In 195 1, Harvard sociologist David Riesman published an essay called "The Nylon War." In it, he sug- gested that the easiest way to van- quish our Soviet adversaries would be to drop consumer goods on them from airplanes.
Deluge those deprived masses with Ansco cameras and Schick shavers, and they would soon forsake their jobs at the Red October Tank Works. Shower them with Camel cigarettes and Ronson lighters, and Karl Marx would quickly fade into the recesses of collective memory.
In f...