L. M. Lloyd

One of the more depressing, yet interesting, things about our present consumer society, is that so much of it is completely counter-intuitive, and at times downright paradoxical. A good example of this, is people's concept of realism. Clearly a cornerstone of our modern materialist mindset, is that such soft and fanciful notions like ethics, self-respect, artistic inspiration and joie de vivre are outmoded, being replaced instead with the hard and realistic score-keeping of our net worth. The question however, is whether this itself isn't just another quaint romantic notion? I mean, you can't really call it realism, unless it reflects reality, and I have reason to doubt that this new cynical materialism reflects reality in any way.

See, I meet people every day who have long ago given up on whatever dream it was that drove them, and instead settled into a job for which they have no great love, simply because it provided a "good paycheck." These people always have a lot to say about the importance of "growing up, getting real, and facing the facts." They will tend to tell you, in a carefully cultivated jaded voice, that if you don't think money can buy happiness, then you obviously haven't made enough. They also tend to spend most of their time away from work blind drunk, in loveless relationships, and constantly worrying about whether they are properly keeping up appearances. There lives seem to be an endless trudge of acquisition, usually of items and experiences which bore them before they have even had a chance to appreciate them, or for that matter pay them off. It is as though they perpetually think that if they just buy one more thing, or go to one more bar, or pick up one more girl, they will finally be satisfied, yet they never are, so try one more time. I literally can't count the number of times I have heard someone already talking about what they want from their next car, computer, TV, stereo, girlfriend, you name it, before they have even had their new one a week.

America is undergoing phenomenal social realignments right now, or at least should be. For a good 20 years now, Americans have had the core belief that if someone is financially successful, then they must be very smart, or very talented. Typically, this has been expressed with the well-worn phrase "he must be doing something right, look how much money he has." This is a belief which has been shaken to its very core by the recent financial collapse. The American people now see that in fact you can get very rich doing absolutely everything wrong, and that the richest people, seem to be the most idiotic and slow to adapt people on the planet. Whether it is paying bonuses to the very people who ran your company into the ground, or car makers taking private jets to travel a couple hundred miles, the average American shakes his head and wonders how these people can be so clueless and stupid?

The awful truth is that to be one of those financially successful people everyone has been in awe of for the past couple decades, all you really need is an overriding greed, which puts money before absolutely everything else. You don't have to be smart, you don't have to be talented, and you don't have to work particularly hard. All you have had to do to get rich is check any self-respect, morals, ethics, or aspirations at the door, and chase the money. We have had a system for a good long time now which discouraged anything but pure greed. As long as you were willing to go where the money was, and do absolutely anything to get your hands on some of that money, it has been very easy to get your slice of the pie. Any of you who thought otherwise, have been fooled.

A while ago I wrote an article about the problems with the modern popular idea of Global Warming. In it, I commented that I am an incredibly green person, which brought up a lot of questions from people. If I don't believe that carbon emissions are killing the planet, then why do I ride a bike everywhere instead of driving a car, and why am I so in favor of alternate energy? The short answer is because, regardless of what you think about Global Warming, being green makes sense. It is the 21st century, and I find the idea that I need to burn liquefied dinosaur carcasses to go get some groceries kind of bizarre, and more than a little bit barbaric. It is like some weird episode of the Flintstones, or some primitive tribal custom.

I recently got an email from a friend of mine that had some tips for ways to build your personal brand, and once I got the taste of vomit out of my mouth, I decided to write this little article. Sometimes I like to forget that this nation has become nothing but a bunch of used car salesmen, stuck on an endless loop of some psychotic extended remix of Glengarry Glen Ross, but then something like this will snap me back to reality. You see, for you to Always Be Selling, you have to be a certain kind of person. The kind of person who is always looking for the business advantage of every situation, and always keeps in mind the best way to monetize even the most private of interactions. Now, before those people were called Bloggers, they had another name, and that was whores.

Yes, I know my wacky post-punk outlook is quaint, anachronistic and oh so 20th century, but I suppose it is one of the luxuries of being one of the ten people left in America who derives their self worth from something other than how many decimal places are in their bank account. Nonetheless, I think I need to get something straight here. A brand is something a company develops for their products, to create an emotional connection with people. When a person is attempting to create an emotional connection with people, they are supposed to use this thing called a personality! Now for the Bloggers out there who are confused by what this "personality" thing I speak of might possibly be, it is kind of like a personal brand, except instead of soullessly pandering to an imagined audience, trying to give them what you think will make them like you, you instead do and say what you want, in an attempt to like yourself. Think of it as ego, except based on who you intrinsically are, rather than how popular, or wealthy you might be. It doesn't pay as well, but you get the satisfaction of actually having some intellectual and artistic ground to call your own.