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The Famed Monsters:
A Generation Obsessed with Perfection, Fame, and Materialistic Things
Written by: Renee BlackStar
Allow me to start off this topic by saying… I think that our society is doomed to be fucked if we continue on this warpath we’ve engaged in with ourselves and with each other. That’s a crass statement, I know, but being straightforward is the simplest way to express how I really feel. It seems as if the air of reason has changed within the last thirty years with regard to our priorities. We have become a society of people that puts the love of “things” and “money” before the welfare of their fellow man and, often times, even themselves.
What has happened to our morals? Why are we bingeing so shamelessly and so unapologetically on vanity, gluttony, and jealousy?
History stands to remind us that we are not the first generation, nor the first civilization for that matter (and probably not the last), to have been ignorant and short-sighted enough to fall prey to the temptations of envy, easy money, beauty, opulence, attention, and the acceptance by others that go along with living a materialistic lifestyle. Most of those guys managed to wipe themselves right off the face of this earth worshipping power and greed. Every generation has its idiots, I suppose. And ours is no exception. Our generation is merrily sinking in to an abyss of shallowness, and it is a very painful thing to watch from a humble perspective.
Now, I know that I am not the only person that sees how overly obsessed people are becoming with perpetuating the illusion of a seemingly effortless and “perfect” image of themselves to the masses. Spending more than half of their income on shit that makes them look good, they forget about putting money away for the future. But, maybe we’ve lost faith in the future, and that’s the reason why we live like there’s no tomorrow. We have lost our respect for life, giving in to all of the vices a human being could have ever possibly given in to, only to lose respect for ourselves, all in the name of perfection. However, the cliché phrase “nobody is perfect” will soon be phased out because, in the future, capturing the ideal of “perfection” will be as simple as having a whole body transplant. That’s right! If you don’t like who you are, just get a new body all together. Yep… that’s the ticket for the train we’re looking to ride on.
But, people should consider the possibility that “imperfection” itself is actually what is considered “perfection” in GOD’s eyes. Well, that’s my belief anyway. I happen to think that we were purposely created to be as individual as apple seeds. But, in this convoluted and stressful land we live in where Hollywood is the aspiration and rich people often have the say over who we should be and what we should look like, it’s just so much easier to put ourselves on auto-pilot and just do what the next man is doing. By doing so, we automatically stand to gain social acceptance from our peers as if that will validate our existence.
Let’s face facts, though. You and I are pretty much damned if we do and damned if we try and fail to appease anyone in this insatiable, hypocritical, hyper-judgmental society of ours. So, why do we keep trying for it? I mean, seriously. We judge others relentlessly, 24 hours a day and every day of the year, on what they say, what they wear, how they look, and who they choose to associate with. None of which is any of our business. Yet, we subscribe to this nonsense, all the while being fully aware of our own cache of flaws. It sounds completely ridiculous when you really think about it. But, what does that matter to us? I guess we must be so bored with life that judgment is the only thing we can think of to do to pass the time.
We all want to be recognized, valued and appreciated for who we are, but we need to understand that it is only a form of empty gratification that a person be recognized for pretending to being that which they are not.
But, we don’t really care if this behavior makes sense or not. We are too busy standing somewhere along the sidelines of our time to exist, going through life in third person, living vicariously through our heroes, while simultaneously being overly obsessed, trying to control our destinies, as if our timelines haven’t been written into the scrolls for us already. When reality of it is… no matter what we say or do or buy or create in a lab, we could never, ever be flawless enough to meet the unrealistic standards of perfection that have been cemented into the core ideals of our society by some of our most shallow brethren. No matter how many chains we cop, how many bottles we pop, or how many Jimmy Choo shoes or tummy tucks we spend our rent money to attain, we will be the same people when we leave this place as we were when we got here, despite everything in between. Either you understand that or you don’t. There is no in between about that, but damned the human spirit. We stay trying to create one anyway.
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I just have to wonder to myself, “How bad is life really going to get before popular opinion is shifted away from the universe of self and pointed back towards the sky?” I don’t have the answer to that question, obviously, but perhaps we could stand to take a cue from the mysterious universe surrounding us, which, as in some of the most exclusive circles on earth, is ironically the most hostile environment that a human being could possibly experience. It’s almost as hostile as living in a world that doesn’t like it when people walk off the beaten path and punishes you cruelly for doing so. Hostile like being in a room full of people with black shirts on and you had the audacity to throw on a yellow scarf for good measure. Can you imagine the jeers? I can.
Yet, miraculously, even with all of its dangers, everything in the universe is perfectly balanced and incomprehensibly beautiful, alive, and growing. Granted, most of it is incredibly hostile and unstable, and out of our reach for the most part, but maybe it’s that way for a reason. The only thing that’s stopping us from taking over the universe is our inability to figure out the secrets of the time space continuum. Otherwise, humans would have been out there wreaking havoc in some far off galaxy by now. But, we are forced to admire its beauty from a distance through our telescope lenses and study this chaotic entity from the security of our safer and more humble earth. And thank goodness!
See, I happen to think there are just some things that we just weren’t meant to explore. I have to believe that there will be some kind of repercussion and consequence to “playing GOD” so irresponsibly in the long run. We have eaten irresponsibly from the forbidden fruit of knowledge and, in turn, have almost succeeded in killing the tree of life and everything that surrounds it. Seems like everything human beings get their hands on turns to shit. And it’s because we really don’t know what the hell we are doing. How arrogant is it for us to think that we can alter ourselves outside of Mother Nature’s ever watchful eye without messing something up?
So, that brings me to the topic of people taking chances with their lives, spreading themselves across operating tables every day, just to attain a socially acceptable image? Is a new nose really worth dying for? Many insecure people seem to think so.
Yes, cosmetic surgery has turned into a booming business, with more clinics on every corner than McDonalds. Forget the fast food; how about fast body parts? Any insecurity that you’ve got, they’ve got a surgery named after it. They have an implant for every last one of your short comings: from fake teeth to fake asses. Lift, staple, suck, and tuck. And we don’t even wonder if boobs are real or fake anymore. Why, with the latest technological advancements being made in the world of plastic surgery, you can’t even tell the difference between the real thing and something that looks like an awkward replica of the real thing, but lacks the natural fluidity of that which only Mother Nature can create. Seriously, I am just as afraid of idea of plastic people as I am afraid of aggressive trend of plastic surgery. And I predict that here in the near future, the only thing that will be real about who we are is… nope… nothing will be real anymore.
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Hey, if I happen not to like the voice that I was born with and I want to sound as good as an opera singer, all I need is outpatient vocal cord surgery and, viola; after two days, I sound like Mariah Carey circa 1990’s. Or, let’s say I feel as though the man upstairs did me a disservice by making me—how should I say it? — “vertically challenged” (which I am, by the way). Well, they have a corrective surgery for that, too. And while I could just go get a surgery to expand my thigh bones a couple inches, hell, why not be as tall as Shaq… just because I can afford to do so. So, all of this is feeding into the growth of the elitist society and will eventually lead up to them taking over. All of the wealthy people will be able to walk around looking like unblemished mannequins with their noses turned up at us ugly, natural-born losers while we less than surgically attractive people have to walk around looking, well, normal. And now, being plastic becomes what’s “natural”. So, more normal people feed into the creepiness of uniformity and, before you know it, there won’t be any of us real people left. Sounds like Science Fiction, right? But, guess what? I honestly don’t think we’re too far from it.
I am a huge fan of individuality. It’s the thing that houses our character. And I don’t think that we can fully live out our life’s purpose if we continue to deny ourselves the experience of being who we were truly meant to be.
I think people figure out very early on that if you aren’t “somebody” in this world, then you are practically a “nobody”. And I think this is the fuel that drives people to do so many outlandish things to get attention. And it doesn’t matter if this is actually true about you or not. All that matters is the perceptions and opinions of our neighbors that reigns supreme over us, hypnotizing us, and holding our spirit of individuality hostage. And it’s because of this concern about what other people will think of us that we have stopped taking people at face value. We have become so brainwashed that we no longer appreciate all of the gifts that the universe has bestowed upon us. And what a shame that is. We have to figure out a way to break this cycle.
I try to take every opportunity I can to speak out against the trap of popular culture because I am of the opinion that it is a black hole that people easily get sucked into and hardly ever manage to eXcape. And I am a huge fan of individuality. It’s the thing that houses our character. And I don’t think that we can fully live out our life’s purpose if we continue to deny ourselves the experience of being who we were truly meant to be. If we all looked/behaved/thought like/loved like/sounded like and experienced life exactly the same as one another, sure, there would be less to criticize, but I think it would result in an unbearably boring existence. I know we all want to be recognized, valued and appreciated for who we are, but we need to understand that it is only a form of empty gratification that a person be recognized for pretending to being that which they are not.
It’s time for us to get back to what’s important. We are too focused on the wrong things. We should be worrying about what we are teaching our children and the legacy we’re leaving to them. They are watching us. And unless we do something about how we are and who we are, we will pass this enormous problem on to our children… our beneficiaries. What story will they have to tell in history class about our generation?
Think about it.
***All photo’s courtesy of google.com
