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Helpful Holiday Guides : Boyfishing Smarmy The Problem with Alabama, again The Problem with Alabama cursed Cold Chicken No256 Sit Pay in Advance Northside Park Justin Oldham - Politics and Patriotism
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12.19.2004
It seems that we have so few reasons to all get together and be communal that have nothing to do with consumerism. Today as I walked towards the store across the parking lot teeming with people I realized how festive it seemed to be; people out and about, the proximity of people. I wondered where all these people were during the rest of the year... Sitting around doing nothing? We can't afford to all be out shopping for more than a short period of time in December. We have no choice really. Its an invisible gun held to our heads! We live in a very disconnected world. I feel most connected when I am out on the road, cars surrounding me, yet I know that its a false feeling of community. We spend so much time isolated from each other. We sit around in our houses and watch TV. We've made the very idea of gathering for a non-commercial purpose a blasphemous idea, and we can't all afford to spend money all the time... so we retreat from our communities and isolate ourselves. Long ago when I was a little skater I realized that places that feel public are really only public on the condition that you'll be spending money. We have so few public squares that don't exist for a reason other than shopping. There have been challenges to the idea that malls are public spaces. They are not. They exist as places where we can gather to purchase goods. We have elevated the ideals of consumerism to such heights that we can't even imagine what to do in a public space that does not offer us some consumer choice. Its an odd feeling. I'm not sure what the answer is, or whether there is a problem to be addressed but I do know that with all the current talk about "values" we rarely talk about the most pervasive influence on our lives... commercialism. It even feels like religion has become a product. I see fish symbols plastered on cars as if they were Nike symbols and I can't help but think that religious choice is just another purchase decision. Jesus is a brand. What we buy is how we relate to our society? |
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