Sometimes I can't help but laugh (in a non-condescending manner, I suppose) at people who proclaim with imbued self-righteousness, that they are "different" from the masses. Really? Give me 10 valid reasons as to how you're different from the society that you're fulminating against. Are you SO insecure that you'd go to the extent of berating the quote unquote "masses" just to make yourself feel superior? Just admit it already, you ARE insecure about yourself, so you think listening to "this" and "that" music, or wearing "this" and "that" brand, or quoting "this" and "that" person on your Facebook status makes you feel so much superior than your boring, brain-dead peers you make fun of with people who share your quote unquote ideology. The very idea that you do this makes me think that you've yet to achieve maturity.
Get off your high horse already, would you please?
The fact of the matter is, if you HAVE to distinguish yourself from the others by consuming "this" or "that" commodity, you are in fact already a part of the brainwashed masses. You and I, see, we're no different. We're all victims of the capitalist modus operandi. We are all slaves to the consumer driven lifestyle. So yeah sure, you wear your hair in certain ways, you answer certain questions with certain pre-meditated answers that you think best echo your ideology.. But face it, we're all PROGRAMMED one way or another, by the media and the things we choose to consume. Stop feeling so special, you sanctimonious jerk. Stop criticizing the "society" like you're not a part of it. Stop claiming that the masses are all vacuous-minded slaves to political and corporate propaganda, when all you can think about is getting an Iphone or Blackberry or whatever crap you people are killing your brain cells with today. Listen, stop thinking too highly of yourself because this is the truth, YOU ARE NOT ANY MORE SPECIAL OR INFERIOR THAN ANY ONE OF US.
Big deal. So you have tattoos all over your body, drive a Harley, covered in piercings, gone to the moon and back, got green hair (I'm making fun of myself here you see). So what? Are you denying the fact that a part (no matter how little) of all you've done in your life is because you HAVE to live up to certain stereotypes or certain perceptions people have of you? Really, only total dupes would buy into the image you've projected. Sure, you're living according to the ideology you chose, but surely what PEOPLE think have significant bearings on how you choose to present yourself. Get over it, we know your game, in fact I've been in that very same position too. And then LIFE happened. I grew up, became more mature, began taking up more responsibilities.
I've come to accept that there are certain rules, certain social norms that I must adhere to, in order to tailor a better future for myself and my family. So I want a good job to make enough money to take care of my family, give them back what they've been giving me all my life, send my youngest brother to a good school in some other country and to have enough money to travel around the world. So yes I have a very TYPICAL and BORING dream.... so what? I believe that my ambition is not rooted in self-centredness but rather on my desire to provide a good life for my family. Am I to be reprimanded for choosing a path based on a mature and unselfish understanding of what it takes to make money? Conformity is an essentiality to make it in life, I understand that. The question of whether I like it or not is on an entirely different playing field altogether.
The fact that I know that I AM a part of the masses, that I'm willing to admit it and to sometimes make my life a parody of all the contradictions that fashion my being-- These things, perhaps (and that's a BIG maybe), might make me different from other people. Also, why can't we be both conformists and anti-conformists at the same time? Sure it's all cool and hip to be fulminating against the SYSTEM, but also very hypocritical to not acknowledge that we're a PART of it. I reiterate what I've said earlier on, GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSES ALREADY. I leave you with the adage below, with the intention of hopefully getting you to think critically about all the ideologies you've hitherto stood by....
"Sincerity has become a prized virtue in a society where phoniness is a universal condition" -Andrew Wernick.
That is all. Thank you for reading.
