You know, I'm not sure if my anger towards those that would corrupt our youth in order to make a buck comes out enough. It is one of the things that most greatly disturbs me about our society and economic structure. Children today are stripped of their childhood and made into little adults, which in the capitalist game makes them little more than little consumers.
But more than little consumers they are as we all have lived through our adolesence and all know what it is like to want to be fully grown, look like we're fully grown, pretend like we're fully grown, but not be able to think like we're fully grown at all. It's just that the human mind takes longer to develop than anything else. We do not learn to think at a fully developed level until we are older, past our physical growth, and in many cases, out of those trying years where answers are not found through introspection but in the world around us -- in our peers, in our communities, and in an ever-growing presence, in the media.
And companies take advantage of that whenever they can. They play with the knowledge that kids will be kids that want to be like all the other kids. They use that knowledge to produce images that kids want to emulate, they use it to drill their slogans into the minds of the underdeveloped, they use the kids to make a buck...knowing that what they say and how they say it will have an influence and, in many cases, steer the kid into their store to buy their product. It's an easy game for them...but it's not a game...it's beyond a game...it's like deer hunting with an a-bomb, totally lacking sportsmanship.
And maybe I exaggerate a bit, maybe there are more young free minds out there than I give credit for, but the fact remains that these presumptions are made by the forces that be and they do have an influence. But they don't care. They have no problem tampering with the minds of youth in order to twist them into believing that they have some need. They convince girls that they need to be thin in order to be beautiful in order to get the guy in order to be worth anything in this world. They convince the guy that he needs to drink to be macho to get the girl to not be a loser. It isn't hard for them...and they're getting worse every day. And it sickens me. It SICKENS me and there's not a dman thing I can do about it.
Whenever I go off on a rant like this, people nod their heads as if it will content me to think that they are listening and comprehending what it is that I'm saying. Sometimes they argue, sometimes they do agree, but most of the time it is that ambiguous place. Not here, not with this. The advertising industry has gone too far now and things must be done about it. If you agree with anything that I have said above, than there is no more room for wobbling -- you must take action. If you believe in any degree that the children of today are not just being robbed of the innocence of their childhood, but being brainwashed into becoming buying machines for the profit of business, you must put your foot down.
And it's not that hard, in fact it's easier than doing something -- it's doing nothing. It's not buying from companies that attempt to ploy the kids into buying their shit with sick and twisted advertising gimmicks (FCUK for instance). It involves saying "you know, they're a shitty company..." when a freind asks you what you think of their new shirt or jacket or whatever. Most importantly, it involves being a part of a kid's or many kids' lives and through whatever means letting them know that the magazines and television have it all wrong, that beauty comes from within, self-worth cannot be bought, and life is about more than things.
That is all.
But more than little consumers they are as we all have lived through our adolesence and all know what it is like to want to be fully grown, look like we're fully grown, pretend like we're fully grown, but not be able to think like we're fully grown at all. It's just that the human mind takes longer to develop than anything else. We do not learn to think at a fully developed level until we are older, past our physical growth, and in many cases, out of those trying years where answers are not found through introspection but in the world around us -- in our peers, in our communities, and in an ever-growing presence, in the media.
And companies take advantage of that whenever they can. They play with the knowledge that kids will be kids that want to be like all the other kids. They use that knowledge to produce images that kids want to emulate, they use it to drill their slogans into the minds of the underdeveloped, they use the kids to make a buck...knowing that what they say and how they say it will have an influence and, in many cases, steer the kid into their store to buy their product. It's an easy game for them...but it's not a game...it's beyond a game...it's like deer hunting with an a-bomb, totally lacking sportsmanship.
And maybe I exaggerate a bit, maybe there are more young free minds out there than I give credit for, but the fact remains that these presumptions are made by the forces that be and they do have an influence. But they don't care. They have no problem tampering with the minds of youth in order to twist them into believing that they have some need. They convince girls that they need to be thin in order to be beautiful in order to get the guy in order to be worth anything in this world. They convince the guy that he needs to drink to be macho to get the girl to not be a loser. It isn't hard for them...and they're getting worse every day. And it sickens me. It SICKENS me and there's not a dman thing I can do about it.
Whenever I go off on a rant like this, people nod their heads as if it will content me to think that they are listening and comprehending what it is that I'm saying. Sometimes they argue, sometimes they do agree, but most of the time it is that ambiguous place. Not here, not with this. The advertising industry has gone too far now and things must be done about it. If you agree with anything that I have said above, than there is no more room for wobbling -- you must take action. If you believe in any degree that the children of today are not just being robbed of the innocence of their childhood, but being brainwashed into becoming buying machines for the profit of business, you must put your foot down.
And it's not that hard, in fact it's easier than doing something -- it's doing nothing. It's not buying from companies that attempt to ploy the kids into buying their shit with sick and twisted advertising gimmicks (FCUK for instance). It involves saying "you know, they're a shitty company..." when a freind asks you what you think of their new shirt or jacket or whatever. Most importantly, it involves being a part of a kid's or many kids' lives and through whatever means letting them know that the magazines and television have it all wrong, that beauty comes from within, self-worth cannot be bought, and life is about more than things.
That is all.
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