You won't be happy if you don't buy me.

When Karl Marx said something like, 'people are ultimately tied to their economical desires'. I absolutely believe this to be true today. It amazes me how he could foresee the future. We always associate ourselves with commodities to create our "identity". Your average American teenage girl wants to show her "fashion sense" by wearing a tanktop and a pair of tight pants that she bought for 100+ dollars. She makes her eyes more "beautiful" by wearing some kind of eyeliner or whatever. She is holding her Rogers cellphone, listening to her new ipod video, carrying her huge bag that can hold hockey equipment. You get the point.

I think it's really crucial to realize how much of our identities are defined by the stuffwe buy. "This is who I am. I live on 123 street, drive the souped-up subaru, I wear a lot of jeans and skater shoes...". I even heard someone say, "I'm a nice guy because I buy my friends food". 90% of the time, we really didn't need to eat that burger, bag of chips, chocolate, etc.

Too many times, I see people between the ages of 13 to 20, or even older, try to establish their image in public with their clothes. If you need proof, go to the mall, or go on the public bus. Wait. you dont' need to, because you know in the back of your mind that what I am saying is true.

The most disturbing thing about this for me, is how normal this is. This is "how the world works". It's natural. It' supposed to be like this. But then I took a step back and asked, "who's doing the supposing? Who said it was natural?"

Advertisers. Media. Celebrities. They are the core elites of our Western society today. I now understand what Chomsky meant when he said that North America is, in fact, facist in terms of economic and social relations. There are "high-ranked" people who decide what people should like and want. As a side note, I think this is why the United States are so powerful. When historians claimed that Rome was much more powerful during their time than the United States today, they failed to see what kind of power was influential. Rome was its ability to politically influence a huge amount of countries and nations. The fact is, however, that politics only go so far. Opinions will change, the positions will change, and sooner or later, there will be some kind of mistake that ruins the power. As we all know, the Roman empire exists no more.

In contrast, the United States hold a powerful position such that people cannot change its influence. The fact is, every human being that knows the "American dream" really wants at least some of it. Despite one's religious views, moral beliefs, or political side, we want to buy things. America took great advantage of this, and by spreading capitalism, it told what we wanted to hear: "buy, and be happy". Why not? It sounds good.

Moreover, this kind of influence has spread to the East. Almost all of Europe has some type of capitalism established. They have their own celebrities and the media in which they are represented. Daniel Radcliffe, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley. Asia has much of this influence as well. In China, Jay Chou. In Korea, DBSK. They are usually shown wearing expensive clothes and accesories, in expensive events such as award shows. And we want to look as good as they do. We want to be beautiful, attractive, content, etc. No matter what we say to deny that we don't get influenced by television or the internet, the fact is, this type of influence is subconscious in such a way that we are not aware of our assumptions and our realities become based on the things we see and hear on the media.

Sure, there are variations of this influence. Some girls like to starve themselves to look beautiful and to fit in a certain sized pants or dress. Is there something wrong with that? You're buying less food and clothes, right? But then you're obviously overlooking the fact that you're killing yourself.

Let's move on to a story as an example of what I'm trying to say.

Ben is a 15 year old student. He is underweight for his age, has rumpled hair, large glasses, $15 shoes and usually wears a shirt he got from a charity event. He liked this girl, but according to other kids, she was way too popular for him. People made fun of him. In Gym class, he could never kick the soccer ball far enough or hard enough to score a goal. Other guys bullied him in the change room, laughing at his inability to be phsyically active.
In English class, however, he was an excellent student. He would answer all the teacher's questions about Animal Farm correctly. Some of his classmates, who tried to hide thier one ipod earphone in their ear with their hoods, wearing $200 shoes, armani shirts and American Eagle jeans, snickered and whispered words such as "nerd", or "loser". Ben didnt' understand. All he wanted to do was get a good grade, not be labelled as some kind of a geek. He really was interested in literature, and wanted to be an author some day. Why was he ridiculed for trying to do something he was happy with?

Typical high school story, right? My point is that some people are condemned in society because they don't act the way people are supposed to act. In high school, you can't be accepted as a normal human being if you don't spend enough money on clothes and accesories. If your interests are not the same with the rest of society;s interests, then you are unimportant. Undermined. Ridiculed. My story was a parallel to society today. You will be laughed at if you're not the way people expect you to be. You can be yourself, as long as you follow certain guidelines. Buy this, buy that, then you'll be accepted. Normal. Happy. It's an interesting dichotomy of normality and abnormality. The only ones who are excused from this are those with mental disabilities, religious fundamentalists, or people in third world countries.