(no subject)
Was just reading The Middle Mind:why americans don't think for themselves aka in UK/Ireland The Middle Mind: why consumer culture is turning us into the living dead - although amazon calls it the same thing on both sides of the pond.
It's interesting to read, particularly in my current mind-set. I was wondering recently why we accept so much marketing crap into our lives, why we strive for what is essentially middle-America when deep in our souls we know that what's being offered is money for our souls.
We trade our souls for a job that will pay us to have what the magazines say we should have and to have a lifestyle that keeps demanding more of the bits of our souls. I see people who love their jobs compromising right left and centre in order to keep the job, not insisting that there is some sort of joy in their life, not seeing the pretty among the crap.
I see me trying to be nice to everyone when I sould occasionally say "bollox to this, you're being a tool". I see me changing my mind to avoid an argument, censoring my journal cause it might offend someone out there.
I see people being silenced by their job because they see that there's something wrong there, saying so, and then not wanting to rock the boat, or getting slapped on the wrist or fired because they love their job, it's their passion, but their passion is running sour, heading somewhere they wish it wouldn't.
What to do, I don't know, but the chains are becoming more and more akward.
We settle for middle or low brow because that's what's available (if you enjoy it that's a different ballgame) but we don't insist on good service, what we want, what we need.
Where have we come to in the past century? We now rely on mass-production. Our clothing doesn't fit properly, our houses look like someone abuses the architectural rubber stamps I got as a partial joke for my father one christmas, we have the same books on the same shelves worldwide in our shops and we kowtow to the US. We can't express our indignation at women in Burkas (see Kevin Myers series of articles) without being told that we're intolerant, even though we're just asking how that reflects on women who don't wear them!
I'm not saying that there's a time when it was better but we're moving to a future that seems to show us that it's going to get worse. Maybe we need to stop and think a bit about what we want for our children and our children's children.
It's interesting to read, particularly in my current mind-set. I was wondering recently why we accept so much marketing crap into our lives, why we strive for what is essentially middle-America when deep in our souls we know that what's being offered is money for our souls.
We trade our souls for a job that will pay us to have what the magazines say we should have and to have a lifestyle that keeps demanding more of the bits of our souls. I see people who love their jobs compromising right left and centre in order to keep the job, not insisting that there is some sort of joy in their life, not seeing the pretty among the crap.
I see me trying to be nice to everyone when I sould occasionally say "bollox to this, you're being a tool". I see me changing my mind to avoid an argument, censoring my journal cause it might offend someone out there.
I see people being silenced by their job because they see that there's something wrong there, saying so, and then not wanting to rock the boat, or getting slapped on the wrist or fired because they love their job, it's their passion, but their passion is running sour, heading somewhere they wish it wouldn't.
What to do, I don't know, but the chains are becoming more and more akward.
We settle for middle or low brow because that's what's available (if you enjoy it that's a different ballgame) but we don't insist on good service, what we want, what we need.
Where have we come to in the past century? We now rely on mass-production. Our clothing doesn't fit properly, our houses look like someone abuses the architectural rubber stamps I got as a partial joke for my father one christmas, we have the same books on the same shelves worldwide in our shops and we kowtow to the US. We can't express our indignation at women in Burkas (see Kevin Myers series of articles) without being told that we're intolerant, even though we're just asking how that reflects on women who don't wear them!
I'm not saying that there's a time when it was better but we're moving to a future that seems to show us that it's going to get worse. Maybe we need to stop and think a bit about what we want for our children and our children's children.