Bacteria

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Review Of Related Literature

A.Bacteria

IINTRODUCTION Help with essay on BacteriaBacteria (Greek bakterion, "little staff"), large group of mostly microscopic, unicellular organisms that lack a distinct nucleus and that usually reproduce by cell division.

Bacteria are tiny, most ranging from 1 to 10 micrometres (1 micrometre equals 1/5,000 in), and are extremely variable in the ways they obtain energy and nourishment. They can be found in nearly all environments from air, soil, water, and ice to hot springs; even the hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor are the home of sulphur-metabolizing bacteria. Certain types are found in nearly all food products, and bacteria also occur in various forms of symbiosis with most plants and animals and other kinds of life.

IICLASSIFICATION

In the currently used five-kingdom scheme of classification, bacteria constitute the kingdom Monera, also known as Prokaryotae organisms in whose cells the nucleus is not enclosed by a membrane. About 1,600 species are known. Generally, bacteria are classified into species on the basis of characteristics such as shape cocci (spheres), bacilli (rods), spirochaetes (spirals); cell-wall structure; differential staining (see Grams Stain); ability to grow in the presence or absence of air (aerobes and anaerobes, respectively); metabolic or fermentative capabilities; ability to form dormant spores under adverse conditions; serologic (serum) identification of surface components; and nucleic-acid relatedness.

The most widely used reference for taxonomic classification of bacteria divides them into four major groups based on cell-wall characteristics. The division Gracilicutes encompasses bacteria with thin, gram-negative-type cell walls; the Firmicutes have thick, gram-positive cell walls; the Tenericutes lack cell walls; and the Mendosicutes have unusual cell walls made of material other than typical bacterial peptidoglycan. Among the Mendosicutes are the archaebacteria, a group of unusual organisms that includes methanogens, strict anaerobes that produce methane from carbon dioxide and hydrogen; halobacteria, which grow at high salt concentrations; and thermoacidophiles, which are sulphur-dependent extreme thermophiles. It has been argued that the archaebacteria should be classified into a separate kingdom because recent biochemical studies have shown that they are as different from other bacteria as they are from eukaryotes (the nucleii of which are membrane-bound). The four major bacterial divisions are further subdivided into about 0 numbered sections, some of which are divided into orders, families, and genera. Section 1, for example, is made up of spirochaetes long, corkscrew-shaped bacteria with gram-negative cell walls and internal (between the cell wall and cell membrane) filamentous flagella that provide the organisms with motility (ability to move). Treponema pallidum, causing syphilis, is a spirochaete, a member of the order Spirochaetales, and the family Spirochaetaceae.

Not all bacteria can move, but the mobile ones are generally propelled by screw-like appendages flagella that may project from all over the cell or from one or both ends, singly or in tufts. Depending on the direction in which the flagella rotate, the bacteria either move forward or tumble in place. The duration of runs versus tumbling is linked to receptors in the bacterial membrane; variations enable the bacteria to move towards attractants such as food sources and away from unfavourable environmental conditions. In some aquatic bacteria that contain iron-rich particles, locomotion has been found to be oriented to the Earths magnetic field.

IIIGENETICS

The genetic material of the bacterial cell is in the form of a circular double strand of DNA (see Nucleic Acids). Many bacteria also carry smaller circular DNAs called plasmids, which encode genetic information but are generally not essential for reproduction. Many of these plasmids can be transferred to other bacteria by conjugation, a mechanism of genetic exchange. Other mechanisms whereby bacteria can exchange genetic information include transduction, in which bacterial viruses (see Bacteriophage) transfer DNA, and transformation, in which DNA is taken into the bacterial cell directly from the environment. Bacterial cells multiply by binary fission; the genetic material is duplicated and the bacterium elongates, constricts near the middle, and then undergoes complete division, forming two daughter cells essentially identical to the parent cell. Thus, as with higher organisms, a given species of bacteria reproduces only cells of the same species. Some bacteria divide every 0 to 40 minutes. Under favourable conditions, with one division every 0 minutes, after 15 hours a single cell will have produced roughly 1 billion progeny. This mass, called a colony, may be seen with the naked eye. Under adverse conditions some bacteria may undergo a modified division process to produce spores, dormant forms of the cell that can withstand extremes of temperature and humidity until more favourable conditions return.

IVWORK OF BACTERIA

Two main groups of bacteria exist the saprophytes, which live on dead animal and vegetable matter; and the symbionts, which live on or in living animal or vegetable matter. Saprophytes are important because they decompose dead animals and plants into their constituent elements, making them available as food for plants. Symbiotic bacteria are a normal part of many human tissues, including the alimentary canal and the skin, where they may be indispensable to physiological processes. Such a relationship is called mutualistic. Other symbionts gain nutrients from their living host without causing serious damage; this is commensalism. The third type, parasites, can destroy the plants and animals on which they live.

Bacteria are involved in the spoilage of meat, wine, vegetables, and milk and other dairy products. Bacterial action may render such foods unpalatable by changing their composition. Bacterial growth in foods can also lead to food poisoning such as that caused by Staphylococcus aureus or by Clostridium botulinum (see Botulism). On the other hand, bacteria are of great importance in many industries. The fermentative capabilities of various species are manipulated for the production of cheese, yoghurt, pickles, and sauerkraut. Bacteria are also important in the production of tanned leather, tobacco, ensilage, textiles, pharmaceuticals and various enzymes, polysaccharides, and detergents.

Bacteria are found in virtually all environments, where they contribute to various biological processes. For example, they may produce light, such as the phosphorescence of dead fish (see Bioluminescence); and they may produce enough heat to induce spontaneous combustion in haystacks or in hop granaries. By decomposing cellulose (the main constituent of plant cell walls), certain anaerobic forms produce marsh gas in stagnant pools; by oxidizing processes, other bacteria assist in forming deposits of bog iron ore, ochre, and manganese ore.

Bacteria have an immense influence on the nature and composition of the soil. One result of their activities is the complete disintegration of organic remains of plants and animals and of inorganic rock particles. This action produces in the aggregate vast quantities of plant food. In addition, the leguminous plants that enrich soil by increasing its nitrogen content do so with the help of Rhizobium radicicola and other bacteria that infect the roots of the plants and cause nitrogen-fixing nodules to grow (see Nitrogen Fixation).The photosynthetic process on which plant life itself is based was almost certainly first established in bacteria; the recent discovery of an unusual photosynthesizing bacterium called Heliobacterium chlorum may help in understanding this fundamental development in the history of life.

VPATHOGENIC BACTERIA

About 00 species of bacteria are pathogenic, or disease-causing, for humans. Pathogenicity varies widely among various species and is dependent on both the virulence of the particular species and the condition of the host organism. Among the more invasive bacteria responsible for human disease are those that cause cholera, tetanus, gas gangrene, leprosy, plague, bacillary dysentery, tuberculosis, syphilis, typhoid fever, diphtheria, undulant fever, and several forms of pneumonia. Until the discovery of viruses, bacteria were considered the causative agents of all infectious diseases.

The pathogenic effects of bacteria on body tissues may be grouped in four classes as follows (1) effects of the direct local action of the bacteria on the tissues, as in gas gangrene, caused by Clostridium perfringens; () mechanical effects, as when a mass of bacteria blocks a blood vessel, causing an infectious embolus; () effects of the bodys response to certain bacterial infections on body tissues, as in the forming of lung cavities in tuberculosis, or destruction of heart tissue by the bodys own antibodies in rheumatic fever; (4) effects of bacterial-produced toxins, chemical substances that act as poisons to certain tissues. Toxins are generally species specific; for example, the toxin responsible for diphtheria is different from the one responsible for cholera.

However, it is worth noting that an increasing number of scientists are emphasizing the indirectly beneficial effects of mild pathogens. Exposure to germs allows the body to develop immunity (see Immune System, Immunization) to those bugs, and there are some proponents of bacterial inoculation for asthma sufferers, for example. It is believed that a certain level of bacteria is needed to kick-start babies' immune systems in order to prevent allergies, something that may be lacking with the high levels of hygiene in modern homes and hospitals.

VIANTIBIOTICS

Various micro-organisms, including certain fungi and some bacteria, produce chemical substances that are toxic to specific bacteria. Such substances, which include penicillin and streptomycin, are known as antibiotics; they either kill the bacteria or prevent them from growing or reproducing. In recent years antibiotics have played an increasingly important role in medicine in the control of bacterial diseases. See Also Antiseptics; Bacteriology; Disease.

Illustrations

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Anatomy of a Simple Bacterium

A simplified bacterium has three external layers surrounding internal structures the slimy capsule layer protects the rigid cell wall, which in turn covers the semi-permeable cell membrane. The flagellum propels the bacterium, and the pili, hairlike structures that extend beyond the capsule, help the bacterium attach itself to various surfaces. Genetic material is contained in DNA that forms the nucleoid. Ribosomes floating in the cytoplasm help the process of protein synthesis.

Table

Bacteria Types

Microbiologists broadly classify bacteria according to their shape spherical, rod-shaped, and spiral-shaped. Pleomorphic bacteria can assume a variety of shapes. Bacteria may be further classified according to whether they require oxygen (aerobic or anaerobic) and how they react to a test with Gram's stain. Bacteria in which alcohol washes away Gram's stain are called gram-negative, while bacteria in which alcohol causes the bacteria's walls to absorb the stain are called gram-positive.

TYPECHARACTERISTICS

Acetic acidRod-shaped, gram-negative, aerobic; highly tolerant of acidic conditions; generate organic acids

ActinomyceteRod-shaped or filamentous, gram-positive, aerobic; common in soils; essential to growth of many plants; source of much of original antibiotic production in pharmaceutical industry

CoccoidSpherical, sometimes in clusters or strings, gram-positive, aerobic and anaerobic; resistant to drying and high-salt conditions; Staphylococcus species common on human skin, certain strains associated with toxic shock syndrome

CoryneformRod-shaped, form club or V shapes, gram-positive, aerobic; found in wide variety of habitats, particularly soils; highly resistant to drying; include Arthrobacter, among most common forms of life on earth

Endospore-

formingUsually rod-shaped, can be gram-positive or gram-negative; have highly adaptable, heat-resistant spores that can go dormant for long periods, possibly thousands of years; include Clostridium (anaerobic) and Bacillus (aerobic)

EntericRod-shaped, gram-negative, aerobic but can live in certain anaerobic conditions; produce nitrite from nitrate, acids from glucose; include Escherichia coli,Salmonella (over 1,000 types), and Shigella

GlidingRod-shaped, gram-negative, mostly aerobic; glide on secreted slimy substances; form colonies, frequently with complex fruiting structures

Lactic acidGram-positive, anaerobic; produce lactic acid through fermentation; include Lactobacillus, essential in dairy product formation, and Streptococcus, common in humans

MycobacteriumPleomorphic, spherical or rod-shaped, frequently branching, no gram stain, aerobic; commonly form yellow pigments; include Mycobacterium tuberculosis, cause of tuberculosis

MycoplasmaSpherical, commonly forming branching chains, no gram stain, aerobic but can live in certain anaerobic conditions; without cell walls yet structurally resistant to lysis; among smallest of bacteria; named for superficial resemblance to fungal hyphae (myco- means fungus)

Nitrogen-fixingRod-shaped, gram-negative, aerobic; convert atmospheric nitrogen gas to ammonium in soil; include Azotobacter, a common genus

Propionic acidRod-shaped, pleomorphic, gram-positive, anaerobic; ferment lactic acid; fermentation produces holes in Swiss cheese from the production of carbon dioxide

PseudomonadRod-shaped (straight or curved) with polar flagella, gram-negative, aerobic; can use up to 100 different compounds for carbon and energy

RickettsiaSpherical or rod-shaped, gram-negative, aerobic; cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus; closely related to Agrobacterium, a common gall-causing plant bacterium

SheathedFilamentous, gram-negative, aerobic; swarmer (colonizing) cells form and break out of a sheath; sometimes coated with metals from environment

SpirillumSpiral-shaped, gram-negative, aerobic; include Bdellovibrio, predatory on other bacteria

SpirocheteSpiral-shaped, gram-negative, mostly anaerobic; common in moist environments, from mammalian gums to coastal mudflats; complex internal structures convey rapid movement; include Treponemapallidum, cause of syphilis

Sulphate- and Sulphur-reducingCommonly rod-shaped, mostly gram-negative, anaerobic; include Desulfovibrio, ecologically important in marshes

Sulphur- and iron-oxidizingCommonly rod-shaped, frequently with polar flagella, gram-negative, mostly anaerobic; most live in neutral (non-acidic) environment

VibrioRod- or comma-shaped, gram-negative, aerobic; commonly with a single flagellum; include Vibrio cholerae, cause of cholera, and luminescent forms symbiotic with deep-water fishes and squids

Pathogenic E. coli

Left Escherichia coli cells. Right E.coli colonies on EMB Agar

Escherichia coli

The GI tract of most warm-blooded animals is colonized by E. coli within hours or a few days after birth. The bacterium is ingested in foods or water or obtained directly from other individuals handling the infant. The human bowel is usually colonized within 40 hours of birth. E. coli can adhere to the mucus overlying the large intestine. Once established, an E. coli strain may persist for months or years. Resident strains shift over a long period (weeks to months), and more rapidly after enteric infection or antimicrobial chemotherapy that perturbs the normal flora. The basis for these shifts and the ecology of Escherichia coli in the intestine of humans are poorly understood despite the vast amount of information on almost every other aspect of the organisms existence. The entire DNA base sequence of the E. coli genome has been known since 17.

E. coli is the head of the large bacterial family, Enterobacteriaceae, the enteric bacteria, which are faculatively anaerobic Gram-negative rods that live in the intestinal tracts of animals in health and disease. The Enterobacteriaceae are among the most important bacteria medically. A number of genera within the family are human intestinal pathogens (e.g. Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia). Several others are normal colonists of the human gastrointestinal tract (e.g. Escherichia, Enterobacter, Klebsiella), but these bacteria, as well, may occasionally be associated with diseases of humans.

The Enterobacteriaceae are distinguished from the Pseudomonadaceae in a number of ways known reflexively to competent microbiologists. The pseudomonads are respiratory, never fermentative, oxidase-positive, and motile by means of polar flagella. The enterics ferment glucose producing acid and gas, are typically oxidase-negative, and when motile, produce peritrichous flagella.

Physiologically, E. coli is versatile and well-adapted to its characteristic habitats. It can grow in media with glucose as the sole organic constituent. Wild-type E. coli has no growth factor requirements, and metabolically it can transform glucose into all of the macromolecular components that make up the cell. The bacterium can grow in the presence or absence of O. Under anaerobic conditions it will grow by means of fermentation, producing characteristic mixed acids and gas as end products. However, it can also grow by means of anaerobic respiration, since it is able to utilize NO, NO or fumarate as final electron acceptors for respiratory electron transport processes. In part, this adapts E. coli to its intestinal (anaerobic) and its extraintestinal (aerobic or anaerobic) habitats.

E. coli can respond to environmental signals such as chemicals, pH, temperature, osmolarity, etc., in a number of very remarkable ways considering it is a single-celled organism. For example, it can sense the presence or absence of chemicals and gases in its environment and swim towards or away from them. Or it can stop swimming and grow fimbriae that will specifically attach it to a cell or surface receptor. In response to change in temperature and osmolarity, it can vary the pore diameter of its outer membrane porins to accommodate larger molecules (nutrients) or to exclude inhibitory substances. With its complex mechanisms for regulation of metabolism the bacterium can survey the chemical contents its environment in advance of synthesizing any enzymes necessary to use these compounds. It does not wastefully produce enzymes for degradation of carbon sources unless they are available, and it does not produce enzymes for synthesis of metabolites if they are available as nutrients in the environment.

E. coli is a consistent inhabitant of the human intestinal tract, and it is the predominant facultative organism in the human GI tract; however, it makes up a very small proportion of the total bacterial content. The anaerobic Bacteroides species in the bowel outnumber E. coli by at least 01. however, the regular presence of E. coli in the human intestine and feces has led to tracking the bacterium in nature as an indicator of fecal pollution and water contamination. As such, it is taken to mean that, wherever E. coli is found, there may be fecal contamination by intestinal parasites of humans.

Pathogenesis of E. coli

Over 700 antigenic types (serotypes) are recognized based on O, H, and K antigens. Serotyping is still important in distinguishing the small number of strains that actually cause disease.

E. coli is responsible for three types of infections in humans urinary tract infections (UTI), neonatal meningitis, and intestinal diseases (gastroenteritis). These three diseases depend on a specific array of pathogenic (virulence) determinants. The virulence determinants of various strains of pathogenic E. coli are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Summary of the Virulence Determinants of Pathogenic E. coli

Adhesins

CFAI/CFAII

Type 1 fimbriae

P fimbriae

S fimbriae

Intimin (non-fimbrial adhesin)

Invasins

hemolysisn

siderophores and siderophore uptake systems

Shigella-like invasins for intracellular invasion and spread

Motility/chemotaxis

flagella

Toxins

LT toxin

ST toxin

Shiga-like toxin

cytotoxins

endotoxin LPS)

Antiphagocytic surface properties

capsules

K antigens

LPS

Defense against serum bactericidal reactions

LPS

K antigens

Defense against immune responses

capsules

K antigens

LPS

antigenic variation

Genetic attributes

genetic exchange by transduction and conjugation

transmissible plasmids

R factors and drug resistance plasmids

toxin and other virulence plasmids

Urinary tract infections

Uropathogenic E. coli cause 0% of the urinary tract infections (UTI) in anatomically-normal, unobstructed urinary tracts. The bacteria colonize from the feces or perineal region and ascend the urinary tract to the bladder. Bladder infections are 14-times more common in females than males by virtue of the shortened urethra. The typical patient with uncomplicated cystitis is a sexually-active female who was first colonized in the intestine with a uropathogenic E. coli strain. The organisms are propelled into the bladder from the periurethral region during sexual intercourse. With the aid of specific adhesins they are able to colonize the bladder.

The adhesin that has been most closely associated with uropathogenic E. coli is the P fimbria (or pyelonephritis-associated pili [PAP] pili). The letter designation is derived from the ability of P fimbriae to bind specifically to the P blood group antigen which contains a D-galactose-D-galactose residue. The fimbriae bind not only to red cells but to a specific galactose dissaccharide that is found on the surfaces uroepithelial cells in approximately % of the population.

The frequency of the distribution of this host cell receptor plays a role in susceptibility and explains why certain individuals have repeated UTI caused by E. coli. Uncomplicated E. coli UTI virtually never occurs in individuals lacking the receptors.

Uropathogenic strains of E. coli possess other determinants of virulence in addition to P fimbriae. E. coli with P fimbriae also possess the gene for Type 1 fimbriae, and there is evidence that P fimbriae are derived from Type 1 fimbriae by insertion of a new fimbrial tip protein to replace the mannose-binding domain of Type 1 fimbria. In any case, Type 1 fimbriae could provide a supplementary mechanism of adherence or play a role in aggregating the bacteria to a specific manosyl-glycoprotein that occurs in urine.

Uropathogenic strains of E. coli usually produce siderophores that probably play an essential role in iron acquisition for the bacteria during or after colonization. They also produce hemolysins which are cytotoxic due to formation of transmembranous pores in host cells. One strategy for obtaining iron and other nutrients for bacterial growth may involve the lysis of host cells to release these substances. The activity of hemolysins is not limited to red cells since the alpha-hemolysins of E. coli also lyse lymphocytes, and the beta-hemolysins inhibit phagocytosis and chemotaxis of neutrophils.

Another factor thought to be involved in the pathogenicity of the uropathogenic strains of E. coli is their resistance to the complement-dependent bactericidal effect of serum. The presence of K antigens is associated with upper urinary tract infections, and antibody to the K antigen has been shown to afford some degree of protection in experimental infections. The K antigens of E. coli are capsular antigens that may be composed of proteinaceous organelles associated with colonization (e.g., CFA antigens), or made of polysaccharides. Regardless of their chemistry, these capsules may be able to promote bacterial virulence by decreasing the ability of antibodies and/or complement to bind to the bacterial surface, and the ability of phagocytes to recognize and engulf the bacterial cells. The best studied K antigen, K-1, is composed of a polymer of N-acetyl neuraminic acid (sialic acid), which besides being antiphagocytic, has the additional property of being an antigenic disguise.

Neonatal Meningitis

Neonatal meningitis affects1/,000-4,000 infants. Eighty percent of E. coli strains involved synthesize K-1 capsular antigens (K-1 is only present 0-40% of the time in intestinal isolates).

E. coli strains invade the blood stream of infants from the nasopharynx or GI tract and are carried to the meninges.

The K-1 antigen is considered the major determinant of virulence among strains of E. coli that cause neonatal meningitis. K-1 is a homopolymer of sialic acid. It inhibits phagocytosis, complement, and responses from the hosts immunological mechanisms. K-1 may not be the only determinant of virulence, however, as siderophore production and endotoxin are also likely to be involved.

Epidemiologic studies have shown that pregnancy is associated with increased rates of colonization by K-1 strains and that these strains become involved in the subsequent cases of meningitis in the newborn. Probably, the infant GI tract is the portal of entry into the bloodstream. Fortunately, although colonization is fairly common, invasion and the catastrophic sequelae are rare.

Neonatal meningitis requires antibiotic therapy that usually includes ampicillin and a third-generation cephalosporin.

Intestinal Diseases Caused by E. coli

As a pathogen, E. coli, of course, is best known for its ability to cause intestinal diseases. Five classes (virotypes) of E. coli that cause diarrheal diseases are now recognized enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC), enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAggEC). Each class falls within a serological subgroup and manifests distinct features in pathogenesis.

Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC)

ETEC are an important cause of diarrhea in infants and travelers in underdeveloped countries or regions of poor sanitation. The diseases vary from minor discomfort to a severe cholera-like syndrome. ETEC are acquired by ingestion of contaminated food and water, and adults in endemic areas evidently develop immunity. The disease requires colonization and elaboration of one or more enterotoxins. Both traits are plasmid-encoded.

ETEC adhesins are fimbriae which are species-specific. For example, the K-88 fimbrial Ag is found on strains from piglets; K- Ag is found on strains from calves and lambs; CFA I, and CFA II, are found on strains from humans. These fimbrial adhesins adhere to specific receptors on enterocytes of the proximal small intestine.

Enterotoxins produced by ETEC include the LT(heat-labile) toxin and/or the ST (heat-stable) toxin, the genes for which may occur on the same or separate plasmids. The LT enterotoxin is very similar to cholera toxin in both structure and mode of action. It is an 86kDa protein composed of an enzymatically active (A) subunit surrounded by 5 identical binding (B) subunits. It binds to the same identical ganglioside receptors that are recognized by the cholera toxin (i.e., GM1), and its enzymatic activity is identical to that of the cholera toxin.

The ST enterotoxin is actually a family of toxins which are peptides of molecular weight about ,000 daltons. Their small size explains why they are not inactivated by heat. ST causes an increase in cyclic GMP in host cell cytoplasm leading to the same effects as an increase in cAMP. STa is known to act by binding to a guanylate cyclase that is located on the apical membranes of host cells, thereby activating the enzyme. This leads to secretion of fluid and electrolytes resulting in diarrhea.

Symptoms ETEC infections include diarrhea without fever. The bacteria colonize the GI tract by means of a fimbrial adhesin, e.g. CFA I and CFA II, and are noninvasive, but produce either the LT or ST toxin.

Enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC)

EIEC closely resemble Shigella in their pathogenic mechanisms and the kind of clinical illness they produce. EIEC penetrate and multiply within epithelial cells of the colon causing widespread cell destruction. The clinical syndrome is identical to Shigella dysentery and includes a dysentery-like diarrhea with fever. EIEC apparently lack fimbrial adhesins but do possess a specific adhesin that, as in Shigella, is thought to be an outer membrane protein. Also, likeShigella, EIEC are invasive organisms. They do not produce LT or ST toxin and, unlike Shigella, they do not produce the shiga toxin.

Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC)

EPEC induce a watery diarrhea similar to ETEC, but they do not possess the same colonization factors and do not produce ST or LT toxins. They produce a non fimbrial adhesin designated intimin, an outer membrane protein, that mediates the final stages of adherence. Although they do not produce LT or ST toxins, there are reports that they produce an enterotoxin similar to that of Shigella. Other virulence factors may be related to those in Shigella.

Adherence of EPEC strains to the intestinal mucosa is a very complicated process and produces dramatic effects in the ultrastructure of the cells resulting in rearrangements of actin in the vicinity of adherent bacteria. The phenomenon is sometimes called attaching and effacing of cells. EPEC strains are said to be moderately-invasive meaning they are not as invasive as Shigella, and unlike ETEC or EAggEC, they cause an inflammatory response. The diarrhea and other symptoms of EPEC infections probably are caused by bacterial invasion of host cells and interference with normal cellular signal transduction, rather than by production of toxins.

Some types of EPEC are referred to as Enteroadherent E. coli (EAEC), based on specific patterns of adherence. They are an important cause of travelers diarrhea in Mexico and in North Africa.

Enteroaggregative E. coli (EAggEC)

The distinguishing feature of EAggEC strains is their ability to attach to tissue culture cells in an aggregative manner. These strains are associated with persistent diarrhea in young children. They resemble ETEC strains in that the bacteria adhere to the intestinal mucosa and cause non-bloody diarrhea without invading or causing inflammation. This suggests that the organisms produce a toxin of some sort. Recently, a distinctive heat-labile plasmid-encoded toxin has been isolated from these strains, called the EAST (EnteroAggregative ST) toxin. They also produce a hemolysin related to the hemolysin produced by E. coli strains involved in urinary tract infections. The role of the toxin and the hemolysin in virulence has not been proven. The significance of EAggEC strains in human disease is controversial.

Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC)

EHEC are represented by a single strain (serotype O157H7), which causes a diarrheal syndrome distinct from EIEC (and Shigella) in that there is copious bloody discharge and no fever. A frequent life-threatening situation is its toxic effects on the kidneys (hemolytic uremia).

EHEC has recently been recognized as a cause of serious disease often associated with ingestion of inadequately cooked hamburger meat. Pediatric diarrhea caused by this strain can be fatal due to acute kidney failure (hemolytic uremic syndrome [HUS]). EHEC are also considered to be moderately invasive. Nothing is known about the colonization antigens of EHEC but fimbriae are presumed to be involved. The bacteria do not invade mucosal cells as readily as Shigella, but EHEC strains produce a toxin that is virtually identical to the Shiga toxin. The toxin plays a role in the intense inflammatory response produced by EHEC strains and may explain the ability of EHEC strains to cause HUS. The toxin is phage encoded and its production is enhanced by iron deficiency.

Table . Pathogenic E. coli Summary of Virulence Characteristics of Intestinal Pathogens

ETEC

fimbrial adhesins e.g. CFA I, CFAII, K88. K

non invasive

produce LT and/or ST toxin

watery diarrhea in infants and travelers; no inflammation, no fever

EIEC

nonfimbrial adhesins, possibly outer membrane protein

invasive (penetrate and multiply within epithelial cells)

does not produce shiga toxin

dysentery-like diarrhea (mucous, blood), severe inflammation, fever

EPEC

non fimbrial adhesin (intimin)

moderately invasive (not as invasive as Shigella or EIEC)

does not produce LT or ST; some reports of shiga-like toxin

usually infantile diarrhea; watery diarrhea similar to ETEC, some inflammation, no fever; symptoms probably result mainly from invasion rather than toxigenesis

EAggEC

adhesins not characterized

non invasive

produce ST-like toxin (EAST) and a hemolysin

persistent diarrhea in young children without inflammation, no fever

EHEC

adhesins not characterized, probably fimbriae

moderately invasive

does not produce LT or ST but does produce shiga toxin

pediatric diarrhea, copious bloody discharge (hemorrhagic colitis), intense inflammatory response, may be complicated by hemolytic uremia

E. coli info #

the labels on frozen steak products

Frequently Asked Questions

•What is Escherichia coli O157H7?

•How is E. coli O157H7 spread?

•What illness does E.coli O157H7 cause?

•How is E. coli O157H7 infection diagnosed?

•How is the illness treated?

•What are the long term consequences of infection?

•What can be done to prevent the infection?

•What can you do to prevent E. coli O157H7 infection?

Escherichia coli O157H7 is an emerging cause of foodborne illness. An estimated 7,000 cases of infection and 61 deaths occur in the United States each year. Infection often leads to bloody diarrhea, and occasionally to kidney failure. Most illness has been associated with eating undercooked, contaminated ground beef. Person-to-person contact in families and child care centers is also an important mode of transmission. Infection can also occur after drinking raw milk and after swimming in or drinking sewage-contaminated water.

Consumers can prevent E. coli O157H7 infection by thoroughly cooking ground beef, avoiding unpasteurized milk, and washing hands carefully.

Because the organism lives in the intestines of healthy cattle, preventive measures on cattle farms and during meat processing are beinginvestigated.

What is Escherichia coli O157H7?

E. coli O157H7 is one of hundreds of strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli. Although most strains are harmless and live in the intestines of healthy humans and animals, this strain produces a powerful toxin and can cause severe illness.

E. coli O157H7 was first recognized as a cause of illness in 18 during an outbreak of severe bloody diarrhea; the outbreak was traced to contaminated hamburgers. Since then, most infections have come from eating undercooked ground beef.

The combination of letters and numbers in the name of the bacterium refers to the specific markers found on its surface and distinguishes it from other types of E. coli.

How is E. coli O157H7 spread?

The organism can be found on a small number of cattle farms and can live in the intestines of healthy cattle. Meat can become contaminated during slaughter, and organisms can be thoroughly mixed into beef when it is ground. Bacteria present on the cows udders or on equipment may get into raw milk.

Eating meat, especially ground beef, that has not been cooked sufficiently to kill E. coli O157H7 can cause infection. Contaminated meat looks and smells normal. Although the number of organisms required to cause disease is not known, it is suspected to be very small.

Among other known sources of infection are consumption of sprouts, lettuce, salami, unpasteurized milk and juice, and swimming in or drinking sewage-contaminated water.

Bacteria in diarrheal stools of infected persons can be passed from one person to another if hygiene or handwashing habits are inadequate.

This is particularly likely among toddlers who are not toilet trained. Family members and playmates of these children are at high risk of becoming infected.

Young children typically shed the organism in their feces for a week or two after their illness resolves. Older children rarely carry the organism without symptoms.

What illness does E. coli O157H7 cause?

E. coli O157H7 infection often causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps; sometimes the infection causes nonbloody diarrhea or no symptoms. Usually little or no fever is present, and the illness resolves in 5 to 10 days.

In some persons, particularly children under 5 years of age and the elderly, the infection can also cause a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. About %-7% of infections lead to this complication. In the United States, hemolytic uremic syndrome is the principal cause of acute kidney failure in children, and most cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome are caused by E. coli O157H7.

How is E. coli O157H7 infection diagnosed?

Infection with E. coli O157H7 is diagnosed by detecting the bacterium in the stool. Most laboratories that culture stool do not test for E. coli O157H7, so it is important to request that the stool specimen be tested on sorbitol-MacConkey (SMAC) agar for this organism. All persons who suddenly have diarrhea with blood should get their stool tested for E. coli O157H7.

How is the illness treated?

Most persons recover without antibiotics or other specific treatment in 5-10 days. There is no evidence that antibiotics improve the course of disease, and it is thought that treatment with some antibiotics may precipitate kidney complications. Antidiarrheal agents, such as loperamide (Imodium), should also be avoided.

Hemolytic uremic syndrome is a life-threatening condition usually treated in an intensive care unit. Blood transfusions and kidney dialysis are often required. With intensive care, the death rate for hemolytic uremic syndrome is %-5%.

What are the long-term consequences of infection?

Persons who only have diarrhea usually recover completely.

About one-third of persons with hemolytic uremic syndrome have abnormal kidney function many years later, and a few require long-term dialysis. Another 8% of persons with hemolytic uremic syndrome have other lifelong complications, such as high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, paralysis, and the effects of having part of their bowel removed.

What can be done to prevent the infection?

E. coli O157H7 will continue to be an important public health concern as long as it contaminates meat. Preventive measures may reduce the number of cattle that carry it and the contamination of meat during slaughter and grinding. Research into such prevention measures is just beginning.

What can you do to prevent E. coli O157H7 infection?

Cook all ground beef and hamburger thoroughly. Because ground beef can turn brown before disease-causing bacteria are killed, use a digital instant-read meat thermometer to ensure thorough cooking. Ground beef should be cooked until a thermometer inserted into several parts of the patty, including the thickest part, reads at least 160º F. Persons who cook ground beef without using a thermometer can decrease their risk of illness by not eating ground beef patties that are still pink in the middle.

If you are served an undercooked hamburger or other ground beef product in a restaurant, send it back for further cooking. You may want to ask for a new bun and a clean plate, too.

Avoid spreading harmful bacteria in your kitchen. Keep raw meat separate from ready-to-eat foods. Wash hands, counters, and utensils with hot soapy water after they touch raw meat. Never place cooked hamburgers or ground beef on the unwashed plate that held raw patties. Wash meat thermometers in between tests of patties that require further cooking.

Drink only pasteurized milk, juice, or cider. Commercial juice with an extended shelf-life that is sold at room temperature (e.g. juice in cardboard boxes, vacuum sealed juice in glass containers) has been pasteurized, although this is generally not indicated on the label. Juice concentrates are also heated sufficiently to kill pathogens.

Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly, especially those that will not be cooked. Children under 5 years of age, immunocompromised persons, and the elderly should avoid eating alfalfa sprouts until their safety can be assured. Methods to decontaminate alfalfa seeds and sprouts are being investigated.

Drink municipal water that has been treated with chlorine or other effective disinfectants.

Avoid swallowing lake or pool water while swimming. See more information about this.

Make sure that persons with diarrhea, especially children, wash their hands carefully with soap after bowel movements to reduce the risk of spreading infection, and that persons wash hands after changing soiled diapers. Anyone with a diarrheal illness should avoid swimming in public pools or lakes, sharing baths with others, and preparing food for others.

For more information about reducing your risk of foodborne illness, visit the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service website at http//www.fsis.usda.gov or the Partnership for Food Safety Education at For more advice on cooking ground beef, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture web site at http//www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/topics/gb.htm

The term E. coli is an abbreviation for the bacteria Escherichia coli.

E. coli bacteria were discovered in the human colon in 1885 by German bacteriologist Theodor Escherich. Dr. Escherich also showed that certain strains of the bacteria were responsible for infant diarrhea and gastroenteritis - an important public health discovery. Although the bacteria were initially called Bacterium coli, the name was later changed to Escherichia coli to honor its discoverer.

Soon after its discovery, E. coli became a very popular lab organism because scientists could grow it quickly on both simple and complex mediums. E. coli can grow in air, using oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor (aerobically) or without air, by what is called fermentative metabolisman (aerobically). The ability to grow both aerobically and anaerobically classifies the E. coli bacteria as a facultative anaerobe.

Although E. coli has been often in the news as a foodborne pathogen, the vast majority of E. coli strains are harmless, including those commonly used by scientists in genetics laboratories. E. coli is found in the family of bacteria named Enterobacteriaceae, which is informally referred to as the enteric bacteria. Other enteric bacteria are the Salmonella bacteria (also a very large family, with many different members), Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Shigella, which many people consider to be part of the E. coli family.

E. coli O157 H7

Because there are so many different strains of E. coli, microbiologists classify it into more than 170 serogroups. Within each serogroup, there are one or more serotypes. For example, O16H and O16H7 represent two serotypes of E. coli, with the O16 signifying the particular serogroup to which these serotypes belong. E. coli O157H7 was identified for the first time at the U. S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 175. However, it was not until seven years later, in 18, that E. coli O157H7 was conclusively determined to be a cause of enteric disease. Specifically, in 18, following outbreaks of foodborne illness that involved several cases of bloody diarrhea, E. coli O157 H7 was firmly associated with hemorrhagic colitis.1 As a result of this association, E. coli O157 H7 was designated as an enterohemorrhagic E. coli, or EHEC.

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It is possible to examine nearly any aspect of modern society the conduct of war, government, marriage, education and find a similar practice, an earlier version, in history. In most cases, the seeds of the present can be seen in the past. But this is not true for consumerism, for consumerism has no parallel in early human societies.

The closest thing to consumerism and this is offered only as a point of reference, not comparison is the practice of barter. In barter, two or more individuals met and exchanged what they had for what they didnt have. Advertising either didnt exist or was very primitive, and there was no hierarchy no natural division between producers and consumers, because everyone was both a producer and a consumer.

The motivation for barter was also much more basic the point was to avoid being dead. It was very straightforward you could trade your surplus of corn for some arrowheads, or for the services of a mercenary to guard your cornfield, or simply to avoid an untimely death. You could instead keep the corn and hope no one attacked your field, but over time it may have come to you that hiring a mercenary, or owning some arrowheads, would increase the amount of corn you actually kept for more than a few days.

Cheap College Papers on consumerism

The Role of Surplus

The key change that separates modern from traditional societies is the concept of surplus, a condition in which there is more than enough of everything to sustain the lives of all the members of a society. As it happens, people are not designed to cope with surplus. We have many, many strategies to deal with perpetual deficit, some learned, some congenital, but surplus bewilders us.

As just one example, many Americans are overweight because we sit down to eat and for reasons buried in our collective past expect to see no more food for a week or more. Therefore, we eat much more than we should, if only our perceptions were based on current reality. Three hours later, we sit down and repeat the performance. But we never adjust to the surplus, leading many researchers to the conclusion that deficit behaviors are very deeply rooted in our characters and are not easily modified by experience.

This condition a world of surplus, occupied by people programmed for deficit is a perfect setting for modern consumerism. Modern consumerism is based on the triple premise that

luxuries are actually needs,

what you already have is not satisfactory, and

no product is so basic that advertising is superfluous.

Reactive and Proactive Consumerism

I define consumerism as the voluntary suspension of disbelief in the value of material goods . Suspension of disbelief is desirable when viewing a fantasy world such as a stage play or motion picture, and it is also necessary in modern shopping, and for exactly the same reason the things on display cannot meaningfully be compared with reality.

Consumerism is itself divided into two subcategories, reactive consumerism and proactive consumerism. Reactive consumerism (hereinafter RC) awaits a public demand for a product and, no matter how absurd the demand, fills it. Proactive consumerism (hereinafter PC) uses advertising to create markets for products that have no natural market.

Before going on, I must add that PC isnt always as parasitic as it might sound on first hearing. Sometimes a perceived need is created out of nowhere, and this engineered need leads to a societal advance a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will. For example, education is a form of PC it appears to convey knowledge, when in fact its real purpose is to create a lifelong taste for knowledge. But to the original target audience of young people (and, sadly, to some of their parents), the product being offered has no obvious purpose an acquired taste for ideas makes young people nearly uncontrollable, rebellious, doubtful of received wisdom. Only later in life does this fondness for ideas bear fruit, at a time (in the brief and brittle lifecycle of the average human brain) when it would be nearly impossible to instill the taste anew.

RC can exist in times of deficit, because it only springs to life in response to voiced demand. But PC, the practice of creating a market and then serving it, can only exist in times of surplus. In RC, advertising is an adjunct, a facilitation of the basic process of producing and distributing goods. In PC, advertising is the process everything else depends on it.

The Big Lie

There is one thing you absolutely must know about modern advertising. No matter how true any single advertisement is, modern advertising itself, taken as a whole, tells a lie that you need the thing being advertised. It is a lie because consumer goods of real value do not need to be advertised such goods are part of a natural market that flows beneath the PC marketplace, although as time passes these basic necessities represent a shrinking percentage of the total flow of goods.

When I was young, if you wanted a candy bar and you could afford a good one, you bought a Hersheys Bar (as they were called when I was a child), because they were known to be the best. But, whatever the source of this perception of quality, it certainly was not because of advertising, because Hershey Chocolate Company did not advertise before 170. They were the best, everyone knew it, why waste the companys money asserting the obvious? Founder Milton Hershey said, Give them quality. Thats the best advertising in the world.

By 170, the world had changed, and products of obvious value were being advertised alongside goods of no intrinsic worth, thus leveling the playing field and making it difficult to distinguish goods of actual worth from make-believe goods designed to fill make-believe needs. And in that year the Hershey Company began to advertise.

To put this another way, modern advertising spends vast sums trying to make the buying public aware of products that it also portrays as a necessity of life an obvious contradiction. After all, how could our loyal consumer have survived to the present moment without this crucial product, to be in a position to witness its advertising?

The truth is, by the time an advertisement fills a time slot on your television set, or plays on the radio, or appears in print in your newspaper, chances are you already have all you need to live comfortably . The global purpose of modern advertising is to make you forget this fact. Advertising does this in two ways

By creating an atmosphere of dissatisfaction with everything not purchasable, or already purchased. More on dissatisfaction here .

By telling lies, appealing lies, lies nearly everyone wants to hear.

All the little lies support the big lie that no product is so valuable that advertising has no purpose.

The Little Lies

Here are some examples of the minor lies that are included in advertising to support the big lie

New! How can something be simultaneously new and absolutely essential to survival? Or, given the thesis that new is better, the advertiser should honestly list the ways that the old new product failed us, thus setting the stage for inevitable disenchantment with the new new product.

An exclusive offer! This nationally televised, prime-time advertisement excludes only the dead, and those too penniless from responding to previous exclusive offers.

It costs more, but it is worth it. By implication, things that cost more are worth more, and by negation, things that have no price also have no value. This is an appeal to reject the entire natural world out of hand.

You deserve the best. A questionable premise, one intended to cloud your mind and distract you from the more practical question of whether you can afford the best, or whether the product is in fact the best.

Everybody has one of these. Except you. Yes we spent 0 million dollars on a national advertising campaign to reach the last holdout you. Now buy our $5.5 product and redeem our investment.

Protect your children with … A pitch often seen on television. Ironically, television itself threatens your children in ways too numerous to list. There is no advertisement telling you to protect your children from TV itself. I should add that, taken as a whole, the Internet is probably worse.

Want to know what women really like? ad infinitum. This class of advertising exploits the fact that men and women either do not talk to each other, or, if they do, do not understand what the other person is saying. As to the latter, when a man says, I love your youthful appearance and spirit, he does not add, When your youthful appearance wears off, your spirit by itself wont be able to sustain our relationship. When a woman says, I treasure your moments of sensitivity and vulnerability, she does not add, but you must never appear weak or indecisive. You sort it out youre a man. These examples show we are so completely saturated by the language of advertising with a sexual angle, that we no longer remember how to speak to each other in a way that doesnt mimic advertising. And we are progressively less likely to talk to each other to sort out reality we expect the advertisers to tell us what the other sex wants. Instead, and inevitably, we only discover what the advertiser wants.

This car is not for everyone. But it certainly is for the 8% of the male car-buying public our team of psychologists has identified as possessing the conceit that they are unique. You are entirely unique in the world, yet you are going to line up and choose one of the three colors this car is available in, then drive this cookie-cutter symbol of your uniqueness off into the sunset.

Im not a doctor, but I play one on television. I didnt make this up. This opening pitch was followed by an endorsement for a patent medicine. This particular example shows the advertisers contempt for the consumers intelligence, a contempt almost always justified by subsequent events.

Products that require Products of Their Own

Once advertising has delivered the product into your hands, other aspects of consumerism then come into play. These aspects rely on connections between products, real and imagined. Here are some examples

Protect your investment in A with B. Examples abound -- I will use insurance. The entire insurance industry is based on a lie that purchasing insurance is a better strategy than keeping your money and personally replacing the insured item in the event of loss. The insurance schema on its surface is very simple you pay premiums to the insurance company, in exchange for which the insurance company agrees to replace your property in the event of loss.

The dirty secret of the insurance business is that, on average, the insurance company has collected much more than the value of the insured property by the time it pays a claim. This is called making a profit, a trait considered desirable in a company, and insurance companies are very profitable. The profit comes from two sources

Your premium payments, and

The return on the investments made, with your money, by the insurance company.

Instead of paying the insurance premiums, you could invest the money as the insurance company does, and simply pay to replace the valued item in the event of a loss. On average, you would come out very far ahead using this strategy. There are two categories of consumers for which this strategy wont work

People who cant actually afford the insured item, who are purchasing with borrowed money (these individuals are usually required by the lender to carry insurance), and

People who slept through economics in school.

But most consumers dont know this basic truth about the insurance business. Most people think buying insurance is a smart investment, the action of a mature, responsible person. It isnt the only time insurance can be justified is if you are buying something you cant afford to replace, and then only when it is required of you. This discussion doesnt apply to liability insurance, where the potential losses are quite beyond imagining, and only the wealthiest individuals can afford to pay direct costs.

A implies B. Virtually all consumer products, above a rudimentary level of complexity, have accessories and enhancements. One can easily imagine a graph of products with the simplest (fewest accessories) on the left and the most complex (most accessories) at the right.

At the very left of our imaginary graph is a screwdriver. Not a Phillips screwdriver, just a plain old-fashioned straight-slot screwdriver. If you buy one of these carefully, you will have it decades from now. Your children will inherit it from you. From the standpoint of marketing, this is a nightmare any number of advertising executives start up from their pillows in terror, having just imagined that screwdriver in reliable service over years and years, its original brand name slowly wearing off.

The reason I didnt choose a Phillips screwdriver for my example is because as time passes there are more and more standard Phillips screw head sizes, so even though a screwdriver is very basic, in this case you can find yourself looking for a perfect fit for a Phillips screw virtually forever. This assures our ad executive a sound sleep. By contrast, even if you wear out the tip of a standard screwdriver, you can recreate it at home with a file (okay, one possible accessory).

At the middle of our graph, lets put a car. A car is a virtual playground for accessories. There is nothing that someone, somewhere, hasnt considered adding to a car. Wet bars. Saunas and hot tubs. There is even a car product whose purpose I havent been able to figure out. I dont dare name it (since I intend to ridicule it), but it is described as satisfying and it comes in a spray can. It has something to do with pretending your car is shinier and newer than it is. In any event, I am always suspicious of advertising where the purpose of the product is left out and the emotional effect of its use is described instead.

Even the most basic car, a car you might try to hide from your friends, has some accessories -- certainly plastic floor protectors. Once I looked into a car at a dealership and saw the usual floor protectors, and over the protectors I spied a plastic sheet. As I gazed, I wondered if some demented consumer might allow the sheet to wear completely through, thus jeopardizing the plastic floor protectors for shame!

At the right of our graph remember, this is supposed to be the most accessorizable thing imaginable lets put marriage. Some may object that marriage, strictly speaking, isnt a consumer item in the same sense as a house or car. But it is! Modern marriage is a packaged, advertised, promoted consumer item, in fact in some ways it is the prototype for all other consumer items, also it has the largest tree of dependent accessories and potential replacement items including the marriage partner of any product.

Marriage has the advantage that there is an innate desire for the product built into the buying public, therefore promoting it only makes people go crazier. And if a particular marriage fails to please, the average consumer will gullibly listen to promoters claims that it was that particular marriage, not marriage itself, that was at fault. This degree of gullibility is present to a degree not seen in any other product except religion.

Now imagine our completed graph, which even the Internet cannot meaningfully contain. Product complexity and accessorizability increases from left to right. The trees of dependent accessories stretch upward from the baseline of the graph. At the left is our lowly screwdriver, with no essential accessories above it. At the middle is a car, with a rather impressive tree of accessories growing out of it. At the right is marriage, with a vast tree of dependent products reaching up higher than any practical finite paper size or computer graph could contain, including nearly all the items to the left of it on the graph itself. Thinking about this graph, you will realize why you almost never see an advertisement for screwdrivers.

A is replaced by B. This is a very common pitch. A trivial change is made in the formulation of laundry soap, and suddenly you are the last holdout with a clearly inferior product. Your children will be roundly jeered from the playground. But there are more robust versions of this pitch, guaranteed to drag the majority of consumers, kicking and screaming (but still buying) into the advertisers future, if not their own.

One very effective method is to tie several products together in a dependent relationship, so that, if any one of the products changes, all of them require replacement. Example the personal computer. As time passes, incremental changes in computer hardware can be accommodated without starting over, but from time to time an irresistible technological breakthrough comes along that sweeps all prior hardware out the door.

There have been two such sweeping changes so far. One was IBMs decision to introduce an entry system that it hoped would be a steppingstone into that companys principal business, large systems. But IBM cast such a long shadow on the computing landscape (in those bygone days) that even their deliberately crippled design became the de facto standard personal computer and eclipsed several other contenders.

The second change was the introduction of graphical environments such as Windows, which first required a great deal more computer power than its predecessors, and eventually obsoleted all but the most powerful systems.

The reason these changes swept away entire architectures was partly fashion, a theme in all of consumerism, but also because of the interdependent nature of individual computers and networks of computers. To a marketer, this gives computers a mixture of attractive and terrifying qualities. Attractive because a single change can create a huge wave of system replacements all you have to do is figure out how to ride the wave. Terrifying because no individual not even Bill Gates can foresee the technological breakthrough that will trigger the next wave, or its timing.

Sweeping changes like this are so attractive that one sees valiant attempts to create them out of nothing. Quadraphonic sound is an example. Unfortunately, the American public rejected the thesis that they needed four speakers instead of two, and the idea died.

The next visible change of this kind, one supported and encouraged by the American government, is called High-Definition Television (HDTV). Basically it constitutes a technological scheme that will improve picture quality and flexibility, and finally replace the oldest and least satisfactory method for encoding a television picture still in use, NTSC (supposedly this stands for Never Twice the Same Color).

Unfortunately for consumers and fortunately for TV manufacturers, this change will eventually require the complete replacement of every TV set, every TV camera and studio, TV transmitters, cable networks, everything. Even more interesting is that the schedule of changes is mandated by the government beginning with a mixture of old-style and new-style broadcasting, ending with a complete replacement of NTSC programs with HDTV programs, in the communication pathways that are administered by the government. According to this schedule, about ten years from now, barring unforeseen events, the transition will be complete all commercial broadcasting will be based on the HDTV standard. Consumers will either have new receivers or will have some sort of converter box that will allow them to see some fraction of the size and quality of the new standards TV image.

With all the committees meeting around this issue, it is surprising that no one has asked if the content of TV will be improved along with the image. I think I know the answer.

B shows the folly of A. This is a marketing position dearly to be wished for, and it doesnt happen very often. But the examples are memorable FM radio compared to AM radio. Personal computers compared to typewriters. Calculators compared to slide rules. Transistor radios compared to tube radios (an older example). But the majority of real-world examples are an illusory, not real, replacement of a prior product on the basis of overwhelming merit Electric toothbrushes. Anti-lock brakes. Automotive Air bags. Electric bug zappers (they dont work against mosquitoes). Sonic bug repellers (they dont work at all).

The Role of Dissatisfaction

I earnestly believe that some degree of dissatisfaction is innate in people, and absent our modern society, the chance that someone would fall to his knees in wonder at the sight of a wildflower is marginal. But I can say with assurance that modern advertising makes this possibility disappear entirely, for most people in most places, because in order to consume as we do, we must first be programmed to regard everyday experiences as completely unsatisfactory.

This aspect of marketing has a lot in common with traditional religious practices

The truth is hidden from view.

Your reward lies in the hereafter.

True happiness in only available to the initiated, the insiders.

Everyday reality is a sham, a waste of time, an illusion.

We are all defective, our personal experiences have no legitimacy without the validation of priests.

When I was young, this kind of talk was perfect I already held everyday experience in contempt (meaning I was already a trained consumer). Each new belief system that came along seemed more sophisticated and promising than the last, certain to show how the seemingly random events around me actually fit together into a coherent whole, a whole that I could perceive if only I underwent an initiation ritual.

Finally I realized that each of the belief systems I sampled were simply examples of modern product packaging and marketing Your individual, direct experience means nothing. Join up. Get with the program. Oh, by the way, we are going to need some funds to cover our legitimate expenses in showing you the True Path to Enlightenment.

This doesnt mean I suddenly saw the value of direct, personal experience, but I certainly did see that the packaged version was not innately superior. For me, this was a big step forward.

But for most Americans, rich and poor, the packaged version is still innately superior, and this is tangible evidence of the triumph of marketing. For us, a personal view of a field of sunflowers is quite ordinary, but a painting of that same view can fetch millions. Even the paintings of sunflowers rejected by the artist, then used by his maid as rags to clean up his studio, are prized beyond any imaginable real-life scene of sunflowers. Why? Simple the real scene cannot be packaged and marketed it can never be more than an individual experience.

Pablo Picasso realized the importance of marketing, late in his career. At that time, he began churning out works that had as their only distinguishing characteristic a resemblance to the works of an artist named Picasso. The subject meant nothing, the style meant everything. Pure marketing.

We distrust our direct experiences, and require a commentator an authority to interpret our experiences for us. This is why Americans believe nothing is real until it has been on television. In this sense, television is the product package, as well as a vehicle for the ultimate comment on all contemporary reality advertising.

When the pet rock was first introduced, when a completely ordinary rock became valuable by virtue of its package and advertising, I imagine some advertiser on Madison Avenue saying, Yes! Now we have them! They will buy absolutely anything!

Coping Skills

Here are some common-sense suggestions to minimize the negative effects of consumerism in your life

It is very likely that most of your dissatisfactions are a carefully engineered preparation for consumerism. So examine your dissatisfactions keep only those that, if discarded, might kill you. Toss the rest.

The first rule of advertising if it is advertised, it is not a necessity. So start out by saying I dont need this product. Now, do I want it?

Ask yourself how much of an advertisement appeals to reason, and how much appeals to emotion. If the primary appeal is to emotion, you should expect to feel another, stronger emotion after the purchase disappointment.

Ask yourself if the advertisement describes a product, or instead describes you in unrealistic ways. After all, it is the real you that will be paying for the product, not the fantasy you that deserves the very best.

Apply common sense to advertising. If you are being offered a book that is guaranteed to make you millions and costs $.5, you should wonder why it didnt work for the author. Real millionaires dont promote get-rich-quick schemes on late-night TV unless the actual get-rich-quick scheme is to sell millions of copies of a worthless book.

Above all, recapture an appreciation for ordinary reality. Two reasons quickly come to mind

Fields of flowers dont lie, and

If you postpone a walk in the flowers for long enough, the next time you check, they will be gone.

In my view, if a person cant sit down in a forest, look between the trees at a sunlit meadow and say, This is all I really need, then that person is more than slightly bent. But thats only my opinion I could be wrong.

A Closing Comment

In your life, how many print articles have you read that portray consumerism and advertising in this way? Chances are, very few or none. Why? Is it because the author is spectacularly original, possibly inspired by genius? Or is it simply because television, magazines and newspapers reject this kind of writing out of hand, for fear of offending advertisers? Even though I am the author and would like you to believe the first premise, the second is actually correct articles like this are almost never seen in print, and ideas like these are almost never aired on TV. They are deliberately excluded.

In the commercial publishing business and in television network programming, articles like this are tantamount to treason or suicide. Small-circulation scholarly journals are another story, but their readership is so small and specialized that they do not represent a threat to mass marketing. For various reasons the Internet, although increasingly commercial in content, is also the best source for anti-consumerist sentiment.

It is possible to examine nearly any aspect of modern society the conduct of war, government, marriage, education and find a similar practice, an earlier version, in history. In most cases, the seeds of the present can be seen in the past. But this is not true for consumerism, for consumerism has no parallel in early human societies.

The closest thing to consumerism and this is offered only as a point of reference, not comparison is the practice of barter. In barter, two or more individuals met and exchanged what they had for what they didnt have. Advertising either didnt exist or was very primitive, and there was no hierarchy no natural division between producers and consumers, because everyone was both a producer and a consumer.

The motivation for barter was also much more basic the point was to avoid being dead. It was very straightforward you could trade your surplus of corn for some arrowheads, or for the services of a mercenary to guard your cornfield, or simply to avoid an untimely death. You could instead keep the corn and hope no one attacked your field, but over time it may have come to you that hiring a mercenary, or owning some arrowheads, would increase the amount of corn you actually kept for more than a few days.

The Role of Surplus

The key change that separates modern from traditional societies is the concept of surplus, a condition in which there is more than enough of everything to sustain the lives of all the members of a society. As it happens, people are not designed to cope with surplus. We have many, many strategies to deal with perpetual deficit, some learned, some congenital, but surplus bewilders us.

As just one example, many Americans are overweight because we sit down to eat and for reasons buried in our collective past expect to see no more food for a week or more. Therefore, we eat much more than we should, if only our perceptions were based on current reality. Three hours later, we sit down and repeat the performance. But we never adjust to the surplus, leading many researchers to the conclusion that deficit behaviors are very deeply rooted in our characters and are not easily modified by experience.

This condition a world of surplus, occupied by people programmed for deficit is a perfect setting for modern consumerism. Modern consumerism is based on the triple premise that

luxuries are actually needs,

what you already have is not satisfactory, and

no product is so basic that advertising is superfluous.

Reactive and Proactive Consumerism

I define consumerism as the voluntary suspension of disbelief in the value of material goods . Suspension of disbelief is desirable when viewing a fantasy world such as a stage play or motion picture, and it is also necessary in modern shopping, and for exactly the same reason the things on display cannot meaningfully be compared with reality.

Consumerism is itself divided into two subcategories, reactive consumerism and proactive consumerism. Reactive consumerism (hereinafter RC) awaits a public demand for a product and, no matter how absurd the demand, fills it. Proactive consumerism (hereinafter PC) uses advertising to create markets for products that have no natural market.

Before going on, I must add that PC isnt always as parasitic as it might sound on first hearing. Sometimes a perceived need is created out of nowhere, and this engineered need leads to a societal advance a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will. For example, education is a form of PC it appears to convey knowledge, when in fact its real purpose is to create a lifelong taste for knowledge. But to the original target audience of young people (and, sadly, to some of their parents), the product being offered has no obvious purpose an acquired taste for ideas makes young people nearly uncontrollable, rebellious, doubtful of received wisdom. Only later in life does this fondness for ideas bear fruit, at a time (in the brief and brittle lifecycle of the average human brain) when it would be nearly impossible to instill the taste anew.

RC can exist in times of deficit, because it only springs to life in response to voiced demand. But PC, the practice of creating a market and then serving it, can only exist in times of surplus. In RC, advertising is an adjunct, a facilitation of the basic process of producing and distributing goods. In PC, advertising is the process everything else depends on it.

The Big Lie

There is one thing you absolutely must know about modern advertising. No matter how true any single advertisement is, modern advertising itself, taken as a whole, tells a lie that you need the thing being advertised. It is a lie because consumer goods of real value do not need to be advertised such goods are part of a natural market that flows beneath the PC marketplace, although as time passes these basic necessities represent a shrinking percentage of the total flow of goods.

When I was young, if you wanted a candy bar and you could afford a good one, you bought a Hersheys Bar (as they were called when I was a child), because they were known to be the best. But, whatever the source of this perception of quality, it certainly was not because of advertising, because Hershey Chocolate Company did not advertise before 170. They were the best, everyone knew it, why waste the companys money asserting the obvious? Founder Milton Hershey said, Give them quality. Thats the best advertising in the world.

By 170, the world had changed, and products of obvious value were being advertised alongside goods of no intrinsic worth, thus leveling the playing field and making it difficult to distinguish goods of actual worth from make-believe goods designed to fill make-believe needs. And in that year the Hershey Company began to advertise.

To put this another way, modern advertising spends vast sums trying to make the buying public aware of products that it also portrays as a necessity of life an obvious contradiction. After all, how could our loyal consumer have survived to the present moment without this crucial product, to be in a position to witness its advertising?

The truth is, by the time an advertisement fills a time slot on your television set, or plays on the radio, or appears in print in your newspaper, chances are you already have all you need to live comfortably . The global purpose of modern advertising is to make you forget this fact. Advertising does this in two ways

By creating an atmosphere of dissatisfaction with everything not purchasable, or already purchased. More on dissatisfaction here .

By telling lies, appealing lies, lies nearly everyone wants to hear.

All the little lies support the big lie that no product is so valuable that advertising has no purpose.

The Little Lies

Here are some examples of the minor lies that are included in advertising to support the big lie

New! How can something be simultaneously new and absolutely essential to survival? Or, given the thesis that new is better, the advertiser should honestly list the ways that the old new product failed us, thus setting the stage for inevitable disenchantment with the new new product.

An exclusive offer! This nationally televised, prime-time advertisement excludes only the dead, and those too penniless from responding to previous exclusive offers.

It costs more, but it is worth it. By implication, things that cost more are worth more, and by negation, things that have no price also have no value. This is an appeal to reject the entire natural world out of hand.

You deserve the best. A questionable premise, one intended to cloud your mind and distract you from the more practical question of whether you can afford the best, or whether the product is in fact the best.

Everybody has one of these. Except you. Yes we spent 0 million dollars on a national advertising campaign to reach the last holdout you. Now buy our $5.5 product and redeem our investment.

Protect your children with … A pitch often seen on television. Ironically, television itself threatens your children in ways too numerous to list. There is no advertisement telling you to protect your children from TV itself. I should add that, taken as a whole, the Internet is probably worse.

Want to know what women really like? ad infinitum. This class of advertising exploits the fact that men and women either do not talk to each other, or, if they do, do not understand what the other person is saying. As to the latter, when a man says, I love your youthful appearance and spirit, he does not add, When your youthful appearance wears off, your spirit by itself wont be able to sustain our relationship. When a woman says, I treasure your moments of sensitivity and vulnerability, she does not add, but you must never appear weak or indecisive. You sort it out youre a man. These examples show we are so completely saturated by the language of advertising with a sexual angle, that we no longer remember how to speak to each other in a way that doesnt mimic advertising. And we are progressively less likely to talk to each other to sort out reality we expect the advertisers to tell us what the other sex wants. Instead, and inevitably, we only discover what the advertiser wants.

This car is not for everyone. But it certainly is for the 8% of the male car-buying public our team of psychologists has identified as possessing the conceit that they are unique. You are entirely unique in the world, yet you are going to line up and choose one of the three colors this car is available in, then drive this cookie-cutter symbol of your uniqueness off into the sunset.

Im not a doctor, but I play one on television. I didnt make this up. This opening pitch was followed by an endorsement for a patent medicine. This particular example shows the advertisers contempt for the consumers intelligence, a contempt almost always justified by subsequent events.

Products that require Products of Their Own

Once advertising has delivered the product into your hands, other aspects of consumerism then come into play. These aspects rely on connections between products, real and imagined. Here are some examples

Protect your investment in A with B. Examples abound -- I will use insurance. The entire insurance industry is based on a lie that purchasing insurance is a better strategy than keeping your money and personally replacing the insured item in the event of loss. The insurance schema on its surface is very simple you pay premiums to the insurance company, in exchange for which the insurance company agrees to replace your property in the event of loss.

The dirty secret of the insurance business is that, on average, the insurance company has collected much more than the value of the insured property by the time it pays a claim. This is called making a profit, a trait considered desirable in a company, and insurance companies are very profitable. The profit comes from two sources

Your premium payments, and

The return on the investments made, with your money, by the insurance company.

Instead of paying the insurance premiums, you could invest the money as the insurance company does, and simply pay to replace the valued item in the event of a loss. On average, you would come out very far ahead using this strategy. There are two categories of consumers for which this strategy wont work

People who cant actually afford the insured item, who are purchasing with borrowed money (these individuals are usually required by the lender to carry insurance), and

People who slept through economics in school.

But most consumers dont know this basic truth about the insurance business. Most people think buying insurance is a smart investment, the action of a mature, responsible person. It isnt the only time insurance can be justified is if you are buying something you cant afford to replace, and then only when it is required of you. This discussion doesnt apply to liability insurance, where the potential losses are quite beyond imagining, and only the wealthiest individuals can afford to pay direct costs.

A implies B. Virtually all consumer products, above a rudimentary level of complexity, have accessories and enhancements. One can easily imagine a graph of products with the simplest (fewest accessories) on the left and the most complex (most accessories) at the right.

At the very left of our imaginary graph is a screwdriver. Not a Phillips screwdriver, just a plain old-fashioned straight-slot screwdriver. If you buy one of these carefully, you will have it decades from now. Your children will inherit it from you. From the standpoint of marketing, this is a nightmare any number of advertising executives start up from their pillows in terror, having just imagined that screwdriver in reliable service over years and years, its original brand name slowly wearing off.

The reason I didnt choose a Phillips screwdriver for my example is because as time passes there are more and more standard Phillips screw head sizes, so even though a screwdriver is very basic, in this case you can find yourself looking for a perfect fit for a Phillips screw virtually forever. This assures our ad executive a sound sleep. By contrast, even if you wear out the tip of a standard screwdriver, you can recreate it at home with a file (okay, one possible accessory).

At the middle of our graph, lets put a car. A car is a virtual playground for accessories. There is nothing that someone, somewhere, hasnt considered adding to a car. Wet bars. Saunas and hot tubs. There is even a car product whose purpose I havent been able to figure out. I dont dare name it (since I intend to ridicule it), but it is described as satisfying and it comes in a spray can. It has something to do with pretending your car is shinier and newer than it is. In any event, I am always suspicious of advertising where the purpose of the product is left out and the emotional effect of its use is described instead.

Even the most basic car, a car you might try to hide from your friends, has some accessories -- certainly plastic floor protectors. Once I looked into a car at a dealership and saw the usual floor protectors, and over the protectors I spied a plastic sheet. As I gazed, I wondered if some demented consumer might allow the sheet to wear completely through, thus jeopardizing the plastic floor protectors for shame!

At the right of our graph remember, this is supposed to be the most accessorizable thing imaginable lets put marriage. Some may object that marriage, strictly speaking, isnt a consumer item in the same sense as a house or car. But it is! Modern marriage is a packaged, advertised, promoted consumer item, in fact in some ways it is the prototype for all other consumer items, also it has the largest tree of dependent accessories and potential replacement items including the marriage partner of any product.

Marriage has the advantage that there is an innate desire for the product built into the buying public, therefore promoting it only makes people go crazier. And if a particular marriage fails to please, the average consumer will gullibly listen to promoters claims that it was that particular marriage, not marriage itself, that was at fault. This degree of gullibility is present to a degree not seen in any other product except religion.

Now imagine our completed graph, which even the Internet cannot meaningfully contain. Product complexity and accessorizability increases from left to right. The trees of dependent accessories stretch upward from the baseline of the graph. At the left is our lowly screwdriver, with no essential accessories above it. At the middle is a car, with a rather impressive tree of accessories growing out of it. At the right is marriage, with a vast tree of dependent products reaching up higher than any practical finite paper size or computer graph could contain, including nearly all the items to the left of it on the graph itself. Thinking about this graph, you will realize why you almost never see an advertisement for screwdrivers.

A is replaced by B. This is a very common pitch. A trivial change is made in the formulation of laundry soap, and suddenly you are the last holdout with a clearly inferior product. Your children will be roundly jeered from the playground. But there are more robust versions of this pitch, guaranteed to drag the majority of consumers, kicking and screaming (but still buying) into the advertisers future, if not their own.

One very effective method is to tie several products together in a dependent relationship, so that, if any one of the products changes, all of them require replacement. Example the personal computer. As time passes, incremental changes in computer hardware can be accommodated without starting over, but from time to time an irresistible technological breakthrough comes along that sweeps all prior hardware out the door.

There have been two such sweeping changes so far. One was IBMs decision to introduce an entry system that it hoped would be a steppingstone into that companys principal business, large systems. But IBM cast such a long shadow on the computing landscape (in those bygone days) that even their deliberately crippled design became the de facto standard personal computer and eclipsed several other contenders.

The second change was the introduction of graphical environments such as Windows, which first required a great deal more computer power than its predecessors, and eventually obsoleted all but the most powerful systems.

The reason these changes swept away entire architectures was partly fashion, a theme in all of consumerism, but also because of the interdependent nature of individual computers and networks of computers. To a marketer, this gives computers a mixture of attractive and terrifying qualities. Attractive because a single change can create a huge wave of system replacements all you have to do is figure out how to ride the wave. Terrifying because no individual not even Bill Gates can foresee the technological breakthrough that will trigger the next wave, or its timing.

Sweeping changes like this are so attractive that one sees valiant attempts to create them out of nothing. Quadraphonic sound is an example. Unfortunately, the American public rejected the thesis that they needed four speakers instead of two, and the idea died.

The next visible change of this kind, one supported and encouraged by the American government, is called High-Definition Television (HDTV). Basically it constitutes a technological scheme that will improve picture quality and flexibility, and finally replace the oldest and least satisfactory method for encoding a television picture still in use, NTSC (supposedly this stands for Never Twice the Same Color).

Unfortunately for consumers and fortunately for TV manufacturers, this change will eventually require the complete replacement of every TV set, every TV camera and studio, TV transmitters, cable networks, everything. Even more interesting is that the schedule of changes is mandated by the government beginning with a mixture of old-style and new-style broadcasting, ending with a complete replacement of NTSC programs with HDTV programs, in the communication pathways that are administered by the government. According to this schedule, about ten years from now, barring unforeseen events, the transition will be complete all commercial broadcasting will be based on the HDTV standard. Consumers will either have new receivers or will have some sort of converter box that will allow them to see some fraction of the size and quality of the new standards TV image.

With all the committees meeting around this issue, it is surprising that no one has asked if the content of TV will be improved along with the image. I think I know the answer.

B shows the folly of A. This is a marketing position dearly to be wished for, and it doesnt happen very often. But the examples are memorable FM radio compared to AM radio. Personal computers compared to typewriters. Calculators compared to slide rules. Transistor radios compared to tube radios (an older example). But the majority of real-world examples are an illusory, not real, replacement of a prior product on the basis of overwhelming merit Electric toothbrushes. Anti-lock brakes. Automotive Air bags. Electric bug zappers (they dont work against mosquitoes). Sonic bug repellers (they dont work at all).

The Role of Dissatisfaction

I earnestly believe that some degree of dissatisfaction is innate in people, and absent our modern society, the chance that someone would fall to his knees in wonder at the sight of a wildflower is marginal. But I can say with assurance that modern advertising makes this possibility disappear entirely, for most people in most places, because in order to consume as we do, we must first be programmed to regard everyday experiences as completely unsatisfactory.

This aspect of marketing has a lot in common with traditional religious practices

The truth is hidden from view.

Your reward lies in the hereafter.

True happiness in only available to the initiated, the insiders.

Everyday reality is a sham, a waste of time, an illusion.

We are all defective, our personal experiences have no legitimacy without the validation of priests.

When I was young, this kind of talk was perfect I already held everyday experience in contempt (meaning I was already a trained consumer). Each new belief system that came along seemed more sophisticated and promising than the last, certain to show how the seemingly random events around me actually fit together into a coherent whole, a whole that I could perceive if only I underwent an initiation ritual.

Finally I realized that each of the belief systems I sampled were simply examples of modern product packaging and marketing Your individual, direct experience means nothing. Join up. Get with the program. Oh, by the way, we are going to need some funds to cover our legitimate expenses in showing you the True Path to Enlightenment.

This doesnt mean I suddenly saw the value of direct, personal experience, but I certainly did see that the packaged version was not innately superior. For me, this was a big step forward.

But for most Americans, rich and poor, the packaged version is still innately superior, and this is tangible evidence of the triumph of marketing. For us, a personal view of a field of sunflowers is quite ordinary, but a painting of that same view can fetch millions. Even the paintings of sunflowers rejected by the artist, then used by his maid as rags to clean up his studio, are prized beyond any imaginable real-life scene of sunflowers. Why? Simple the real scene cannot be packaged and marketed it can never be more than an individual experience.

Pablo Picasso realized the importance of marketing, late in his career. At that time, he began churning out works that had as their only distinguishing characteristic a resemblance to the works of an artist named Picasso. The subject meant nothing, the style meant everything. Pure marketing.

We distrust our direct experiences, and require a commentator an authority to interpret our experiences for us. This is why Americans believe nothing is real until it has been on television. In this sense, television is the product package, as well as a vehicle for the ultimate comment on all contemporary reality advertising.

When the pet rock was first introduced, when a completely ordinary rock became valuable by virtue of its package and advertising, I imagine some advertiser on Madison Avenue saying, Yes! Now we have them! They will buy absolutely anything!

Coping Skills

Here are some common-sense suggestions to minimize the negative effects of consumerism in your life

It is very likely that most of your dissatisfactions are a carefully engineered preparation for consumerism. So examine your dissatisfactions keep only those that, if discarded, might kill you. Toss the rest.

The first rule of advertising if it is advertised, it is not a necessity. So start out by saying I dont need this product. Now, do I want it?

Ask yourself how much of an advertisement appeals to reason, and how much appeals to emotion. If the primary appeal is to emotion, you should expect to feel another, stronger emotion after the purchase disappointment.

Ask yourself if the advertisement describes a product, or instead describes you in unrealistic ways. After all, it is the real you that will be paying for the product, not the fantasy you that deserves the very best.

Apply common sense to advertising. If you are being offered a book that is guaranteed to make you millions and costs $.5, you should wonder why it didnt work for the author. Real millionaires dont promote get-rich-quick schemes on late-night TV unless the actual get-rich-quick scheme is to sell millions of copies of a worthless book.

Above all, recapture an appreciation for ordinary reality. Two reasons quickly come to mind

Fields of flowers dont lie, and

If you postpone a walk in the flowers for long enough, the next time you check, they will be gone.

In my view, if a person cant sit down in a forest, look between the trees at a sunlit meadow and say, This is all I really need, then that person is more than slightly bent. But thats only my opinion I could be wrong.

A Closing Comment

In your life, how many print articles have you read that portray consumerism and advertising in this way? Chances are, very few or none. Why? Is it because the author is spectacularly original, possibly inspired by genius? Or is it simply because television, magazines and newspapers reject this kind of writing out of hand, for fear of offending advertisers? Even though I am the author and would like you to believe the first premise, the second is actually correct articles like this are almost never seen in print, and ideas like these are almost never aired on TV. They are deliberately excluded.

In the commercial publishing business and in television network programming, articles like this are tantamount to treason or suicide. Small-circulation scholarly journals are another story, but their readership is so small and specialized that they do not represent a threat to mass marketing. For various reasons the Internet, although increasingly commercial in content, is also the best source for anti-consumerist sentiment.

To access some of these resources, submit the search string anti-consumer to your favorite search engine.

Further reading How we confuse symbols and things -- Interview with an Extraterrestrial

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In the beginning divine intervention made enemies of Agamemnon and Achilles along with greed and jealousy. Achilles' hatred was so strong for Agamemnon that he dropped out of the war and left Agamemnon to fight on his own. Agamemnon became too greedy and relentless.

Achilles hated Agamemnon, but Agamemnon didn't care because Zeus revealed his fate in a dream. Therefore, he became greedy for power and immortality. Achilles was upset that Agamemnon chose to keep Bresis, whom was the one thing that mattered the most to Achilles. But Agamemnon wasn't thinking for himself which made things worse for him in the long-run. This made him very jealous and upset with the Achaeans. But once Agamemnon and Achilles reunited the tables turned in favor for the Greeks. They were more powerful and more strong willed than ever before. Athena strengthens him by planting ambrosia and honey in his chest. This was fate v. free will. They had to choose sides for themselves.

When Agamemnon finally realized that Achilles was the key aspect in the Battle of Troy he was mournful. This was the start of a new friendship. The two were thinking on their own and came together.

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When Agamemnon told Achilles "But I am not to blame! Zeus and Fate and the Fury stalking through the night, they are the ones who drove that savage madness in my heart......"(bk1,ln100), Agamemnon displays his frustration of the deceiving Zeus, who was sending dreams about his fate. Agamemnon became Greedy after hearing false interpretations of his future. He explained this to Achilles hoping for his forgiveness. Achilles who realizes this expresses his sorrows and realizes what all is going on. This marks the climax of the Trojan War. They were able to pull themselves together by thinking on a mortal level instead of an illusionary level.

Agamemnon could have surpassed all of this if he would have listened to his own instincts instead of some meaningless dream. He thought that his fate was to conquer everyone and live happily ever after. His greed for fate got in the way of reality and his free will.

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