The Pitfalls of Being Pretentious

At the moment I am in the middle of a pretentious phase, thinking about life, the universe, and everything (42), and trying to come up with ways to explain it and cope with it. Many musings focus on the corporate takeover of civilization.

It is the epitome of the Establishment. The neon and plastic signs lining the roadways. McDonalds, Nike, the Gap, Starbucks, Burger King, and hundreds of others. All of them want us, the citizens, to buy their products. Being the politically minded cynic, I often think of how industrialized these products are. Fast food is, for the most part, disgusting, because the companies substitute cheap mass-produced chemicals for real food products in order to maximize profits. Clothing made half a world away by people working for pennies a day costs about $100 per item, just because of the brand name. A pair of jeans for forty dollars is considered a huge sale. Now, I happen to like Gap jeans because they fit well. However, I get them when they filter down to the Goodwill, because then they are less than $5 a pair, the money goes to homeless shelters instead of millionaires, and my family has enough left over to pay the mortgage.

I was also considering copyrights and trademarks. For instance, a if a company has a "secret recipie" that they use, people at home are allowed to use it if they know it as long as they do not then sell the product. However, if a company makes it so that they own that recipe through patents, it's illegal for ANYBODY to use it, for at-home consumption or otherwise. This gives me nightmares. Imagine, some time in the please-don't-let-this-happen future, when EVERY action is patented by some company or other. We wouldn't be allowed to make spaghetti sauce because Kraft would own all the recipes. We couldn't sew our own Halloween costumes, because various clothing manufacturers will have patented every design. The act of writing a webcomic will be restricted by the writers who claim a certain style of art. All we would be allowed to do is sit around and be advertised at.

I support small businesses, often because the quality is so much better and because the policies are fairer by a long shot. But the problem with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a cat. Small businesses usually grow. And then they buy or force out little guys. Not all big companies are jerks, but a lot are. In America's quest for convenience we homogenize ourselves. No variety is left. It's just a number 2 with large fries and a Coke, or a Ventri Mochachinno with a triple shot before plunking down on the La-Z-Boy couch to watch the game sponsored by Gatorade, Shell, Reebok, and Ford, with Britney Spears as the Home Depot Halftime act.

Such bleak outlooks are depressing. What's worse is that we need these companies. I don't know how to make a pair of jeans. I can't build a bike or a car or a pair of shoes. I am a crappy gardener and I certainly don't own any livestock. I am not self-sufficient in today's society. Unless I go live in the wilderness and survive by natural resources, I need to buy things in order to live. I am saddened that this is the case, and I wish the state of things were otherwise.