It’s all about having something to sell. I think that we have actually become pure market forces which if you recall was petitioned for us in 1840. That’s looking pretty far ahead. de Tocqueville, whose field was economics, came from France and toured this country and published his book Democracy in America in 1840. He wrote that if American democracy proceeds in the way in which it is going, it will become eventually pure market forces. And it has. That’s what we are. We’re not anything else, really. And once market forces run everything, everybody is selling all the time, everybody is a salesman all the time. And being known is part of being a salesman. You can’t sell what isn’t known; you have to have a brand. You are your brand. The Kardashians are their brand,and if you want them, you have to pay. And that’s what market forces will do to individuals and families when there is nothing else to lead them.
— Mike Nichols
