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Vincent's Blog of Opinionated Ramblings
Vincent's Blog of Opinionated Ramblings
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A theory of nearly everything : read it and weep.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

That’s it I thought as I found the theory I'd been looking for. It is the arbitrary connection which binds language(symbology) , social cohesion , social anomie , depression, suicide, consumerism and selfish gene theory; it’s cultural and contextual relativism.

Phew that’s a lot right; in the hope of keeping this blog short and to the point each one of the above terms is hyperlinked to a wikipedia article to give you the low down on just how expansive this hypothetical model I’ve created truly is.

Ok first off, a few theorists came up with a kick ass idea which would explain how and why we behave in certain ways in society and theorized that most if not all of them were in the pursuit of replicating our gene. So altruism, gaining prosperity and even more likely plastic surgery are all fated to do one thing, enable an individual to attract a mate to reproduce with and hence replicate their gene and so on and so forth. We’ll leave the argument of homosexuality and pious celibacy aside for now, it’s not necessary when you’re making stuff up. I’m on a cerebral high and for now I’m omnipotent and infallible.

Ok secondly on the back of a very structuralist / functionalist perspective there exists a proposal that cultures / pockets of individuals passively engage in particular habitual rituals which enforce and crystallize the society itself. Take for instance the punitive justice system, we punish criminals (a few of them) and send them arms bound to an isolated institution which we call the ‘prison’. From the looks of things it appears that we just want to punish the bad guys, but in essence what we’re doing is a) ensuring that particular societal values are upheld and others are not and b) we’re separating those who obey the values and the dictates of a particular set of norms in society with those who do not.

Thirdly, and now we’ll together tackle a foursome: language, consumerism, depression and cultural / contextual relativism. For starters let’s suggest that language is a set of arbitrary symbols (search semiotics) which connect particular animate or inanimate objects with a word or phrase. So we’ve got an open (not closed) system of meaning operating in a world which is out to get you if you somehow deviate from the norm. Next; consumerism and depression are I think at least becoming mutually exclusive, as we drive toward a society which obeys the profound command of the deity known as instant gratification. I speak here of buying love, buying objects, getting it now and having it all, if you cannot get what you want, if you are doomed to being the person who drops off the mail instead of the woman who signed the check and sealed it in a yellow envelope then undoubtedly you are doomed to forever feeling that the Jones’ have hit warp speed and are about to shatter into nothingness and you are being delivered to your grave aboard a steam train.. Long sentences aside, cultural and contextual relativism then impacts upon this so called ‘have not’ depression angst, you see you’d never know how depressed you were until you had a litmus. Take for instance if you were a lonely woman desperately seeking a don juan to lift you out of your funk and you lived in Italy you’d probably already be holding the trusty bic razor and have the DIY suicide manual on your lap, hoping like hell that the book was penned by a failure. If however you were that woman desperately seeking a romeo and you lived in Senegal and you weren’t exactly sure where your next meal was coming from, or the next mortar then I firmly believe the last thing on your mind would be romantic angst and suicidal ponderings, you’d be fighting to stay alive.

Ok so now for the group hug. Take the women in Italy; she’s wants a lover but cant get him right now. Take the language, which she, having attended a decent school is able to use to describe her angst and include the fact that at her finger tips is a cornucopia of self-help guides to applying a particular label onto her pain. Then apply the notion that individuals within society are compelled to conform in order not to buck the system and be ostracized lest they face social exclusion. Furthermore this same system compels you to obey a body of norms (a set of unwritten rules for a particular culture), which hypnotically ought to ensure that a person from the opposite gender is magically lured into your procreative nest. Lastly add the notion that this entire scenario plays out in a particular space and time in society and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Well what do you get?

You get modern day society, a rising crime rate, abnormally high suicide rates in what appears to be the most ‘normal’ societies for example Finland and ultimately a society which compels individuals to be culturally relativistic when they self-diagnose using a language which arbitrarily places ambiguous value onto particular states of being eg. sociopath, depressed, happy, sad, morbid, lazy etc. etc. As we modernize (note not progress) and become a smaller world due to globalization the norms which govern particular societies will begin to over lap and create a set of super norms, a set of genes which are so selfish they’re not bothered with replicating and more realistically probably not willing to engage with another gene below their particular class. We are propelling ourselves toward disaster because very soon our expectations for what is normal (ambiguous term) will far exceed our ability to live up to them (hyper masculinity and femininity) and we will all be doomed to using labels like depression to ensure that we are able to cope with our inability to live up to said expectations and will henceforth and forever more attempt to medicate and cure such a dilemma.

Peace out, and have a good day and remember train tracks lay across and not up nor down.

April 24, 2008 | 1:04 AM Comments  0 comments



Brand Vigilanteism - Good vibrations in a tight situation.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Freaks everywhere I thought, walking down the corridors of a Sandton city, in full swing after its Friday evening youth spending-orgy. Freaks, badly dressed, poorly made, half witted and wreaking of a generations hard working money inappropriately spent. So moral fibre is getting a media player, I’ve just decided it whilst typing this, we need one, must have one, won’t be the same without one.

Yes, freaks, that’s what I was talking about. Why are they freaks you ask, what have you and I got that they don’t? Personality maybe, but probably not, no they’ve become formulaic, a culmination of a market researchers focus group and a night of recommendations created whilst under the influence of his / her own arrogance. They’ve become brand extensions, not simply consumers but living embodiments of the brands which they will once scrutinized purport only to wear. Some of you reading this will have a torn loin cloth on, paired up with a 70’s Led Zeppelin shirt, this doesn’t make you different you’ve clothed yourself in a fad, we’ve become the resurrection – generation and you are it’s billboard.

Inescapable, probably, but completely explicit and hence understandable this dilemma is. We’ve got to use a little Diesel profanity, Levi’s edge and maybe a little bit of a frayed innuendo from Savannah to beat this. I needn’t even preface that line with an explanation you know exactly what I mean, and if you don’t what does the word Castle Lager bring to mind? The woman behind me just uttered, “Sushi, babe” this world is too far fucked for me to even care anymore, but I’ll attempt to school you.

So lesson one, self-awareness. That’s right, you’re in the twelve step programme, locked into my hypnotic gaze. You’ve got to understand that you’re in control, you’re the one who barters your hard working hours for that latest yellow and pink scarf, or that second hand black leather jacket or in fact your waterfall fringe. Yes if you’re wearing black pep all – star knock offs I’m lumping you into this archetype too. You’ve become lost in the synapse between your space, and the time in which you live, and you’ve become a coat-stand for someone’s brand or a collectives anti-brand cult and generally I’m involved with making that happen, it’s what I do. You really cannot escape it!

No matter where I’ve been young kids covet not others wealth but wealth’s ability to purchase elite brands. Its not that brands set up an achievable set of goals that one ought to work toward, like Nike’s fitness drive for instance, but rather brands aim at your heart, the outcome of which is their pursuit of your loyalty. Wait what, holy crap, great idea, they’re pitching ideas at you most often expecting you to reject them, like I would a car guard (on principle of course, they do not own cars and are thus not fit to guide me in and out of my parking) and most if not all of the time your wealth is their biggest barrier. If we lived in utopia and there were no poor people, I assure you, this earth would be brandless. Brands are out to make you inferior for not purchasing them, if you’re feeling entirely content with your current status and want for nothing more you’d never be open to marketing companies cross-hairs, there’d simply be no point in creating a subversive or alternatively an aspirational brand. You’re reaction should thus be to buy for purely aesthetic purposes, everything is going to change in a few weeks time anyway, why not buy that which will make you happy rather than purchase that which I order you to purchase. So self-awareness then enables you to move onto step two. We’ve ascertained that it is in fact you who ultimately decides upon the fate of a brand and thus we can move onto you becoming the ultimate brand-vigilante.

Brand – Vigilanteism is where you’re headed, it’s not really something you can buy into, nor is it something that you can mix and match with your current lifestyle. It’s an awakening, which allows you to peer into the formless world of arbitrary value and ascribe only those products / ideas which you feel are aesthetically tolerable as having real value to you. You see it’s a subtle shift, from emotional association to a brand’s personality, a manifest of your buying into its marketing and a shift to consumerism driven by aesthetic functionality and its appeal to your mind’s