Where On Earth?

One evening I was sitting and realizing the truth that seems to go along with nothing in particular, and the slow steady beat of monotony that persists through the lives of not only myself, but thousands of others as well. A candle that flickers in the corner can be seen as almost symbolic of the struggle that just about every youth in today's society is going through: to be heard, noticed, and recognized for their individuality and never, never releasing themselves from the modern burden that is their wick. Plus, with everyone today trying to be different but eventually being the same, some questions arise. Why is everyone trying to be different? Is this a fad? Is the whole idea of personal change just a novelty? If so, why do people persist? If this fad continues on the same path that it is on right now, society as we know it will be dominated by an entire civilization of neo-fadists.

Why is everyone trying to be different? Why did that person buy Levis jeans rather that buy Eddie Bauer jeans? These are common questions that no one can really answer unless they are faced with the same or similar dilemma. Moreover, it is the youth in today's society that are having these dilemmas forced upon them. Large corporations today are trying to manipulate the advertising markets to pitch their product, and make all of the people want to buy it. Thus making the weak-minded people buy this product, and at the same time helping a new segregated group to evolve. This new group will start buying more of this product, and others very similar to it, and before we know it a few people who were the same as many others are now a small group that is the same as each other, but different from everything else. This would lead us to believe that the means of advertising today is far more effective and influential on the uneducated and susceptible minds of kids and teenagers.

Is this a fad? It would appear to be that way. The Webster's New World Dictionary defines a fad as: "a style, etcetra, that interests many people for a short time; passing fashion." There have been many fads over the course of time. One of the most notable is disco music. This fad was highly popular in the youth society of its respective generation. But one thing we must never do is count out the ability of a fad to resurrect itself. If a person wanders into a music store, they will find so many selections of music that it would boggle the mind. That person will think, "I like disco, but there is no disco section. What am I going to do?" The fad of real disco has long since passed, but now filling those jive-ass slippers are various different styles that all resemble their common ancestor. Some of these styles are jungle, drum and bass, electronica, and more recently, psycho-pop-rock-and-roll. All of those new styles all have and use the same roots and foundations and styles as their faddish predecessor. Now in turn all of these modern styles of disco either are or are becoming fads themselves, and in time they will die out and we will be left with the ungodly resurrection of the music from the eighties.

Is the whole idea of personal change just a novelty? When we change the way we dress, the way we have our hair done, the music group that we listen to, is this the notion of change that drives us to start our own fad? It really isn't worth it to constantly change and alter our own personal lifestyle because society will do it for us. Society is constantly changing. Even though we see things that seem to reappear over the course of time, they are not exactly the same. They are slightly altered, and altering, and sort of changing and repeating at the same time. Almost like a fractal. Fractals can be made by taking a normal geometric figure (a triangle or line segment, for example) and operating on it so that the new figure is more complicated in a special way. Then in the same way, operate on that resulting figure, and get an even more complicated figure. Do it again and again ad infinitum. If we can let society do our changing for us, in a fractal-like fashion, we will reach our optimum level of cohesiveness within our society.

Why do people persist? What makes us continue changing who and what we are so that we will still belong to the "in crowd"? All of the propaganda that we hear over the radio, see on television, notice on that billboard on our way into town, are forced to look at, at the top of the web page of our favorite search engine, and so on, are the things that cause us to buy, buy, buy. And because the relentless pushing of other people's ideas constantly bombards us, it takes away from the creative aspects of our day-to-day lives. With our creativity gone we must rely on other people's ingenuity, thus turning us into mindless, inert consumers of our corporate pseudo parents.

Because this inevitable peril must be stopped, we need to flood every sensory input that these neo-fadists have at their disposal with multiple forms of pro free thought information. This can be done through the uses of television, radio, the Internet, outdoor visuals, movies, and the music industry. Or we can boycott all of the corporate sectors in charge of these areas, because they are the ones planting the seeds of change and difference that will eventually lead to conformity and indifference in our minds. They are the ones who must be persecuted! Not the who can think on our own.

(c) Judsen Garside. All rights remain with the author.