Lauren RabainoWe are slaves to the social machine. Inside the heart of this beast, inside this leviathan, beats unmatched hedonism, complete and unrestrained social decadence.
These are godless times where the lingua franca is standard green and the fat lady doesn’t sing until neo-liberal capitalist blood flows red on the steps of Washington.
There’s no such thing as free trade here; true equality is but an idea whispered by the youth of yesterday, idealists long since retired, and maybe communists too. Because today we are living the consumerist revolution complete with Hummer IIs, Blackberrys, and bling.
Wait. Did I just say something wrong? Something unsettling? Or did I just call a spade a spade? Either way, there’s no need to go all Second Amendment on me. Charlton Heston, you can put the rifle away and call off your NRA dogs. This is America after all, and carte blanche dictates we act with a certain amount of class. But let’s not kid ourselves; class, even now, is bought and sold to those who have the highest purchasing power.
But that’s just it – we’re American – that’s what we do. We commodify, we classify, we edify, and most of all, we buy and shop till our hearts and credit go pop. Spending cash is our patriotic duty: an unspoken promise to continue the legacy of freedom and perpetual economic superiority over our fiscally impotent international neighbors that our forefathers seemingly had in mind when they created this fine specimen of a country. But where is the line drawn, and when does it stop?
As an American, I have a few more very important questions. Mainly, are we a nation doomed to make policy decisions based on where the money trail ends? Will we always choose to fight terrorism instead of world hunger because the latter decreases our GDP and fighting terrorism somehow increases funds in the national bank? I remain thoroughly and painfully disturbed.
It is this mentality, this cornerstone of American socio-cultural expression, that keeps us forever suckling at the monetary teat, keeping us both morally and culturally unable of social expansion.
As Americans, we value dollars over family dinners, popularity over practicality, but most of all – and for the life of me I can’t tell you why – we value solidarity at the cost of individuality.
What a load of horse droppings. The irony is, as our consumerist culture is robbing us of individual identity each time, we flock to the mall in search of that perfect outfit we saw that one celebrity wear. Someone’s cashing in, and that someone isn’t you. We’re losing ourselves, but for what?
St. Thomas defined an individual as being a single entity, undivided in itself, but separated from other beings: “Quod est in se indivisum, ab aliis vero divisum.” We are all united in some way, but separate and distinct. If we as Americans can reclaim this concept of individuality as it was supposed to be, then we can overcome what we have become, because now we are slaves to the social machine.
Alexandra Bezdikian is a journalism senior with a knack for critiquing pop culture trends.