When I went to the mailbox to retrieve this week's flyers, I came across the first "Back to School" flyer of the year. Right underneath it was the first Christmas flyer of the year.I find this unsettling, as school isn't even out for the summer, though it's pretty close.
I despise marketing with a fury of a thousand suns. I really think marketers believe that the general public are incredibly stupid; that we have no regard for our money, and we buy everything that they tell us we must have. They use sex appeal to sell us everything from soft drinks and alcohol to cars, fast food, clothing, and even laundry detergent. And I scratch my head and wonder how it is that teenage pregnancy rates are at an all-time high.
When it comes to the infernal marketing machine, there are three types of people:
- Those who take a vow of poverty. These are people who believe the path to inner peace is through prayer, self-sacrifice, and the renouncement of all possessions. Buddhist monks would fit into this category.
- Those who feel happiness can be bought. These people are generally weak-minded, easily indoctrinated by the media, frivolously buying items which generally have little value. These people are usually poor, as the majority of their earnings are wasted on convenient, and disposable commodities. Sadly, most of us fall into this "He who has the most toys when he dies, wins" category.
- Those who believe their calling in life is the acquisition of wealth and power. These people spend their lives acquiring property, assets, and money, mainly as a deluded form of affirmation that they will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labors in their golden years. The truth is, these people never enjoy their wealth, because they are preoccupied with acquiring more wealth. What they are really after is power, and he who controls the most assets, the most resources, and the most money ultimately has the most power. Capitalist pigs fall into this category.
I do not consider myself a capitalist by any stretch of the imagination. I cannot accept living in a society where the poor are thrown to the wolves, with no hope of achieving a minimal standard of living. The homeless people of North America are no better off than the poor of Sub-Saharan Africa; they have no shelter, no health care, no jobs, and no money.
In the developed countries of the world, 1% of the population still controls 99% of the wealth. The picture has not changed since the days of feudalism, when tyrant Kings ruled their kingdoms and fought one another. We may think we are better off than the peasants of ages past, but are we really? The peasants managed to survive, as do we. The only real difference is the available technologies and amenities we have today. Even then, things haven't changed all that much. In the Greek and Roman Empires, they had access to clean drinking water, they had baths, entertainment, food in bountiful quantities, roads, public services, and of course, taxes. That doesn't sound much different than today except we have electricity, satellite television, and the internet.
