I'm a fourth of the way through reading No Logo by Naomi Klein. It's crazy. I did not really realize how much brands surround us. It's sick. I don't even know if I want to wear my Nike's anymore. Or my converses. I feel like flipping through the latest issue of Adbusters while simultaneously giving the entire corporate world my middle finger. It's difficult to understand how it's possible for all this bullshit to take place. Then again, just a few years ago, I was in the mix of it too. I'd like to think that, like she said, I was more of the detached type. Kinda spitting in their faces and sporting their brands at the same time. I don't know. I know I like the finer things in life but what are the finer things? It's hard to say because our generation has been branded since birth. Literally. Since as long as I can remember, I knew what was cool. And what was cool had a brand. And that brand was a way of life. I can't say I wasn't influenced. I mean, I loved the quote "I'm like Che Guevara with bling on, I'm complex." Now I wonder if that made me complex or retarded? I also don't get why these people in power, mostly, corporate america, carry on the way they do. Do they realize what they're doing? And what are they doing it for, really? For money? So they can buy more of the the bullshit they themselves and their douche-bag competitors brand? They're constantly chasing the cool, and I guess they need to sell more of their image, brand or whatever the fuck because they themselves need to get more of their own and other brands while there are people in the world dying for food. Dying for water. We're making a living. No. We're making a dying because we need that new car, those new shoes. Give me a break. Brands in schools and other public domains are pollution. Give me graffiti or wack ass art. At least they're not trying to make me feel incomplete. What makes it worse is that the drug companies aren't any different. They make us think that we need their brands because, without them, you're ill. Then we go around believing we need something to survive. Wake up! As a species, we've made it a few thousnd years without this nonsense. I think we'll be alright. "But no, I need this pill to lower my blood pressure." Bitch, go out and take a walk!
It's okay to want certain things in life, don't get it twisted. I want many things, but I try not to
confuse them as being needs and I try to understand why I want those things. That's the problem, I don't think most consumers think. They do what they do best. Consume. I hate that I'm a consumer. If you think about it, that word itself is scary. But to thrive we must consume. As I sit here and type, I consume. When I hop on that flight to escape my bubble, I fund mass pollution. It sucks but it doesn't have to remain this way. It's cool to consume if we're conscious of it and find ways to make it a good thing. Like the way plants do. They're good role models. They make the best with what they've been given. They consume sunlight for energy. We provide them with more than enough carbon dioxide and they happily consume it, using that carbon as their building blocks and they even go one step further by providing us with oxygen in the process. Can't you see why I'm a tree hugger?
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