. 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:38.559 Exactly. Bernays is a legendary, almost mythical 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:40.919 figure in public relations. He was Freud's nephew, 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:43.419 actually. Keep it a family. Bernays is infamous 00:13:43.419 --> 00:13:46.639 for campaigns like convincing women in the 1920s 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:49.370 to smoke cigarettes in public. At the time, it 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:52.129 was a massive taboo. So how did he do it? Bernays 00:13:52.129 --> 00:13:54.629 hired women to march in the Easter Sunday parade 00:13:54.629 --> 00:13:57.570 smoking cigarettes, and he branded them freedom 00:13:57.570 --> 00:14:01.549 torches. He bypassed all logic about health or 00:14:01.549 --> 00:14:05.330 cost and tied a deadly addictive product directly 00:14:05.330 --> 00:14:08.690 to a deeply emotional psychological desire for 00:14:08.690 --> 00:14:11.690 emancipation and gender equality. It was a master 00:14:11.690 --> 00:14:14.190 class in psychological manipulation. It really 00:14:14.190 --> 00:14:16.370 was. And Ernest Dichter took this underlying 00:14:16.370 --> 00:14:19.090 philosophy and decided to apply it to absolutely 00:14:19.090 --> 00:14:21.649 everything in the American household. So in 1946, 00:14:21.970 --> 00:14:23.970 Dichter founds the Institute for Motivational 00:14:23.970 --> 00:14:26.279 Research. But here's the logistical problem. 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:28.899 If you want to tap into the id, you can't just 00:14:28.899 --> 00:14:30.860 hand out a multiple choice survey at the mall. 00:14:31.019 --> 00:14:33.200 No, people will lie. Right. If you ask people 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:35.100 on a piece of paper why they bought a car, they 00:14:35.100 --> 00:14:36.820 will give you a logical, rational answer. It 00:14:36.820 --> 00:14:39.379 gets good gas mileage. People don't tell the 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:42.559 truth on surveys, mostly because they don't consciously 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:44.799 know the truth themselves. They rationalize it 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:47.700 after the fact. So Dichter pioneers a completely 00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:51.460 new methodology. He ditches the surveys and creates 00:14:51.460 --> 00:14:54.110 what he called the depth interview. The depth 00:14:54.110 --> 00:14:56.330 interview is the turning point in modern capitalism. 00:14:56.590 --> 00:14:59.070 These were not quick questionnaires. These were 00:14:59.070 --> 00:15:02.610 grueling therapeutic psychoanalytic probing sessions. 00:15:02.750 --> 00:15:06.269 Like actual therapy. Yes. Dichter's interviewers 00:15:06.269 --> 00:15:08.590 would sit with everyday consumers for hours in 00:15:08.590 --> 00:15:11.190 living rooms or focus group facilities, acting 00:15:11.190 --> 00:15:14.289 essentially as therapists. They would ask subjects 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:16.889 to describe a product as if it were a living, 00:15:16.970 --> 00:15:19.629 breathing person. If this soap walked into a 00:15:19.629 --> 00:15:21.889 room, what kind of person would it be? Exactly. 00:15:21.990 --> 00:15:25.070 They would have subjects draw pictures or use 00:15:25.070 --> 00:15:27.029 free association to reveal their subconscious 00:15:27.029 --> 00:15:30.090 attachments. Brian notes that Dichter conducted 00:15:30.090 --> 00:15:33.049 over 2 ,300 of these massive studies for major 00:15:33.049 --> 00:15:36.210 corporations. He essentially turned the human 00:15:36.210 --> 00:15:39.169 mind, with all its fragile insecurities, into 00:15:39.169 --> 00:15:41.610 a hackable commodity. It represents a profound 00:15:41.610 --> 00:15:44.710 shift in power. Before this era, control over 00:15:44.710 --> 00:15:47.490 a populace was largely physical, economic, or 00:15:47.490 --> 00:15:50.350 overtly political. Dichter's methods marked a 00:15:50.350 --> 00:15:52.909 transition into subtle, invisible psychological 00:15:52.909 --> 00:15:56.149 programming. It's invisible control. Corporations 00:15:56.149 --> 00:15:58.330 were no longer just selling a product to meet 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:01.330 a pre -existing physical need. They were actively 00:16:01.330 --> 00:16:04.629 manufacturing a psychological deficiency, an 00:16:04.629 --> 00:16:07.529 anxiety or a guilt complex, and then seamlessly 00:16:07.529 --> 00:16:10.289 selling the product as the only cure. Create 00:16:10.289 --> 00:16:13.649 the disease, sell the cure. And nowhere is this 00:16:13.649 --> 00:16:16.710 more evident and frankly more devastating than 00:16:16.710 --> 00:16:19.549 in how these exact methods were weaponized against 00:16:19.549 --> 00:16:21.830 women. It was highly targeted. I really want 00:16:21.830 --> 00:16:23.919 to spend significant time here. We cannot gloss 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:26.399 over this because the case studies Brian Romo 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:30.059 pulls from those 126 boxes are the core evidence 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:32.220 of the manufactured mindset we're still living 00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:35.240 with today. Let's start with the 1951 study on 00:16:35.240 --> 00:16:37.620 synthetic laundry detergents. Products like Tide 00:16:37.620 --> 00:16:44.200 and... ...were absolute scientific miracles for 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:46.779 the time. Before them, doing laundry was back 00:16:46.779 --> 00:16:48.919 -breaking, multi -day physical labor. It was 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:51.759 exhausting work. Right. These synthetic detergents 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:53.940 cleaned faster, they were vastly more efficient, 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:56.500 and they saved hours of time. But when they hit 00:16:56.500 --> 00:16:59.019 the shelves, housewives violently resisted buying 00:16:59.019 --> 00:17:01.519 them. They stuck to their old, grueling methods. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:04.680 The rational economic model completely failed 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:08.140 to explain it. The product was undeniably, objectively 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:11.819 better. So, the soap companies hired Dictor. 00:17:12.089 --> 00:17:14.970 He brings women in for his depth interviews to 00:17:14.970 --> 00:17:17.329 find out why they are rejecting a miracle. What 00:17:17.329 --> 00:17:19.470 Dichter uncovered in those deeply probing interviews 00:17:19.470 --> 00:17:22.230 is unsettling. He found that for generations, 00:17:22.349 --> 00:17:24.769 a woman's entire self -worth in a traditional 00:17:24.769 --> 00:17:27.130 household was intrinsically, structurally tied 00:17:27.130 --> 00:17:29.309 to the physical exertion and the suffering of 00:17:29.309 --> 00:17:31.329 her domestic work. Her suffering was her value. 00:17:31.490 --> 00:17:34.390 Exactly. Her value to her husband, her family, 00:17:34.430 --> 00:17:37.049 and her community was measured by how hard she 00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:39.500 scrubbed the floors and the clothes. Therefore, 00:17:39.660 --> 00:17:42.299 a product that suddenly made the work easy didn't 00:17:42.299 --> 00:17:44.720 feel like a technological relief. It felt like 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:47.559 a moral failing. It felt like a sin. Yes. The 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:49.680 detergent subconsciously made these women feel 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:52.680 lazy, irrelevant, and inadequate as homemakers. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.579 They were experiencing a profound, culturally 00:17:55.579 --> 00:17:58.319 -induced epidemic of guilt simply for wanting 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:00.700 an easier life. Wait, let me just pause and play 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:03.519 devil's advocate for a second. Was Dichter actually 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:06.700 creating this insecurity or was he just acting 00:18:06.700 --> 00:18:09.640 as a mirror? Wasn't he just finding the guilt 00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:11.859 that society had already placed on these women 00:18:11.859 --> 00:18:14.579 and pointing it out to the brands? That is the 00:18:14.579 --> 00:18:17.380 exact defense the advertising industry has used 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:19.500 for decades. We just give people what they want. 00:18:19.740 --> 00:18:22.299 But Brian's deep dive reveals that it wasn't 00:18:22.299 --> 00:18:25.059 just mirroring. It was active weaponization. 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:27.980 He used it against them. Dichter didn't just 00:18:27.980 --> 00:18:30.440 find the insecurity and say, hey, maybe society 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:32.880 should value women more. He advised companies 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:35.059 to frame their products in a way that actively 00:18:35.059 --> 00:18:38.079 exploited and maintained that insecurity. Look 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:40.440 at his solution for the detergent. Right. What 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:42.420 did he tell them to do? He didn't tell the soap 00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:44.500 companies to lower the price. He told them to 00:18:44.500 --> 00:18:46.940 radically change the marketing. He advised them 00:18:46.940 --> 00:18:49.759 to market the synthetic detergent not as a chemical 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.960 utility, but as magic. Magic. And by framing 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:54.980 the product as something magical, something almost 00:18:54.980 --> 00:18:57.809 otherworldly. It granted the housewife moral 00:18:57.809 --> 00:19:01.269 permission to use it. It absolved her. It bypassed 00:19:01.269 --> 00:19:03.910 her guilt. It gave her an excuse to tell herself 00:19:03.910 --> 00:19:06.950 and her peers, I'm not being lazy. I'm using 00:19:06.950 --> 00:19:10.170 this incredible modern magic. Sales absolutely 00:19:10.170 --> 00:19:13.329 soared. The brands won. But the psychological 00:19:13.329 --> 00:19:16.609 cost to the consumer was massive. Huge cost. 00:19:16.869 --> 00:19:19.910 It embedded a woman's self -value directly into 00:19:19.910 --> 00:19:22.289 her consumption of a corporate product rather 00:19:22.289 --> 00:19:24.630 than her inherent capability as a human being. 00:19:24.940 --> 00:19:27.480 We see the exact same psychological mechanism 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:31.240 in the famous Betty Crocker cake mix story. Early 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:34.640 instant cake mixes were absolute marvels of mid 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:37.019 -century convenience. They were practically foolproof. 00:19:37.220 --> 00:19:39.940 The box contained dehydrated flour, sugar, baking 00:19:39.940 --> 00:19:41.619 powder, and powdered egg. You literally just 00:19:41.619 --> 00:19:43.779 added water, stirred, and baked. It was completely 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:45.819 foolproof, and it completely flopped on the market. 00:19:45.940 --> 00:19:48.160 Women refused to buy it. Again, logic fails. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:50.119 Why wouldn't you want to save an hour of baking? 00:19:50.650 --> 00:19:53.150 Dichter does his depth interviews. He discovers 00:19:53.150 --> 00:19:55.250 that baking a cake wasn't about making food. 00:19:55.450 --> 00:19:58.250 It was a profound subconscious symbol of nurturing 00:19:58.250 --> 00:20:00.970 and maternal care. It was an act of love. By 00:20:00.970 --> 00:20:03.789 making it require nothing of tap water, the instant 00:20:03.789 --> 00:20:07.170 mix made women feel like frauds. It robbed them 00:20:07.170 --> 00:20:09.869 of their creative, nurturing role in the family. 00:20:10.049 --> 00:20:12.630 It was too easy. Therefore, it lacked love. So 00:20:12.630 --> 00:20:15.109 Dichter comes up with a solution that is now 00:20:15.109 --> 00:20:18.059 legendary in the advertising world. He tells 00:20:18.059 --> 00:20:20.980 the manufacturer to remove the powdered egg from 00:20:20.980 --> 00:20:23.799 the mix. He tells them to force the housewife 00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.579 to add a fresh egg herself. Just one simple change. 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:29.140 But the psychology behind why the egg matters 00:20:29.140 --> 00:20:32.559 is wild. Brian's text reveals that Dichter found 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:34.680 the egg carried massive subconscious weight. 00:20:35.099 --> 00:20:38.079 To the Freudian mind, the egg symbolized fertility. 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:41.640 sexual activity, and subconsciously, the biological 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:44.380 act of giving birth to the cake. It sounds absurd 00:20:44.380 --> 00:20:46.400 to our modern ears, but the psychological barrier 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:48.819 was real. The powdered egg made the cake feel 00:20:48.819 --> 00:20:51.400 sterile and industrialized. Like a factory product. 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:53.900 By simply forcing the woman to crack a fresh 00:20:53.900 --> 00:20:56.279 egg into the bowl, it restored her visceral, 00:20:56.380 --> 00:20:58.579 biological sense of involvement. It restored 00:20:58.579 --> 00:21:01.079 her domestic self -worth. She wasn't just pouring 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:03.779 factory powder into a pan. She was engaging in 00:21:03.779 --> 00:21:06.359 the alchemy of creation. She was nurturing her 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:09.609 family. It is brilliant marketing, undeniably. 00:21:09.769 --> 00:21:12.730 But when you realize it is built on exploiting 00:21:12.730 --> 00:21:15.170 deep -seated cultural anxieties about maternal 00:21:15.170 --> 00:21:19.190 adequacy, it's chilling. Very chilling. And he 00:21:19.190 --> 00:21:21.069 didn't stop at cakes and soap. He went after 00:21:21.069 --> 00:21:24.029 the entire pantry. Brian found reports showing 00:21:24.029 --> 00:21:26.890 that Dichter actively gendered food itself. He 00:21:26.890 --> 00:21:29.049 gendered food. He advised companies to promote 00:21:29.049 --> 00:21:32.490 rice as feminine. It was soft, pliant, and nurturing. 00:21:33.369 --> 00:21:35.410 Potatoes, on the other hand, were masculine, 00:21:35.450 --> 00:21:38.670 hardy, strong, and substantial. Meat was marketed 00:21:38.670 --> 00:21:41.289 as the ultimate embodiment of male strength and 00:21:41.289 --> 00:21:44.289 dominance. Eggs and dairy were inherently tied 00:21:44.289 --> 00:21:46.809 to female fertility and maternity. This wasn't 00:21:46.859 --> 00:21:48.700 just about selling groceries. Think about the 00:21:48.700 --> 00:21:51.099 cultural impact. This was about forcing people 00:21:51.099 --> 00:21:54.759 to affirm rigid societal gender roles with literally 00:21:54.759 --> 00:21:57.180 every bite of food they took. Every single meal. 00:21:57.339 --> 00:21:59.079 It created an environment where a woman might 00:21:59.079 --> 00:22:01.200 feel subconscious pressure to choose the feminine 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:04.299 rice to reinforce her eye daddy or feel obligated 00:22:04.299 --> 00:22:07.000 to serve the masculine red meat to validate her 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:09.779 husband's masculinity. It turned the dinner table 00:22:09.779 --> 00:22:12.079 into a theater of manufactured gender anxiety. 00:22:12.380 --> 00:22:15.240 He hijacked the dinner table. And then he took 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:18.059 aim at body image. Let's look at the studies 00:22:18.059 --> 00:22:20.920 he did for really foundation garments, girdles 00:22:20.920 --> 00:22:23.900 and bras. Oh, boy. When Dichter probed women 00:22:23.900 --> 00:22:26.339 about these restrictive garments, he didn't find 00:22:26.339 --> 00:22:28.559 practical concerns about the durability of the 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:31.279 fabric or the fit. In those depth interviews, 00:22:31.579 --> 00:22:34.640 he uncovered deep, agonizing fears of inadequacy. 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.599 He found a desperate desire for control over 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:40.400 their aging bodies and deeply suppressed erotic 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:43.119 impulses. So Dichter advised the company to completely 00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:45.799 abandon marketing these undergarments as practical 00:22:45.799 --> 00:22:49.079 clothing. Instead, they were to be marketed as 00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:52.059 emotional talismans. Magic objects, essentially. 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:54.339 They were promised to be gateways to allure, 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:56.839 to empowerment, to confidence. He did the exact 00:22:56.839 --> 00:22:59.079 same thing with the All Pure Wool campaign. Right. 00:22:59.140 --> 00:23:01.880 Wool was generally seen as itchy, heavy, and 00:23:01.880 --> 00:23:04.720 tied to outdated grandmotherly tradition. People 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:07.460 in the 1950s wanted the new, modern, easy -care 00:23:07.460 --> 00:23:10.839 synthetic fabrics like nylon and polyester. Dichter's 00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:13.299 solution was to rebrand wool by tapping into 00:23:13.299 --> 00:23:16.500 the id. He advised marketing it as a highly sensual, 00:23:16.619 --> 00:23:19.519 deeply feminine, almost erotic indulgence. It's 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:21.339 all about how it makes you feel. He linked the 00:23:21.339 --> 00:23:24.779 act of buying and wearing wool to self -pampering, 00:23:24.920 --> 00:23:28.420 to proving your identity as a refined, sensually 00:23:28.420 --> 00:23:31.279 awakened woman. This raises an important question 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:33.420 for all of us today. When we look at the modern 00:23:33.420 --> 00:23:35.880 struggles we see everywhere, body positivity 00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:39.039 movements, rampant imposter syndrome, the endless 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:42.099 exhausting pursuit of external validation on 00:23:42.099 --> 00:23:45.339 social media, how much of that is a direct echo, 00:23:45.420 --> 00:23:48.960 a lingering ghost of these exact mid -century 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:51.059 advertising campaigns? It'll make you wonder. 00:23:51.390 --> 00:23:54.410 These campaigns literally laid the concrete foundation 00:23:54.410 --> 00:23:57.210 for the architecture of our modern insecurities. 00:23:57.410 --> 00:23:59.890 That is such a powerful question. It really makes 00:23:59.890 --> 00:24:01.950 you look at your own purchasing habits differently. 00:24:02.190 --> 00:24:04.529 Are you buying that expensive skincare cream 00:24:04.529 --> 00:24:07.470 because it works or because a 70 -year -old marketing 00:24:07.470 --> 00:24:09.849 playbook taught you to fear aging as a loss of 00:24:09.849 --> 00:24:11.970 your sensual validity? It's usually the latter. 00:24:12.170 --> 00:24:14.470 And Dichter didn't stop with adults. He went 00:24:14.470 --> 00:24:16.490 right into the nursery to plant these seeds early. 00:24:16.789 --> 00:24:19.210 Brian's text highlights Dichter's work for Mattel. 00:24:19.579 --> 00:24:21.700 specifically the redesign of the Barbie doll. 00:24:21.819 --> 00:24:24.279 This one is fascinating. Before Barbie, young 00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:26.740 girls almost exclusively played with baby dolls. 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:29.720 And the psychological purpose of a baby doll 00:24:29.720 --> 00:24:32.740 is quite obvious. It was designed to prepare 00:24:32.740 --> 00:24:35.799 a young girl for her inevitable culturally mandated 00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:39.220 role as a mother. It fostered nurturing instincts 00:24:39.220 --> 00:24:42.319 and domestic readiness. But when Dichter conducted 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:45.079 depth interviews with young girls, he uncovered 00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:47.839 something entirely different. He found suppressed 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:51.099 desires for independence, a yearning for adulthood, 00:24:51.259 --> 00:24:54.400 and a fascination with idealized glamour. So 00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:56.839 Barbie was designed to tap directly into those 00:24:56.839 --> 00:24:59.299 suppressed desires. With her adult form, her 00:24:59.299 --> 00:25:01.920 long legs, her careers, and her glamorous accessories, 00:25:02.380 --> 00:25:04.759 Barbie represented an escape from the domestic 00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:07.140 confines that the baby dolls represented. It 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:09.319 gave girls a taste of autonomy. It was a double 00:25:09.319 --> 00:25:11.059 -edged sword, right? A massive double -edged 00:25:11.059 --> 00:25:13.480 sword. While it tapped into a genuine desire 00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:17.410 for independence, embedded a highly specific, 00:25:17.690 --> 00:25:20.309 largely unattainable standard of beauty and adult 00:25:20.309 --> 00:25:22.809 glamour deep into the subconscious of generations 00:25:22.809 --> 00:25:26.089 of young women. It set a new trap. Exactly. It 00:25:26.089 --> 00:25:28.589 essentially replaced one set of domestic expectations 00:25:28.589 --> 00:25:31.170 with a brand new set of physical and consumer 00:25:31.170 --> 00:25:34.349 -driven expectations. To be independent, you 00:25:34.349 --> 00:25:37.049 must also be flawlessly beautiful and own endless 00:25:37.049 --> 00:25:39.849 accessories. Even in areas traditionally considered 00:25:39.849 --> 00:25:42.430 absolute male domains, like the auto industry. 00:25:43.170 --> 00:25:45.910 Dicker found a way to manipulate the female subconscious 00:25:45.910 --> 00:25:49.289 to drive sales. Brian found Dicker's studies 00:25:49.289 --> 00:25:51.869 for Chrysler and Plymouth. He knew who really 00:25:51.869 --> 00:25:54.650 made the decisions. Dicker realized that even 00:25:54.650 --> 00:25:56.670 if the man was the one signing the check at the 00:25:56.670 --> 00:25:59.450 dealership, the wife was very often the emotional 00:25:59.450 --> 00:26:02.309 gatekeeper of the purchase. If she wasn't on 00:26:02.309 --> 00:26:05.920 board, the sale died. So he categorized the cars 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:07.900 psychologically to play on marital dynamics. 00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:11.079 He framed convertibles as mistresses. They were 00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:13.759 exciting, impulsive, slightly dangerous, and 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:16.299 youthful. And the other cars? Sedans, however, 00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:19.619 were framed as wives. Reliable, secure, practical, 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:22.400 and heavily grounded. Think about the deeply 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:25.349 insidious nature of that framing. He was manipulating 00:26:25.349 --> 00:26:27.890 the deepest most vulnerable dynamics of a marriage 00:26:27.890 --> 00:26:30.190 to sell a hunk of steel. It's pretty ruthless. 00:26:30.470 --> 00:26:32.789 He positioned the wife as the emotional authority 00:26:32.789 --> 00:26:35.730 who had to navigate these bizarre psychological 00:26:35.730 --> 00:26:39.079 waters. A man buying a convertible wasn't just 00:26:39.079 --> 00:26:42.240 buying a fun car to drive on weekends. Subconsciously, 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:45.420 the marketing positioned it as him indulging 00:26:45.420 --> 00:26:47.680 an impulsive, potentially unfaithful desire. 00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:49.680 The marketing played right into that tension, 00:26:49.900 --> 00:26:52.099 forcing the wife to either embrace the mistress 00:26:52.099 --> 00:26:55.000 energy or demand the security of the wife's sedan. 00:26:55.339 --> 00:26:57.920 And finally, consider what he did with Ivory 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:01.529 Soap. Yes, Ivory Soap. Dichter transformed a 00:27:01.529 --> 00:27:04.269 simple, cheap bar of soap from a basic hygiene 00:27:04.269 --> 00:27:08.440 utility into a profound emotional ritual. He 00:27:08.440 --> 00:27:10.859 linked the act of bathing with ivory soap to 00:27:10.859 --> 00:27:13.519 a self -caress, an act of purification. It was 00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:16.099 framed as a Puritan -approved indulgence. It 00:27:16.099 --> 00:27:18.599 had the subtle private eroticism, but it was 00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:20.960 safely cloaked in the acceptable idea of purity 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:23.440 and cleanliness. Washing with ivory soap became 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:25.500 a way to physically and morally cleanse yourself, 00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:28.299 washing away whatever daily guilts or frustrations 00:27:28.299 --> 00:27:30.220 you had accumulated in your domestic duties. 00:27:30.500 --> 00:27:33.339 It elevated soap into a symbol of a woman's moral 00:27:33.339 --> 00:27:36.500 self -image. It is just incredible how deeply 00:27:36.500 --> 00:27:39.279 he wove these manipulative narratives into the 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:42.519 most mundane, everyday objects. But as shocking 00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:45.680 as all of this is, the cars, the cakes, the soap, 00:27:45.880 --> 00:27:48.819 Brian Rummel uncovers something in those Hagley 00:27:48.819 --> 00:27:51.480 vaults that takes this manipulation to a level 00:27:51.480 --> 00:27:53.839 that is almost hard to comprehend. We need to 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:56.039 talk about the soap opera psyop. We absolutely 00:27:56.039 --> 00:27:58.380 do. This is perhaps one of the most revealing 00:27:58.380 --> 00:28:01.140 and deeply disturbing elements of the entire 00:28:01.140 --> 00:28:03.930 deep dive. This is where the methodology moves 00:28:03.930 --> 00:28:06.250 from manipulating the purchase of a specific 00:28:06.250 --> 00:28:08.750 product to manipulating the actual emotional 00:28:08.750 --> 00:28:11.789 baseline of millions of women's daily lives. 00:28:11.930 --> 00:28:14.750 It's systemic manipulation. And Brian has a deeply 00:28:14.750 --> 00:28:16.950 personal connection to this piece of history, 00:28:17.089 --> 00:28:19.569 which makes it so much more visceral. In his 00:28:19.569 --> 00:28:21.809 text, he shares a jaw -dropping anecdote from 00:28:21.809 --> 00:28:24.470 his own father. Brian's dad worked in New York 00:28:24.470 --> 00:28:27.750 City in the 1960s and 70s, running the in -house 00:28:27.750 --> 00:28:30.470 cafeterias at CBS Studios. Right at the center 00:28:30.470 --> 00:28:33.190 of the broadcast world. Over the years, his dad 00:28:33.190 --> 00:28:35.329 told him a story about interacting with a specific 00:28:35.329 --> 00:28:38.170 group of psychologists who were heavily paid 00:28:38.170 --> 00:28:40.630 by the television networks to consult on the 00:28:40.630 --> 00:28:43.910 sets of daytime soap operas. One of those consulting 00:28:43.910 --> 00:28:47.369 psychologists was Ernest Dichter himself. Now, 00:28:47.369 --> 00:28:49.609 these psychologists weren't just offering casual, 00:28:49.730 --> 00:28:53.170 high -level advice about character arcs. Brian's 00:28:53.170 --> 00:28:55.250 father noted that they consulted on the scripts 00:28:55.250 --> 00:28:57.869 weeks in advance, and then they were physically 00:28:57.869 --> 00:29:01.130 present on set during filming to mandate fine 00:29:01.130 --> 00:29:04.109 touches. They were on set. Yes. They wanted to 00:29:04.109 --> 00:29:06.410 ensure the precise psychological effects they 00:29:06.410 --> 00:29:08.349 had designed were present in the lighting, the 00:29:08.349 --> 00:29:10.670 dialogue, and the pacing of every single scene. 00:29:10.809 --> 00:29:13.670 They had final authority over the emotional direction 00:29:13.670 --> 00:29:16.589 of the broadcast. That's incredible. The stated 00:29:16.589 --> 00:29:18.809 goal of these psychologists, as relayed directly 00:29:18.809 --> 00:29:21.430 to Brian's father, is truly chilling. Here's 00:29:21.430 --> 00:29:23.150 where it gets really interesting and honestly 00:29:23.150 --> 00:29:25.890 incredibly dark. When Brian asked his dad what 00:29:25.890 --> 00:29:28.210 their actual goal was, his dad told him it was 00:29:28.210 --> 00:29:31.190 to make women hate their lives and to have an 00:29:31.190 --> 00:29:33.430 empty pain that only products could fill. To 00:29:33.430 --> 00:29:36.769 crave a life that would be anything but their 00:29:36.769 --> 00:29:40.569 family and to encourage a need to get out, to 00:29:40.569 --> 00:29:43.450 ultimately promote infidelity. I want you to 00:29:43.450 --> 00:29:45.990 let that sink in for a moment. They were actively 00:29:45.990 --> 00:29:48.369 weaponizing television scripts to deliberately 00:29:48.369 --> 00:29:52.769 induce misery, inadequacy, and marital dissatisfaction 00:29:52.769 --> 00:29:55.230 in the women watching. And when Brian, shocked, 00:29:55.589 --> 00:29:58.470 asked his dad why a network would do such a horrible 00:29:58.470 --> 00:30:01.529 thing to its own audience, the answer was purely 00:30:01.529 --> 00:30:04.190 economic. Always follow the money. His dad said, 00:30:04.779 --> 00:30:07.319 This empty feeling would be filled with instant 00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:10.180 products to feel less guilt about the three hours 00:30:10.180 --> 00:30:12.980 the shows took out of their days. It is a perfectly 00:30:12.980 --> 00:30:15.319 engineered closed loop system of psychological 00:30:15.319 --> 00:30:17.680 abuse and financial extraction. They manufacture 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:20.180 the emotional pain. They manufacture the guilt 00:30:20.180 --> 00:30:22.440 of wasting three hours watching television instead 00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:25.160 of cleaning. And then seamlessly during the commercial 00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:27.700 breaks, they sell the very products, the instant 00:30:27.700 --> 00:30:30.000 cake mixes, the magical synthetic detergents, 00:30:30.019 --> 00:30:32.319 the purifying soaps that they themselves have 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:34.200 engineered to act as the psychological. cure 00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:36.920 for that exact pain. It is a stunningly cynical 00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:39.460 mechanism. They break the bone and then write 00:30:39.460 --> 00:30:42.279 you the cast. And Brian's research in those Hagley 00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:44.480 vaults completely backed up his father's story. 00:30:44.619 --> 00:30:48.160 He found Dichter's early 1940s CBS audience research 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:50.720 reports. Dichter found that the appeal of soap 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:52.940 operas wasn't just the dramatic, twisty plots. 00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:55.720 The core appeal was heavily rooted in featuring 00:30:55.720 --> 00:30:58.839 strong, authoritarian heroines who stepped in 00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:01.720 to resolve the messy, chaotic troubles of weaker 00:31:01.720 --> 00:31:03.880 characters. And Dichter Richter actually drew 00:31:03.880 --> 00:31:07.099 a historical parallel in his reports that terrified 00:31:07.099 --> 00:31:10.359 the executives at CBS. He compared the psychological 00:31:10.359 --> 00:31:13.940 dynamic of the strong soap opera heroine alleviating 00:31:13.940 --> 00:31:16.720 the burdens of weaker characters to Adolf Hitler 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:19.180 alleviating the burdens of his followers in Nazi 00:31:19.180 --> 00:31:22.440 Germany. Yes. Dicker, a man who fled the Nazis, 00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:25.140 explicitly noted this dynamic. He wrote that 00:31:25.140 --> 00:31:26.940 these television heroines provided emotional 00:31:26.940 --> 00:31:29.299 relief to female listeners of weak character, 00:31:29.539 --> 00:31:31.160 giving them a sense of lancarious empowerment 00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:33.609 and authoritarianism. and comfort. Ryan notes 00:31:33.609 --> 00:31:35.269 that Frank Stanton, the powerful director at 00:31:35.269 --> 00:31:37.569 CBS, was terrified this fascist comparison would 00:31:37.569 --> 00:31:39.349 leak to the press and offend their massive corporate 00:31:39.349 --> 00:31:42.220 sponsors. But despite the fear, they kept doing 00:31:42.220 --> 00:31:45.359 it. Because Dichter also framed the soap operas 00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:48.299 as a form of social therapy, which sounds positive 00:31:48.299 --> 00:31:50.579 until you hear the mechanics of it. Social therapy, 00:31:50.799 --> 00:31:54.079 right. He theorized that by dramatizing internal 00:31:54.079 --> 00:31:56.839 marital weaknesses on screen, things like poor 00:31:56.839 --> 00:31:59.299 communication, financial stress, or emotional 00:31:59.299 --> 00:32:02.359 distance, it allowed the real -life couples watching 00:32:02.359 --> 00:32:05.279 to subconsciously project their own issues onto 00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:08.279 the characters. A release valve. Yes. The viewers 00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:10.480 could vicariously work through their marital 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:12.480 problems through the screen without ever having 00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:14.579 to actually confront their own spouse or do the 00:32:14.579 --> 00:32:16.759 hard work of real communication. Which sounds 00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:18.960 helpful on the surface. Like, hey, we're saving 00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:21.859 marriages. But why did Dictor and the networks 00:32:21.859 --> 00:32:24.279 want to save the marriages? Right. What is the 00:32:24.279 --> 00:32:28.019 motive? The motive was entirely ruthlessly commercial. 00:32:28.660 --> 00:32:31.160 If the marriage breaks up, the household economy 00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:33.619 shatters. The purchasing power of that family 00:32:33.619 --> 00:32:36.420 unit is severely disrupted. A divorced woman 00:32:36.420 --> 00:32:40.240 in the 1950s buys fewer appliances, fewer cars, 00:32:40.259 --> 00:32:43.019 and fewer luxury goods. By using the soap opera 00:32:43.019 --> 00:32:45.740 to artificially stabilize the marriage, they 00:32:45.740 --> 00:32:48.119 ensured that the couple remained intact as a 00:32:48.119 --> 00:32:51.160 stable, predictable, and continuous consumer 00:32:51.160 --> 00:32:54.140 unit. The marriage was maintained not for love, 00:32:54.319 --> 00:32:57.460 not for human flourishing, but for economic efficiency. 00:32:58.079 --> 00:33:00.440 The women were kept perpetually dissatisfied 00:33:00.440 --> 00:33:02.700 enough to keep buying the cures during the commercial 00:33:02.700 --> 00:33:05.180 breaks, but pacified enough by the television 00:33:05.180 --> 00:33:07.319 heroines to keep the household functioning and 00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:10.299 the paychecks cashing. It is mind -blowing. It 00:33:10.299 --> 00:33:12.880 reframes the entire cultural history of the 20th 00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:14.779 century. Yeah. And it makes you realize that 00:33:14.779 --> 00:33:18.420 when you feel the sudden, hollow urge to buy 00:33:18.420 --> 00:33:21.119 something to cheer yourself up, you aren't acting 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:23.440 on a spontaneous desire. You're running a script 00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:26.380 that was written for you decades ago by men in 00:33:26.380 --> 00:33:28.740 boardrooms. But we can't just leave this in the 00:33:28.740 --> 00:33:31.680 1950s and 60s. No, we definitely can't. Brian 00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:34.019 makes it terrifyingly clear that the legacy of 00:33:34.019 --> 00:33:36.079 Ernest Dichter didn't die when those cardboard 00:33:36.079 --> 00:33:38.700 boxes were locked away in Delaware. It merely 00:33:38.700 --> 00:33:41.619 evolved. It moved from the wood -paneled boardrooms 00:33:41.619 --> 00:33:44.299 of Madison Avenue directly into the algorithms 00:33:44.299 --> 00:33:46.519 that govern our lives today. I want you to look 00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:48.450 at your phone. Think about your social media 00:33:48.450 --> 00:33:51.069 feeds. Think about TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. 00:33:51.670 --> 00:33:54.650 Brian Rommel points out that Dictor's mid -century 00:33:54.650 --> 00:33:59.009 tactics are the absolute undeniable DNA of today's 00:33:59.009 --> 00:34:01.309 digital world. That is a critical connection 00:34:01.309 --> 00:34:03.890 to make. Because what is a social media algorithm, 00:34:04.190 --> 00:34:07.170 really? It is a digitized, automated, continuously 00:34:07.170 --> 00:34:10.929 running depth interview. Wow. Just as Dictor 00:34:10.929 --> 00:34:13.510 sat down with housewives for hours to probe their 00:34:13.510 --> 00:34:16.389 deepest insecurities, today's algorithms track 00:34:16.389 --> 00:34:20.030 every micro hesitation. They track every millisecond 00:34:20.030 --> 00:34:22.309 you linger on an image of a fitness model or 00:34:22.309 --> 00:34:24.929 a luxury vacation. They track every scroll, every 00:34:24.929 --> 00:34:27.010 clicked link, every late night impulse search. 00:34:27.190 --> 00:34:30.170 They are mapping your id in real time. On a scale 00:34:30.170 --> 00:34:32.750 Dictor couldn't have comprehended. And just like 00:34:32.750 --> 00:34:35.389 Dictor, the tech companies use that map to serve 00:34:35.389 --> 00:34:38.130 you highly targeted content designed to systematically 00:34:38.130 --> 00:34:41.090 aggravate your specific insecurities and then 00:34:41.090 --> 00:34:43.230 immediately serve you an ad for a product or 00:34:43.230 --> 00:34:45.429 a service that promises to absolve that insecurity. 00:34:45.889 --> 00:34:48.690 The mechanism hasn't changed an inch. It has 00:34:48.690 --> 00:34:51.329 just become infinitely faster, infinitely more 00:34:51.329 --> 00:34:54.550 pervasive and completely invisible. We are swimming 00:34:54.550 --> 00:34:58.610 in a massive digital ocean of manufactured inadequacy. 00:34:59.210 --> 00:35:01.809 And Brian highlights just how powerful people 00:35:01.809 --> 00:35:04.309 recognized this methodology to be back in the 00:35:04.309 --> 00:35:07.510 day, long before algorithms existed. In the mid 00:35:07.510 --> 00:35:10.750 -1950s, during the absolute height of Cold War 00:35:10.750 --> 00:35:14.050 paranoia, the FBI actually opened a massive file 00:35:14.050 --> 00:35:16.409 on Ernest Dichter. The FBI got involved? Oh, 00:35:16.409 --> 00:35:18.889 yeah. Federal agents heavily scrutinized his 00:35:18.889 --> 00:35:21.429 Institute for Motivational Research. They were 00:35:21.429 --> 00:35:23.510 initially worried he had communist sympathies, 00:35:23.510 --> 00:35:26.510 but their deeper, more existential fear was that 00:35:26.510 --> 00:35:28.789 his mind hacking techniques could be weaponized 00:35:28.789 --> 00:35:30.829 by foreign adversaries. That makes total sense. 00:35:31.030 --> 00:35:33.329 The FBI realized that if someone could seamlessly 00:35:33.329 --> 00:35:36.190 rewire the desires, the fears and the anxieties 00:35:36.190 --> 00:35:38.210 of the American public through media and advertising, 00:35:38.510 --> 00:35:40.710 they could conquer the nation from the inside 00:35:40.710 --> 00:35:43.730 out without firing a single shot. The irony there 00:35:43.730 --> 00:35:46.309 is profound, and Brian captures it perfectly. 00:35:46.590 --> 00:35:49.750 After a thorough investigation, the FBI cleared 00:35:49.750 --> 00:35:52.389 Dichter. Because they concluded he wasn't a communist 00:35:52.389 --> 00:35:55.449 threat aiming to destroy America, rather, they 00:35:55.449 --> 00:35:58.610 deemed him the ultimate capitalist tool. The 00:35:58.610 --> 00:36:00.210 government recognized that his psychological 00:36:00.210 --> 00:36:02.869 engineering wasn't a threat to the economy. It 00:36:02.869 --> 00:36:05.909 was the very engine of the modern consumer economy. 00:36:06.190 --> 00:36:09.170 It proves the sheer, unadulterated power of his 00:36:09.170 --> 00:36:12.699 methods. He had successfully, legally, turned 00:36:12.699 --> 00:36:14.840 the American subconscious into a predictable, 00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:17.679 manageable, and highly profitable commodity. 00:36:18.099 --> 00:36:20.800 So what does this all mean for us today? We have 00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:23.079 spent all this time looking at this incredibly 00:36:23.079 --> 00:36:26.519 dark, manipulative history. It feels heavy. It 00:36:26.519 --> 00:36:28.460 feels like we are permanently trapped in this 00:36:28.460 --> 00:36:31.099 iron cage of manufactured desire. But this is 00:36:31.099 --> 00:36:33.760 the Read Multiplex podcast, and Brian Rommel 00:36:33.760 --> 00:36:35.960 is fundamentally charting a course for the future. 00:36:36.059 --> 00:36:38.239 The tone of his text takes a massive, profound 00:36:38.239 --> 00:36:40.860 shift right here. We move from the dark history 00:36:40.860 --> 00:36:42.840 of the archives to a breathtakingly optimistic, 00:36:43.260 --> 00:36:45.519 highly technical vision of what is coming next. 00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:47.739 And it is coming fast. Brian reminds us that 00:36:47.739 --> 00:36:49.659 we are approaching the age of abundance. The 00:36:49.659 --> 00:36:51.840 interregnum, that chaotic transition period we 00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:54.539 discussed earlier, spans from roughly 2025 to 00:36:54.539 --> 00:36:58.780 2039. He says we have 5 ,000 days. The interregnum 00:36:58.780 --> 00:37:00.900 is the bridge. And on the other side of that 00:37:00.900 --> 00:37:03.860 5 ,000 -day bridge is an era fundamentally unlike 00:37:03.860 --> 00:37:07.099 anything humanity has ever experienced. Brian 00:37:07.099 --> 00:37:09.539 defines this coming age of abundance by the imminent 00:37:09.539 --> 00:37:11.920 convergence of several exponential technologies. 00:37:12.420 --> 00:37:15.679 Artificial intelligence, fusion energy, advanced 00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:18.679 robotics, and biotechnology. We need to really 00:37:18.679 --> 00:37:20.679 break down the mechanics of this because it sounds 00:37:20.679 --> 00:37:22.659 like science fiction, but it is structural economics. 00:37:23.119 --> 00:37:25.139 Yes, it's very real. When these technologies 00:37:25.139 --> 00:37:28.690 fully mature and converge. The foundational economic 00:37:28.690 --> 00:37:31.789 reality of all human history, which is scarcity, 00:37:32.070 --> 00:37:35.989 is going to be nearly erased. The basic necessities 00:37:35.989 --> 00:37:39.170 of human life, food, housing, energy, medical 00:37:39.170 --> 00:37:41.869 care, and manufactured goods will become nearly 00:37:41.869 --> 00:37:44.889 freely available. They will become entirely untethered 00:37:44.889 --> 00:37:46.869 from human labor and traditional cost structures. 00:37:47.070 --> 00:37:48.809 Let's really flesh that out for the listener 00:37:48.809 --> 00:37:50.590 because it's hard to wrap your mind around. Think 00:37:50.590 --> 00:37:52.809 about the magnitude of that. We have existed 00:37:52.809 --> 00:37:55.150 for all of recorded human history in a state 00:37:55.150 --> 00:37:57.769 of scarcity. Everything costs money because everything 00:37:57.769 --> 00:38:00.889 requires human labor, which is finite. But imagine 00:38:00.889 --> 00:38:03.730 a supply chain in the near future. A robotic 00:38:03.730 --> 00:38:07.010 workforce guided by superintelligent AI mines 00:38:07.010 --> 00:38:10.570 the raw ore. AI -driven logistics networks transport 00:38:10.570 --> 00:38:13.449 it. Automated robotic foundries refine it into 00:38:13.449 --> 00:38:16.690 steel, AI architects design a house, and a swarm 00:38:16.690 --> 00:38:19.079 of construction robots build it. And the energy 00:38:19.079 --> 00:38:21.599 required to power every single step of this process 00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:24.780 comes from commercial nuclear fusion, which provides 00:38:24.780 --> 00:38:27.820 virtually limitless clean energy at a cost approaching 00:38:27.820 --> 00:38:30.699 zero. When you remove human labor and energy 00:38:30.699 --> 00:38:33.019 costs from the equation, the cost of creating 00:38:33.019 --> 00:38:34.840 a house or growing a tomato or manufacturing 00:38:34.840 --> 00:38:38.420 a car plummets towards zero. Exactly. It completely 00:38:38.420 --> 00:38:40.880 upends the economic model of the last 10 ,000 00:38:40.880 --> 00:38:43.280 years. So the ultimate question, Brian asks, 00:38:43.460 --> 00:38:47.179 the entire crux of this deep dive is this. What 00:38:47.179 --> 00:38:57.559 happens to... And the answer is magnificent. 00:38:57.980 --> 00:39:01.000 It shatters. Dichter's entire meticulously built 00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:03.219 cage collapses under the immense weight of true 00:39:03.219 --> 00:39:06.420 abundance. It has to collapse. His strategies 00:39:06.420 --> 00:39:09.039 make absolutely no sense in an abundant world. 00:39:09.550 --> 00:39:11.590 If you think about it, the only reason you need 00:39:11.590 --> 00:39:14.429 to buy a wildly expensive luxury handbag to prove 00:39:14.429 --> 00:39:17.369 your social status or buy a specific brand of 00:39:17.369 --> 00:39:20.050 marketed soap to prove your moral purity is because 00:39:20.050 --> 00:39:23.050 those items are scarce. They cost money, and 00:39:23.050 --> 00:39:25.869 money requires your labor, your time, and your 00:39:25.869 --> 00:39:29.130 sacrifice to earn. The purchase proves your sacrifice. 00:39:29.429 --> 00:39:32.070 But when goods are essentially free and infinitely 00:39:32.070 --> 00:39:34.949 available to everyone, they completely lose their 00:39:34.949 --> 00:39:37.849 power as status symbols or emotional talismans. 00:39:37.949 --> 00:39:40.570 You no longer need to buy things to prove your 00:39:40.570 --> 00:39:43.449 worth to society or to ease your anxiety about 00:39:43.449 --> 00:39:45.670 your place in the world because the act of acquisition 00:39:45.670 --> 00:39:48.559 no longer signifies anything. Bryan highlights 00:39:48.559 --> 00:39:51.300 the profound, deeply liberating shift this will 00:39:51.300 --> 00:39:53.800 create, especially for women, who were the primary 00:39:53.800 --> 00:39:56.179 targeted victims of Dichter's gendered psyops 00:39:56.179 --> 00:39:58.920 for decades. In the Age of Abundance, women will 00:39:58.920 --> 00:40:01.719 finally, permanently shed this heavy, guilt -ridden 00:40:01.719 --> 00:40:04.260 consumer identity that was forced upon them in 00:40:04.260 --> 00:40:06.750 the mid -20th century. When the societal pressure 00:40:06.750 --> 00:40:09.489 to find fulfillment in domestic purchases or 00:40:09.489 --> 00:40:12.429 unattainable marketed beauty standards dissolves, 00:40:12.429 --> 00:40:14.849 because the economic engine that required that 00:40:14.849 --> 00:40:17.389 pressure no longer exists, women will be free 00:40:17.389 --> 00:40:20.110 to become pure creators, explorers, innovators, 00:40:20.170 --> 00:40:23.760 and healers. We are going to see a complete societal 00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:27.059 redefinition of the id for the past century corporations 00:40:27.059 --> 00:40:30.300 have commodified our primal drives they took 00:40:30.300 --> 00:40:33.659 our deep human need for love for security for 00:40:33.659 --> 00:40:36.280 community and for identity and they packaged 00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:38.980 it up and sold it back to us as cars clothes 00:40:38.980 --> 00:40:41.840 and cake mix but in the age of abundance our 00:40:41.840 --> 00:40:44.099 primal drives will no longer be profitable for 00:40:44.099 --> 00:40:46.420 corporations to manipulate we won't need them 00:40:46.420 --> 00:40:48.960 we will seek true fulfillment not in the aisles 00:40:48.960 --> 00:40:50.780 of a store or the click of a digital shopping 00:40:50.780 --> 00:40:54.019 cart but in intrinsic profoundly human pursuits. 00:40:54.099 --> 00:40:56.820 We will reinvest all that wasted emotional energy 00:40:56.820 --> 00:40:59.480 into our actual families, our deep relationships, 00:40:59.739 --> 00:41:02.260 our local communities, our art, and our own personal 00:41:02.260 --> 00:41:05.300 spiritual growth. The id will finally be liberated 00:41:05.300 --> 00:41:08.119 from the marketplace. It is the grand unveiling. 00:41:08.679 --> 00:41:11.099 Brian's synthesis of the hero's journey brings 00:41:11.099 --> 00:41:14.619 us to this incredible, triumphant climax. The 00:41:14.619 --> 00:41:17.659 discovery of those 126 boxes at the Hagley Museum 00:41:17.659 --> 00:41:20.539 isn't just a grim, depressing warning about our 00:41:20.539 --> 00:41:23.760 past. It is a literal, tangible roadmap to our 00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:26.519 freedom. Brian writes beautifully that history 00:41:26.519 --> 00:41:28.840 is an active crime scene. We've been walking 00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:31.099 through this deep dive investigating the exact 00:41:31.099 --> 00:41:33.480 crime of how our self -worth was stolen from 00:41:33.480 --> 00:41:36.539 us. But as we step bravely into this coming abundance 00:41:36.539 --> 00:41:39.519 over the next 5 ,000 days, we are the detectives 00:41:39.519 --> 00:41:41.679 unredacting our true selves. We are looking at 00:41:41.679 --> 00:41:43.559 the evidence left by Dichter and the advertisers 00:41:43.559 --> 00:41:46.179 and saying, I see exactly what you did to me, 00:41:46.260 --> 00:41:47.940 I see how you built the maze, and it doesn't 00:41:47.940 --> 00:41:50.199 work on me anymore. It is the epic crescendo 00:41:50.199 --> 00:41:52.929 of Brian's text. The illusion of the false abundance 00:41:52.929 --> 00:41:55.510 era, the era of sprawling shopping malls, credit 00:41:55.510 --> 00:41:58.070 card debt, and targeted algorithm ads, is rapidly 00:41:58.070 --> 00:42:00.329 falling apart. The compulsion to accumulate, 00:42:00.610 --> 00:42:02.670 to hoard physical things in a desperate attempt 00:42:02.670 --> 00:42:05.570 to fill a manufactured psychological void, is 00:42:05.570 --> 00:42:08.559 dissolving. We're stepping into a new era, not 00:42:08.559 --> 00:42:11.539 as desperate, anxious consumers trying to devour 00:42:11.539 --> 00:42:14.760 the world to feel whole, but as empowered, awakened 00:42:14.760 --> 00:42:17.360 creators ready to shape it. We are reclaiming 00:42:17.360 --> 00:42:19.519 our sovereignty. We are finally untethering our 00:42:19.519 --> 00:42:21.300 self -worth from the puppeteers of the past. 00:42:21.579 --> 00:42:24.119 This has been an absolutely phenomenal paradigm 00:42:24.119 --> 00:42:26.219 -shifting exploration of Brian Rommel's work. 00:42:26.519 --> 00:42:28.719 It changes the way you view history, the way 00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:30.599 you view your phone, and the way you view your 00:42:30.599 --> 00:42:33.159 own mind. But before we go, I want to leave you 00:42:33.159 --> 00:42:35.840 with a final provocative thought. something to 00:42:35.840 --> 00:42:37.539 chew on as you go about the rest of your day. 00:42:38.260 --> 00:42:41.179 Tomorrow, or perhaps even later today, you're 00:42:41.179 --> 00:42:43.159 going to be scrolling on your phone, or you're 00:42:43.159 --> 00:42:45.119 going to be walking past a brightly lit store 00:42:45.119 --> 00:42:48.019 window, and you're going to feel a sudden, inexplicable, 00:42:48.039 --> 00:42:51.019 powerful urge to buy something. You will feel 00:42:51.019 --> 00:42:52.559 a whisper in your mind telling you that this 00:42:52.559 --> 00:42:54.480 specific object will make you feel complete, 00:42:54.599 --> 00:42:57.980 or successful, or secure. When that happens, 00:42:58.119 --> 00:43:00.679 I want you to pause. Stop writing your tracks. 00:43:00.820 --> 00:43:04.019 Take a breath and ask yourself. Is this my genuine 00:43:04.019 --> 00:43:08.099 human desire? Or is it the ghost of a 1950s psychoanalyst 00:43:08.099 --> 00:43:10.280 named Ernest Dichter whispering in my ear from 00:43:10.280 --> 00:43:13.000 beyond the grave? As we move rapidly into this 00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:15.420 incredible age of abundance, the most rebellious, 00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:17.380 powerful, and revolutionary thing you can possibly 00:43:17.380 --> 00:43:20.519 do is realize you are already enough. Thank you 00:43:20.519 --> 00:43:22.059 so much for joining us on the Read Multiplex 00:43:22.059 --> 00:43:24.360 podcast. We cannot wait to have you with us for 00:43:24.360 --> 00:43:25.800 our next deep dive into the future.