But back to the end of the promise of prosperity. The end of the great social progress (and with it the post-war promise of general prosperity) was ushered in by the onset of deindustrialisation - especially in Germany and France. The production of domestic industries reached its limit. The production of mass-produced goods regularly exceeded demand. One remained seated on the production, yields sank. Short-time work.
In addition,
workers were becoming more and more
organised and demanding higher wages.
But the fight for salary has also become
a fight for the job. Not only employees
are in precarious situations, there is
also a lot of pressure on employers.
To compensate for the loss of
profits, factories were relocated to
countries where wages were low and
workers were hardly organised.
Deindustrialisation.
Shortage of
raw materials and overproduction on the
one hand, on the other hand sets
advertising and marketing new
strategies.
The idea
that mass consumption could level
the classic social hierarchies of
society was lost. For it was
precisely with consumer goods that
one could explicitly communicate
one's social status.
And that
is what the advertising strategists
were after: The campaigns were aimed
at the distinctive needs of ever
smaller target groups. The modern
consumer society was born.
Nothing criticised the intellectual
class of the time more harshly than
consumption. The list of the 68
generation's favourite vocabulary
included "consumer idiot" and
"consumer terror"...
So what
gave guidance in this turmoil of
events?
It was a time of
upheaval. It was the time of street
fights, squats, the environmental
movement and citizens' initiatives.
It was a time for the question of
one's own future.
So the romantic image of heroes who stand in the way of the storm without fear (and seemingly for no apparent reason) is timely. Braving the storm - maybe just out of the attitude that is what only a hero can (and must) do.
So the romantic image of heroes who
stand in the way of the storm
without fear (and seemingly for no
apparent reason) is timely. Braving
the storm - maybe just out of the
attitude that is what only a hero
can (and must) do.
This view
of one's own inner attitude is also
reflected in literature. The 1970s
brought forth a new literary trend
in Germany: the "New Subjectivity".
This term is used for the
literary preoccupation with one's
own self. It is about the subjective
perceptions and feelings of the
protagonists.
But it was
precisely this that critics rejected
as self-centred and narcissistic.
In fact, the New Subjectivity
was a reaction to politically
motivated literature and
political activism.
The
text of The Doors itself is a
collection of sentence fragments
and protagonists: a murderer on
the street, a girl who is
supposed to love her husband and
on whom everything depends, and
then again and again these
riders in the storm...