People love differences

And most of all, they love those differences that become symbols of power, influence, social desirability and status. It is natural that in selfish competitive societies the dominant strategy would be to rule out the others by proving that you are not only different, but that your difference has something that anyone would love to have.

Modern people tend to differentiate themselves through commodified symbols of human value, wealth and status. This is mainly why over the years, after a long period of time in which people did not have access to so many things like they do now, the profile of a consumer is that of a person who wants to prove something and find meaning in what they can afford to buy, no matter how they manage to buy it.

For the mindless consumer it does not matter that bottled water tastes the same no matter what the brand is. It does not matter if that biscuit with extra cream costs more than a poor person would spend in a day; because that extra cream proves how special and powerful he/she is.

There may also be fancy and trendy mindless consumers who are so into specific media&socially constructed products, they may even dedicate a year of their lives trying to be the best fan of a cultural temporary by-product, like a superstar, a game or even a movie. While that person does her best to be a great fan, hundreds of people are dying because they didn’t eat for days. Actually they didn’t eat well enough for their whole lives to even have the power and energy to imagine the proportion of consumption that some other people enjoy just across the globe. It seems those people have so much food they even use color and shape to make it even more attractive for their apparently advertising – abused senses.

I do realize how lucky I am I am still alive and still able to have a decent job in a decent place of the world. It still amazes that the word “rich” can take unimaginable meanings even for me, not to mention the poor people trying to survive from this day until tomorrow.