I remember hearing when I was kid that baseball was our favorite pastime. Maybe that just means I am old.
But my age is not what my concern is here. It is our favorite pastime. Coming home to U.S. has been an eye opener. What do I see families doing together? What do friends get together to do? What do people who need an afternoon just for themselves decide on?
In my idealistic and romantic mind, I come up with many charming and fun possibilities: going hiking in the mountains; sitting at a little cafe and chatting and watching the world go by, going to see a neat little foreign film at the indie theater then splurging on a piece of chocolate cake at the bakery next door; going for a long bike ride in the park.
I realise that 1. many people still do these things, and 2. that I have watched way to many old movies.
But even though these things all still take place, I feel there is a huge monster looming over them, threatening to stomp them out like the embers of a campfire. So can you guess what this monster is? What is U.S. American's all time favorite pastime?
Shopping.
I have lived in several towns in the U.S. where all there is to do is shop. And have you noticed that all towns are starting to look more and more alike? They all have the big box stores crowded soullessly around a main road.
What do people do when they are bored or eager for fun or just want to get out? They go shopping. All the time. Even when they don't need anything, even when they are exhausted. Shop, shop, shop, shop. Have we all become shopping zombies?
I can't help but feeling that this current mindset really keeps people in their place. We work a crappy job, make just enough money to go out and buy crap we really don't need, then go home and watch tv because we are so tired from working and shopping. Sounds super fun when I put it like that, huh?
We do not spend our money on things to enrich our lives in any way. A shirt and pants hardly contribute to better life quality. Are we so brainwashed that we actually think pointless crap makes our lives better somehow? I am starting to wish people acted like they did in the old movies I love so much... I am bored of the house, honey. Let's go take a drive to the coast! Or maybe We have been working way too hard, let's take the family to the park! Anything seems better that driving to the nearest shopping mall and spending my pitiful, hard-earned salary on a shirt that will look shabby after 3 washes.
What would the world be like if we spent our money on life-enriching and relationship-strengthening activities? If we actually did things together that did not involve handing our hard-earned cash over to a poorly paid shop clerk? Think of what we could do with all that extra money!!!
What would our lives be like? I am thinking they would be a whole lot better.
This happens do be a subject that I am very concerned in,but possibly for different reasons. This is still america and we have to give our money to someone, I merely requet we be more choosy about who we support. Economists say our money is like a ballot, so we're voting for more walmarts more f&$$#3g mcdonalyds and prisonesque shopping malls. I guess if you wanna spend all your time shopping. Thatsfine just please consider the fact that people like me who aren't casting anyballots. We don't. Vote wisely and decide whether your kids would ratherhave a field of grass to play in. Or a home depotto work for.thanks.
ReplyDeleteThis post does not address the reasons behind this major issue. Yes, American's are shopping an awful lot, but it is not because Americans are inherently flawed. Our economy-and capitalist-society rely upon our desire to own new things. Commercials design and sell a need to own things as a means of being attractive. It's a terrible thing.. and you've bought into it completely (it's just been thinly disguised by a feeling of exoticism and antiquity), or this outdated notion of the "golden age").
ReplyDeleteFor example, you admittedly watch too many old movies. These old movies give you an idea of what it is to be romantic, or what is aesthetically pleasing, beautiful, etc. All of your ideas come 100% out of the films you have seen. From the language you use (and the specific things you cite as being worthwhile), it is clear that you have been 'sold' some idea of the way relationships and life should feel. Why is going to a small cafe a more fulfilling place to spend money, or have a conversation? Why does the cafe have to be "little"? It's because you are describing a visual image you have in your head. Why is it romantic to spend money on cake in a little bakery, yet absurd to purchase other things? Why is it cute to splurge on that little piece of chocolate cake? Why not make the cake yourself? What has given these objects importance and romance?
The films you admire were not "cute little indie films" when they came out. They were high-dollar productions, with the exploitation of the human body to boot. Those films established a rule that has rarely been broken since; that woman must be flawless, young and slightly naive. The fifties did not provide people the perfect lifestyle, infact, in terms of consumption, it was one of the most important times for the development of America's economy.
Travel, for example, has huge costs associated with it. Not just for your pocket, but for the environment as well. Your desire to travel, albeit its wastefulness, goes unnoticed because of the romanticism associated with it. You aren't going to these countries and working with humanitarian groups, etc. You are going to them for a sense of worldliness, beauty and all of the other adjectives associated with being well traveled.
Look to yourself for the answers to all of your questions.
You are right about a lot M. Anonymous. I do choose to buy certain things to supposedly improve my life quality. But buying does not improve my life quality. I do still have a lot to learn about myself and a lot of growing to do. I just wonder what our lives would be like if we were not such needy, competitive, shopping-obsessed consumers. I am a consumer. So are you. It just feels like an empty, unsustainable and depressing cycle that has nowhere to bring us but down.
ReplyDeletep.s.I think that women have come a pathetically relative long way from their social roles and identities in the old movies I like to watch. We still have a ridiculously long way to go, not just in other countries but in our own