A bookplate shows Thanatos as a skeleton in a long black robe holding a scythe, and Eros as a nubile young bride. Thanatos and Eros embrace and kiss, as Thantos slides his skeletal hand up Eros thigh, lifting her long white gown and exposing her flesh. This image is used to illustrate a post about how a century ago, when consumer capitalism burst onto the scene, it employed Eros to sell products. That is, it presented consumer goods as objects of desire, or as items that could make the buyer desired. Now, a century later, consumer capitalism has been joined by another force: the attention economy, in which entities and influencers compete for our clicks and views. And in the attention economy, it is thanatos rather than eros that is employed. That is, negative emotions of fear and hate are mobilized, as we are shown stories that generate outrage in our hearts, and glue our eyes to our screens to observe perceived threats. The post discusses how we are better able to deal with being manipulated by the erotic call of advertisements, after a century of facing this tactic, but much less well-equipped to deal with the more novel manipulations of the thanatotic call to anxiety and disgust deployed on social media to rivet our attentions.
In the spirit of Halloween season, here's something truly spooky! Have a post talking about eros and thanatos in consumer capitalism and politics!
asociologicaleye.blogspot.com/2025/10/eros...
