Another Whinny Essay... seriously. I need to stop.

I just submitted this to adbusters. Not my finest piece of writing, but let's face it, I am slacking these days. Lack of reading equals lack of quality writing. Alas. Enjoy.

A Call For Superheroes.

Now is the time to forget the rules; all bets are off. Now is the time to shed our contemporary consumer society costumes, and truly reveal the superheroes within ourselves.

The concept of superheroes is not unusual, they have been part of our fantasy culture for decades and they cross international cultures and barriers. I would go as far as saying that as long as man has existed he has always dreamed of having super-natural powers and abilities that set him apart from everyone else and give him authority to help and save the world, or at least help with his labour.

What’s not so commonly recognised is the similarities of superheroes to the contemporary consumer world. Superheroes don masks, capes and lycra snug-fitting outfits and alter their identities to conceal who they are, or rather augment who they want to be: a crime fighter; a life saver; a bringer of justice. We are guilty of doing such things with our own purchases, and our own everyday clothes. We buy things that will make us feel like who we want to be and that we think will display our inner personality to the outside world. Really we are just fitting into genres and shoe-horning our lives into a brand we think we identify with. We have been behaving like superficial superheroes for decades, but this is now a call for real superheroes: for people to realise their potential and realise the difference they can make in this world.

No, we don’t have any kind of super natural powers, but I don’t think that possessing abilities beyond reality would actually help, but more so hinder. This is up to us. We don’t need a mask, a cape, or any kind of special outfit. We don’t need powers, or to have been born on another planet. We really don’t need to conceal our identities or suppress who we are any longer. The pressure to conform to a certain genre and to appeal to the people already leading that niche of society has reached boiling point and we can now free ourselves. It’s time to let our superhero selves reign supreme. We need to save the planet, and we need to do it as superheroes.

Let’s shed our brands, and our obsession with spending. Let’s start to help the people we know and the people we don’t know; let’s talk to our neighbours and save society; let’s go outside and experience nature and appreciate how intrinsically linked to it we are; let’s make amends with our family and friends and have no animosity; let’s look at the sky and realise how wonderful and beautiful it is; let’s not fear our own culture, anyone else’s culture and especially not religion; let’s stop working so many hours, and stop wanting gadgets, brands, and things beyond need; let’s say no more to being psychologically tormented and depressed by the cold world we have invented; let’s listen to the young and the old; let’s cook real food and no longer be a slave to work and the microwave meals made for convenience; let’s realise that the things we own will not afford us one iota of real happiness; let’s design things that will help people rather than things to make money; let’s put down the TV remote and read books; let’s enjoy life and realise that memories are what make it; let’s learn from each other and never stop learning; let’s care about the world; let’s care about people; let’s be happy; let’s care about oppression, war, and let’s no longer stand for corruption among our ‘leaders’. We have the power to rise up and take back the planet that is ours. Let’s change the world, let’s be superheroes – together.

With a Rock in my hand.

It's so good to be back on the non-fiction. As much as I loved my break filled with vampire romance I am truely suited to reading non-fiction books, or fiction books that are non-fiction laced with a ficticious surrounding (like 1984, the catcher in the rye, on the road, Chuck Palanhuick's life works).


(can I just say, and this is off-topic, VLC plays ANYTHING, best media player ever for that.)

There were a couple of articles I read today in the most recent issue of Adbusters that really grabbed my attention.

Two of them are actually on the adbusters website and they can be found here:



This one is about hipsters.

I think Eilidh and I used to call them scene-sters back in the day, and now they have grown into hipsters.

I was quite alarmed when I read it because a lot of the things that they list off as 'ways to identify a hipster' are things that I have done in the past, or that I am currently doing. On futher inspection and with continued reading I realised that I am not a hipster, because I couldn't care less. The things that I buy and especially the clothes I wear are more-so because I don't give a rat's tail most of the time. Yes, there is a certain look I want, it's a Vikki Miller Queen of the World look, however, I just do, I don't really think about it any more. I used to go out of my way to try and stand out, but now I don't really care.

The other thing in that article spoke about trends of music and film and how things are popular among the hipsters until too many people like it. Now, this is something I am guilty of. I think I have a low tolerance level, or at least I used to, because I am certainly better and just getting on my with life and not worrying about what other people are doing or how they are perceiving me (not that I don't care completely, just that I am better than I was). I have been known to stop liking things when they get overly popular, this is moreso because I hate manipulation, market anything in the right way and it will sell, this has been proven on many occasions. For things to get overtly popular without the correct slow and painful method, means there has been some kind of subliminal marketing which tells people to buy something because it will verify their identity. Sounds harsh? Well it's the truth.

That's why I stop liking things, because I do not want to be associated with the fad, the movement, the genre that is being promoted and the meaning that gives to my identity. I want my own identity, not one manufactured by someone else. This is why popular songs from the 90s/80s and even a couple of months ago, I will now listen to again. Because the blood-sucking marketers have moved on to use something else to exploit the generation with.

I dislike, however, that art is getting mixed up with the hipster genre. Not all art school atendees are hipsters. There are plenty of genuine artists, and to use old film cameras or polaroid is not just to be cool, it's an attempt to bring reality back to a digital world. None of this is the hipsters fault and I hate the way the article segregates them and makes them sound like imposters or heathen's. They are recycling clothing like the environmentalists tell them to do, they are being creative in dress and with art. Granted, I hate that they are my competition, but that's just because they are better than me (at art, and angsty teen blogs - I no longer than the teen, just the angst).

Moving on though.

This article is about tupperware

After reading it I really want to go to a tuperware party, call me a molly mormon but I do. I want to go and bend plastic and oooo and aaaah over how strong and airtight plastic can be. I, however, do not want to go to a taser party. Well, not unless it was a self defence party, where we were actually taught something useful other than how to carry a weapon and still look good. I bet half of the women, if not all, that own those leopard print tasers (leopard print is pretty cool) won't even be able to get them out of their bags. They will be mugged regardless because no one told them they will be shocked, they will be scared but they have to be in the mindset and use their addrenaline rush to take action (if it's safe). I'm sure some of those women might end up injured because they resort to using their laser taser faser mcgaser instead of their own common sense.

It's a shame common sense isn't sold with leopard print patterns, the world might make a little more sense if it was.

Here comes the hard slaught for me. (how good a word is slaught?) The next two articles I am going to type-a type-a type-a (like lil vicky's school of dance, but not, because I have two k's I am borderline racist).

This is from an unknown page of Adbusters number 79.

the page number is unknown because they don't have page numbers.

9/11
When foreign fighters flew into the World Trade Centre, America's confidence was shaken to the core. But instead of reinventing itself once again, America has come undone.

Today, the US is bogged down in a war that is both unpopular and unwinnable. It's economy is on the verge of collapse. Washington is paralyzed with calcified politics and unable to create sustainable energy policy, break its addiction to debt or stop antagonizing foreign foes.

But for the first time, America cannot point the finger at an identifiable enemy. For the first time, America must come to terms with the fact that this is a self-inflicted crisis. The question now is whether America can survive this latest challenge and remain one of the world's most dominant powers, or whether its confidence has finally been broken for good.



There is no author for that. My comments on this are that what I've been saying for the past few weeks is correct. Granted, I say it as a proud joke, but I do believe that the United States are going to need help, and I suspect that the empire - that is the Great British Empire - will start to reform. The United Kingdom will need help as well, but we have picked ourselves up again and again, as a nation. Granted, i've not been alive for the past times and the quality of the majority of this nations citizens has somewhat deteriorated in the past few decades. So it will be interesting to see if we can stay afloat. I think our cynicism and our dour faced nature, our grip on reality, mixed with our inability to actually complain properly will see us through.

Okay, here's the next article:

begging for more by Kono Matsu

Two years ago, in his annual state of the union address, President Bush chastised America for its raginig addiction to foreign oil. In the stern language of disapproving patriarch, Bush let it be known that he intended to address the growing problem before his tenure was up.

Now, with only a few scant months of his presidency remaining, Bush has finally unveiled his energy plan. After begging and barely getting the Saudis to pump more oil, he is attempting to strong-arm Congress into lifting the ban on offshore drilling. Bush's plan, which would cause untold environmental damage, will only yeild enough oil to support our current level of consumption for two-and-a-half years. And were the drilling to start tomorrow, it wouldn't become available in the market for at least a decade.

Some plan.

So why didn't Bush start by suggesting that Americans drive less, drive slower, or stop driving altogether? Why didn't he urge funding for alternative fuel research or push for a carbon tax?

The reason is because, in addition to being the most inept leader this country has ever known, Bush is an oil man.

We never had a chance.

Seven years of Bush policy has left America crushed by debt, stuck in Iraq and isolated from the rest of the world. Bush will undoubtedly be remembered by history as the straw that broke the empire's back.

And yet, despite it all, the man himself seems to be faring well. Displaying the unflinching gusto for which he's famous, Bush's inner fortitude is nothing short of a phenomenon.

Despite his litany of flaws, I admire Bush for his unwavering sense of self-confidence. I am in awe of whatever force - be it will or ignorance - that shields him from the onslaught of public opinion. Still, sometimes before the sun sets on his presiidency, I'd like to see someone confront him for his crimes. I'd like to seee a reporter, a citizen or a disillusioned war veteran hold him accountable for the destruction his administration has wrought. I'd like someone to make him answer for the million people who have died on his watch or the eco-crisis he has left woefully unaddressed. But most of all, in front of the blazing lights of media cameras, I'd like to see someone wipe that smirk off his goddam face.



When I was in Utah in November there wasn't a lot of politics or debate. Since then the sub-prime mortgage nonsense, the 'credit crunch', the price of petrol, the fear of running out of oil has actually occured. It's been a busy year. So while I was in the republican Bush loving state of Utah in May I heard all about the oil in Alaska, and how people didn't care about the environment or the life of animals if it meant the sustainability of the American race. I kid you not.

There were many comments I heard, from all ages and wakes of life that suggested the solution was digging for oil in the United States.

Now, Oil in the states has been known about for a long time, but the US decided a long time ago to not use their own oil, they decided to buy North Sea Oil from Maggie the spazz Thatcher when she sold us down the river in the 70s, and they decided to buy up and use the Eastern oil in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc etc. Well, what the bloody hell have they done with it?

That was a lot of oil, where did it go?

It would be nice if we all had an unlimited supply and we could keep driving around until the cows come home, and live the life we think we all want. But the truth is, we just can't do it. We just can't keep living that way. We were given a pure blessing that we just stuck to. Rather than continuing technology and improving on our laurels we stayed there. We just sat back and enjoyed the wind blowing through our hair. We became lazy.

This had not happened before, think about how quickly other generations and other centuries have improved upon inventions and technology. We are no longer moving as rapidly as we once did because we no longer invent things for the sake of improving our life style, but we invent things to make money, to exploit people and to just shift all the numbers from one bank account to the other. Our forefathers discovered oil, invented cars, we've improved upon them but we just invent numbers. What do we have to show for decades of thinking? Hyperindividualism. Inventing things for the benefit of individual gain rather than the improvement of the lives of the members of our society.

When it comes to design this is the biggest question of them all. I think however, rather than the question being, how do we invent a new fuel or a new material to easily keep our current way of life? Perhaps the question should be, 'How do we change our way of life to be in accordance with the things nature has provided us with?'

We are not smarter than nature. That is man's biggest fall down and largest mistake. Thinking that we are smarter than nature and that we can live and survive without it.

We, technically, all should have that giant 'the spazz' name in between our first and surname's.

What a mess. Rather than digging oil, we should be digging our way out of this mess, out of this dependency for oil, out of this black hole we have drilled our way into.

Black Friday and the Mass Production Line of Consumers.

I stood in a queue that lasted over an hour because there was no order, there was no etiquette - there was just shopping.

On the stroke of midnight on the evening of thanksgiving thousands of people took to the mall, to stand in whatever extreme weather condition their state of residence felt like throwing at them that night. In the state I was in, it was freezing temperatures, I cannot give you the exact temperature because I have the inability to convert fahrenheit to celsius. These people were not queueing for Harry Potter or hot tickets, they were queueing for clothes, for televisions, for lingerie, for make up, perfume, shoes, bags, hats, jeans, mobile phones, computers, and every other object that has been created for the sole purpose of being consumed.

As I walked in to the mall at a little after midnight three young people darted across the car park shouting 'I've gotta get to the sales.' It was their way of mocking the consumer world they understood to be a farce, how long would it be, however, until they were saying those words with sincerity. With age comes responsibility and does that, in effect, bring unnecessary consumption?

The mall was packed, every shop and fast food area was open - I couldn't believe it because it was the evening of a holiday (granted a holiday I don't celebrate being British and all). There was one shop in particular that had a queue outside of it, and my accompanying consumer wanted that shop. So we queued, and queued. As we did I watched the line of people travelling up a nearby escalator, the noise that the escalator made, as each person was deposited on another level of shops, sounded so mechanical and so rhythmic it was almost as if the people themselves were being spewed off of a mass production line.

Then I realised that they were. Every single one of us. We are moulded and shaped in to consumers. We no longer have the upper hand. We are told that we need need need. So we buy buy buy to fit those needs. The prices of certain objects in the United States are so high in comparison to those of Britain, why? Because the population of the United States have been told that they 'need' certain things, so they won't refuse to buy something based on price if they 'need' it - will they?

That is where Britain and the United States vary. The dense population of the U.S. is such that companies can charge what they like because there are enough people to buy products to keep their company in business. Where as the UK have to fight over the target market, which leads to price slashing and deals in favour of the consumer. It doesn't matter which way you look at it, both populations are being persuaded to buy.

Black Friday is a purely post-thanksgiving U.S/Canada day, but the UK have their January sales and the pre-Christmas spend. It all started when shopping centres started opening on a Sunday. I remember hearing the radio advertisements for the first rare and unheard of occurrence. It was a grimy winter back in the mid 90s. I can only hope that the future of Britain is not a day named after the mirkiest and hopeless of colours where people will risk their health to queue outside a store and fight for the products they are under the impression they need.

The Three Little Pigs: A Once Upon A Time Conclusion.

The enemy of the three little pigs was the wolf. He tried to persuade and manipulate those pigs
in to granting him entrance inside their houses. The story of the pigs starts with them all leaving home and starting their own lives, they are each very different because they choose different materials to construct their houses. Three different materials, of three different qualities and strengths. This could either mean that the pigs differed in intelligence, or in financial means.

The Wolf preys on the weakest first, cajoles him and then when the pig does not relent he blows his house down.

To apply that to the consumer world, the first little piggy would be those who want more, and who are seriously caught up in using objects to obtain happiness. The wolf is consumerism and he preys on those of us who want more, who cannot afford more, but that believe objects will provide the gratification required to be a part of the social circles we desire to be in.

The consumer world eats us all up, and we end up caught up in something that there is not an easy escape from.

But there are some of us that put up resistance, piggy two and three. Pig two put up a fight but was swallowed in consumerism in the end.

It was only when the wolf came across pig three and his solid fortress that he admitted defeat. Although, he was still trying, until the very end to infiltrate the house of pig three. He tried every possibly entry, including the chimney. Consumerism does the same, it will stop at nothing to try and tell us about a product; to try and persuade us to buy and spend; to encourage
us to own things we cannot afford; to ensure that we become brand loyal; to force feed us information about the social implications of a product; to cajole us in to believing that happiness comes in the form of a car, a washing detergent or a breakfast cereal.

We can no longer sit idly by, in our houses of straw and twigs and let advertising tell us about apparent social standards in an attempt to manipulate us in to buying things we do not need. Consumerism does not provide everything it promises to. It is necessary for our survival and to fulfil our social needs, but we need to focus on our inner identity to fulfil the needs of love, gratification and self-actualisation. We are all amazing, and we all have the inner superhero power necessary to not let the wolf blow our houses down.

Need: The Consumer Religion and the Hierarchy of Needs.

Our identities are based on several components, some of those are fixed and some of those are changeable. The fixed ones are things like nationality, age, and gender. The changeable ones include birth given aspects that can be changed, like hair colour, upbringing, language, and, for some of us, religion.

Most of the generations living just now will remember when our lives were based upon, predominantly, Christian principles of loving fellow man, love for ourselves, humility and integrity. Most religions preach the same fundamental values so, essentially all religion is the same in the context that it is nourishment for the ‘soul.’

Our lives are based upon the fulfilment of five levels of needs. These start with the fundamental physiological needs like eating and drinking, then as the hierarchy moves up it passes the need for security, love, self-esteem, and finally self-actualisation is the highest level. Religion used to provide for those needs, it used to encourage us to love and be loved, to feel safe in the knowledge of our faith, to have self-esteem in ourselves and finally to help us feel one hundred percent gratified with our lives, and our success, because we had a belief and a knowledge that there was more to life than the objects that surround us. Our needs were fulfilled through our faith in religion and our belief and awareness of an inner soul. Attendance at church is evidence enough to claim that we were aware of the need to nourish our inner, psychological selves.

It all started to change though, as consumerism became the forefront of living, and the material possessions in the world started to provide a social gratification, there was no longer a need to believe in something that was intangible. Why would you need to when you could believe in Nike, Coca-Cola or Sony: the lust and desire for objects overshadowed the religious precepts that our nation was, not too long ago, built upon.

This has lead to a paradigm shift in the hierarchy of needs. Based upon my own research and theories I have come to the conclusion that the needs of the individual are no longer represented by a triangle, but more-so a circle, or sphere.

Based upon the original hierarchy determined by Maslow, my own theory starts similarly with the Physiological needs in the centre. It is a small circle that is the pinnacle and inner most important need. It ensures our basic survival and it always requires us to consume in order to fulfil it.

The middle circle is our need to love and be loved, our need for belonging, stability and security. This ring encases the physiological needs because we are now more focused on achieving more than just survival. Basic survival is taken for granted and our concentrations now lie on making consumer choices that will ensure we feel safe, and we are loved. This includes making fashion decisions in order to be accepted by friends, and selecting brands that will ensure stability – those that are known and expected to provide high quality, thus, making the consumer decision process easier.The last ring and circle is self-actualisation and self-esteem. It is our top priority and we use consumerism to make us feel good about ourselves, to help us feel like we belong, or that we are more successful than others.

This is our new religion, this is what we have replaced spirituality with: objects. Christmas time is one of the prime examples. What used to be a pagan holiday, adopted by the Christians to honour the birth of their saviour has now been passed on to the corporate companies to exploit and make profit.

My Mum recounted a story to me recently about the introduction of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. It would have been somewhere in the mid 80s. Presents, gifts and toys were always a treat, and the smallest present would suffice. I remember Christmas in my young childhood, I would be overwhelmed with excitement at the prospects of receiving presents, and new toys. I’m sure I had already formed my Sindy doll and My Little Pony obsession, so any new additions to the fold were always welcome.

This particular year there was a huge push and market for Cabbage Patch Dolls. Everyone wanted one, and everyone had to have one for Christmas. It was this point that, my Mum has decided, was the turning point for consumerism - she stakes the blame solely on the Cabbage Patch. Naturally, like every other child in school, and everyone on the street who had a TV, I wanted a Cabbage Patch doll. They were in short supply and high demand, and they also cost £20. Which, in the mid 80s, was a lot of money. Usually the average Christmas gift would total in around £10, to double that price was a huge risk taken by manufacturers and the marketers. It worked though, and since then the prices have risen and the quality has dropped,
but as long as the product is in short supply and high demand, it is the must have toy for the Christmas season. If you receive one, you are the luckiest, most popular and coolest person in school, on the street and in life.

I never received a cabbage patch kids doll until a while after their release, and it was only a 4-inch plastic figure. But it made me happy. It had the brand, it had the woollen hair, and it almost looked like me. I had made a connection with an object that I had longed for, and when I achieved it, it fulfilled my need of love, and self-gratification, because socially, I had the object it would take to be successful.

That is the consumer religion, obtaining the inner happiness and joy with a product. Unfortunately we will grow out of that product socially, which means we will loose the inner happiness it had provided. This will lead to a constant feeling of instability and a need to keep looking for the item that will never let us down, that will always portray our changing inner identity and that will always satisfy our wants which, appear, to us, to be needs.

Financial Value: Branded Gratification.

Every object has two ways of measuring its value. One is financially the other is emotionally, the latter will be discussed as part of the double-bill finale, the former will be discussed now.

If I was to show up to a business meeting driving a BMW, wearing a Prada skirt and jacket, Monolo Blanihk shoes, and brandishing a leather bag with the word Dior engraved subtly on the metal catch, I would be emitting sings of financial success and therefore, professionalism, ability and confidence. Whether this was my intention or not, it will happen. This is because there are certain brands that everyone knows, and understands the financial cost of, whether it’s cheap or expensive.

I drive a Ford Ka, it’s small, impractical for large loads of people or luggage, but it does the job, it’s served me well during the four years that I’ve owned it. But I am aware that I will have to upgrade one day, as I earn more money and I can afford more, the social implications of the consumer world will encourage me to change my car, to upgrade it to one that reflects how I feel I have progressed in life. This is a form of self-gratification.

According to the social implications of branding I have not ‘made it’ in life until I own a car, or a house, or any other branded object that holds such successful symbolism. The brands that cost the most, that have the best advertising and that apparently produce the best quality objects are the ones that reward the consumer by physically emanating success.

Without a healthy advertising campaign and brand presence the object’s social value will be worth nothing. It is through preconceptions of a brand and the stereotypical opinions of those owning it and not owning it that its financial value exists.

However, unless there are cars like mine on the road, with dents, and rust, then the new BMW or Porsche would be worth nothing. Our gratification and personal financial success might be emanated to the external environment by our brand purchasing decisions, but the true value only exists when it is compared to another object, when we know we are better off than our neighbours and our friends because of the kind of car we drive, the brand of jeans we wear, the supermarket we use.

This results in psychological damage, when we end up over-worked, seeing our friends and families less and less, and becoming too stressed about the things in life that are less-important. Success is measured from the inside, but it is so easy to be caught up in the social hype that demands us to buy out of our means in order to feel like we are achieving, and to feel like we are meeting the goals, demands and expectations of our neighbours, peers, and colleagues.

It’s hard to break such expectations; it takes a lot of inner self-confidence and the knowledge to exist in the consumer world by standing out and going against the grain; by questioning the social expectations and blatantly challenging them.

The Three Rs: Radiohead, Ramones, Right Said Fred.

I came to discover and hear Radiohead the same way Jonathan Ross did. I was around the age of 14 when I bought the Clueless Soundtrack in Dublin. I’ve always claimed that they ‘saved’ me - but what post-teenager doesn’t claim that a musical genre or band ‘saved’ them. The movie clueless had reaffirmed my naive ambitions to live the ‘American Dream’ (something that was later quashed by Michael Moore’s realism), so the soundtrack appeared to be a logical audio choice.

The varying tracks were definitely different to the classically composed music of Gershwin that I would usually be found listening to. I didn’t have a vast musical knowledge of anything other than Classical and perhaps some of the popular bands of the time like Right Said Fred. This was a time when the Spice Girls had hit the UK with a zig-a-zig-a, Boyzone were established and the eye-candy of every other girl my age and Take That were still being mourned after. I was, as you can imagine, not the most popular person in school. So it was only natural that I was to slip in to the pre-defined shoes of a Radiohead fan.

Their musical composition, their lyrics and their sound, was truly amazing. It was like nothing I had heard. It was like a phenomenal discovery. Oddly enough, there was an OK Computer album to hand (belonging to my cousin), and without further ado I was hooked.

Naturally my thirst for rock music was not quenched. With the introduction of Napster at the age of 15 I was able to explore and experience a lot of music. I was at the brink of musical knowledge. As well as using the internet for musical gain,
I was using it to communicate and ‘chat’ to people across the globe, usually Americans, who would fill my head with bands that were new there, which meant they were never heard of in the UK. I had a general thirst to be unique, so to have music that no one else had in the UK was one of the best feelings I have ever had. As my musical tastes began to settle and develop I started to make new friends, ones who shared the same passion for music as I did, before long I was dressing in baggy clothing wearing band T-shirts and, for a good couple of years, I sported chains attached to my belt hoops, my bracelet collection began and all my consumer choices were based upon the foundations of my musical choices.

A few years, many eyeliner pencils, experiments with hair and a change of shoes led me to the punk era of my life. Changing from DC Skate shoes to Converse’s Chuck Taylor’s opened up realms I never knew before.

My wardrobe started to change again to accommodate the ‘chucks’ – mainly my jeans became skinner, the studded belt stayed and so did the eyeliner - my music tastes even incurred a paradigm shift, as I started to explore older punk genres like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. Regardless of what I was exactly listening to, I had always made a conscious effort to always appear that I was listening to music within the punk/rock genre. I would judge people solely on their appearance and decide within a split-second what kind of person they were, how dedicated to the music they were and what music they preferred
by something as menial as a shoe or the colour of their hair.



Every musical genre has values and beliefs stereotyped and attached to it: like listening to Radiohead means you must be miserable, or listening to hardcore dance music means you are violent, irresponsible and a drug user. Why can it no longer just be music, a form of entertainment? Back in my days of listening to Gershwin and Right Said Fred, there was no way of knowing that was what I liked unless I had been asked. There was no set attire, or rule of advertising my own musical taste to the rest of society. I had no desire to do it either. What has driven us to the point that we feel we must wear our personalities? There is a need to broadcast our lives and tell people who we are and what we think and what we like, it is almost like we are all competing for the most attention, and the most recognition of being part of something. Are we that lost amongst the objects that we must use them to be noticed?

The point is, that in the consumer world there is nothing untouched. Everything is an object. Music is an object. The like and dislike of music is an object that can now be bought and I’m not just referring to the hoards of merchandising that occurs, my reference is to the manner by which an individual displays their likes or dislikes, their passions and preferences. I elected to join a genre of music and with it came a natural consumer map for me, it was easier that way, to know that because I liked Radiohead I was supposed to buy clothes that suited the ambient emotions their music emitted; that because I liked Rage Against the Machine I was supposed to wear chains and have spiked, leather bracelets; that because I liked the Ramones, I was supposed to (and have), at least once in my life visit CBGB’s; that because once upon a time when I liked Right Said Fred
and George Gershwin I was able to pass under the radar of society, unnoticed, because there was no pressure to uphold the preset archetype of a particular musical genre. Although, to have such passion for a belief and or preference is quite a good quality, times were just simpler when it was just me, George and Fred: There was just life and just music.

Authenticity: Our Authentic Soles.

I remember my first pair of Authentic Dr Martens (the shoe with the bouncing sole). When I ripped them out of their box to start breaking them in, I noticed an advertising flyer in the bottom of the box that read ‘if you walk a mile in another man’s shoes you will understand his pain. If you walk a mile in another man’s Dr Martens, you will never give them back.’

Over the years I have worn several different brands of shoes, and with every new pair I have had to break them in, and mould them into the shape of my personal footprint, making them unique and intrinsic to only myself. I have walked in several different places and the places I have walked are completely unique, and no one will ever be able to mimic my experiences - although they can wear the same shoes. These experiences are what make us all authentic, real and completely unique; they have become inseparable to our own personal identities, because it is our opinions, beliefs, values, emotions, feelings, and experiences that make us who we are. Our identities are the only thing left that is truly authentic.



Our inner soul (I use the term soul to mean our emotional and psychological attributes, rather than an attempt to spark debate about the existence of the human soul) is no longer what matters to the consumer culture. We already have two branded soles on our feet, why would we need another that takes time to understand? By electing to wear a pair of Dr. Martens I was attaching that brand to my physical identity. Since then I have associated with scores of objects that have been scrutinised and judged by other individuals. Our physical appearances are always on trial, and our external identities are based upon our relationship with objects, brands, and the symbols that they emanate. In this contemporary world everything
is consumed quickly: objects, information, images, attitudes, the general ethos of society; we all expect things to happen now. There is no longer time to walk a mile in another person’s shoes and truly discover their soul brand, because the only soul that matters in the consumer world is the brand name on our sole.








* This article was published in the June 2007 edition (issue 72) of Adbusters - The Journal of the Mental Environment.

The Big Bad Wolf: A Once Upon A Time Introduction.

The defamation of the character of the Wolf has occurred in every single fairy-tale that he has featured in. The Wolf is the fairy-tale symbol of everything that is dangerous and everything we should avoid. Fairy-tales and story telling are a large part of our childhood and create a foundation for the teaching of morals and ideas.

There is one story in particular in which the wolf dresses as a sheep in order to trick the shepherd, his motives are clear: he is hungry and he wants to eat the sheep – he will do whatever is necessary in order to sustain himself.

This one story and principle can be compared to contemporary consumer trends. Consumerism is essential in this society because we no longer self-produce the things necessary for our survival. So we consume to live. But there is a large consumer market filled with hundreds of products – some of them essential, some of them no so much – every product has a manufacturer and a brand and they all want to survive in the marketplace. To help the individual decide what products to consume advertising, packaging and branding were created to communicate the products contents, manufacturer and to convey its quality.

Over the years as more and more brands started to appear, it became essential for products to compete for their share of the market place. This led to surreptitious methods of communication that uses psychology to exploit the needs of the individual in order to achieve a higher status and standing in the market place.

This involved lowering prices, changing packaging, introducing new sub-brands or products under the same brand and advertising campaigns that promised happiness and fulfilment through purchasing objects – in other words, the brands and the products, did everything they could to stay afloat in a competitive market. Just like the wolf they dressed themselves in ‘clothing’ that allowed the consumer to feel comfortable enough to trust and believe in the brand. But where is the danger in that?

The danger is that these brands and products are not fulfilling their promises; they are not making us happy, they are not helping us to find romance, or to succeed in our job, or to have the perfect family, because, these things cannot be achieved by buying.

Consumerism has become a ‘vicious cycle.’ It involves ‘the chronic overwork to be able to spend more; the social disintegration resulting from overwork; the environmental damage caused by consumer waste; conflict over resources to supply consumer demand. In other words, a myriad of problems loosely bound by the innocent desire for an iPod or a luxury car collection’ (Uechi, 2007, p.51).

It is necessary to consume, but over-consumption is damaging our mental and natural environment and clouding our perspective and priorities in life. I don’t want to preach, and I don’t want to tell anyone how to live their life, I just want to bring these issues to the forefront. With the rise in fear of global warming, a focus has been made on the amount we consume and the exploited countries and people that are affected by our over-consumption habits.

So, I am crying wolf, in the hope that someone will listen and realise that just because the wolf is in a disguise, of either sheep’s clothing or Granny’s clothing, doesn’t mean he is not there.