Random Flux

A diamond is forever, right? Wrong. Diamonds are actually dirt cheap and your and the rest of the world’s romantic associations with them are a perfidious and carefully-orchestrated long-term creation of advertising agencies, sponsored by the South African De Beers diamond cartel.

Read this fascinating article from Atlantic Monthly (originally published in 1982) for a run-down on how an artificial market and a romantic tradition were created from nothing by advertisers — even in Japan, a country that previously had zero courtship traditions associated with diamonds. In fact, you will discover that even your reticence to ever sell your diamonds is not your own feeling but something that has been carefully implanted in you.

Welcome to the Matrix!