Commercializing our souls

Are you tired of being told how to live your life? Are you exhausted by trying to keep up with the latest gadgets, fads, and fashions? I am.

I’m tired of being told I am not fit enough, not friendly enough, don’t smell good enough, have teeth that aren’t perfect, don’t have enough sex, that my erections aren’t good enough, that if I was a real man that I would make more money.

If you’re female, it’s worse: you don’t smell right (anywhere at any time), you wear the wrong clothes, you’re too fat, your relationship isn’t good enough,  you aren’t sexy enough (whatever the hell that means), and of course if only your hair looked like hers, you too would be happy.

Who’s admonishing us? Our corporations and the vastly successful advertising and marketing engines that fuel their sales. They dictate what’s normal, what’s new, what’s everyone else wants, what you should want, what you should look like, and how you should act. If I see one more clique of obnoxious, rich, complaining pretty people who spend their days partying and sucking money out of you and me watching them, I’m going to wretch. When did we lose our senses?

Take the Kardashian phenomenon. What exactly does this family produce? Avatars, apparitions, fantasy. They sell the idea that if you look like they look (which can be achieved by using their products), do what they do (which they show you on all their TV series), and act like they act (like entitled, shallow women and men), then you will be happy.  It’s all about money. It’s always about money.

But make no mistake, we buy it hook, line, and sinker, or they couldn’t sell anything to anybody. They prey upon our most sensitive nerves, the ones that drive us toward acceptance and love, and they strike against our biggest fear: rejection. Most of what we choose to do, choose to buy, and who we choose to hang around with is driven by the fear of rejection and the desire for inclusion. We will even delude ourselves in the hope that if we pretend to be different, then we will be loved.

How sad.