Ben
You have to remember that the last thing most people want is to stand out and the people who can use this to their advantage know this, but they twist it to make it feel like they are helping you. The best way to sell something is to make people believe that if they dont buy into the latest fad then they will be left out of the ‘watercooler’ conversations at work and they will have nothing to talk about with their mates - generally they just wont belong.
This phenomemon can be seen throughout T4’s programming schedule ie Big Brother and all its soul consuming spin offs. By not challanging peoples views at any time people become comfortable with what they know and are scared by anything diferent so dont give it due consideration, instead switching back to what they know and what everyone else is doing.
Why do you think commercial radio stations play the same 10-15 songs day in day out and most people watch films at the cinema which are sequels or worse, a sequal to a sequal. It cannot be blamed on anything else not being out there as 1000s of songs and 100s of films are released each week. Its all based on fear and distraction.
Also you have to remember that we live in capatalist society where everything has a pound sign on it, nobody takes responsibility for themselves or their actions prefering to pass blame rather than learn from mistakes, politics is seen through the eyes of economics rather than sociology and no emotion is attached to business dealings.
We live in a country where polititions are looking to look cool to get voted in rather than proving they are effective at their jobs but they smack of ignorance when talking about any social issue relating to those who are not rich. These are people who read the papers to find out about the youth of today but we all know newspapers have their own agendas and are payed by the richest companies to promote certain products/people, therefore the news papers are not full of whats best but what the people with money want to sell and the newspapers help to create the right environment to sell these things
How can rich white men possibly know what is best for everyone when the majority of the people they represent are not rich, not white and not men.
They talk of ousting racism in the police force by employing more officers from ethnic minorites so there is a 50/50 split of white and ethnic officers but its just as racist doing this as the percentage of the population in races doesnt support these figures working in practise and therefore you discriminating others for not being of a minority.
The only way to sort out the problems of this country is to revert to a meritocracy where the best man for the job gets the job. This is the only way to positively discriminate in a recruitment process. Of course the flaw in this idea is that the people who are in power and who have the money are not the best people for the jods they do but they have to much power to be removed from their positions. Or do they?
If people werent distracted all the time by useless, mind numbing fads suchs the afore mentioned Big Brother, the latest mobile phone or dodgy hair styles(you know the ones i mean) then they would see that they can change how things work, people have more power than they realise and the government is scared that we will find this out so the system keeps distracted with created desires such as cars and home improvements or whatever.
Is it any surprise that stress and depression are on the rise. People are conned into thinking that they want the latest mobile phone/car or whatever the flavour of the month is, but this is a desire created by advertising and has no real meaning to us therefore when we get these products we will be perpetually disappointed as we will then want the next thing and on the cycle goes. Perpetual dissappointment is bound to cause depression.
Its time to wake up people and realise that life isnt about material things, yes they can help but only as a means to giving us more time to do what really matters - meeting people, going places and experiencing life. Be honest, are you happier when you buy a new car or when you meet a new girl, when you get paid or when you visit somewhere new that blows you away, when you get paid or when you have a child?
Think about it and next time you see someone trying to sell you something you never needed before, dont stop and listen just think stop trying to distract me from what ive got to do and move on.
(I hope this rant makes sense cause I’ve ad to write it at work and that means avoiding being caught - oh yes I am a bad man arent I)
