Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be somebody else. I'll think about it when I'm looking around on the metro or at the supermarket. I like to imagine what people are thinking or how they feel. Since the expressions on a person's face isn't clear enough to read sometimes, it leaves us guessing the story of their lives. Without a convenient Google page on their forehead, we must improvise with our eyes to critique their aesthetic presentation. Personally, I believe it can be catastrophic when we attempt to develop stories based merely on appearances. It's not fair, or at least I don't think so. We live in a world which thrives on appearances; who has the nicest clothes or the most expensive watch? I'm afraid of this because it triggers superficial “I’m better than you attitudes”.
We rely on the power of the dollar, what it can buy? This taints our most vital reason for existence, survival. We seem to forget that in unforeseen circumstances, we can’t eat a dollar to survive. As the next IPhone is released, so is the desire to have the next best thing. When did three pairs of jeans need to become ten? So many pairs, yet only seven days in a week. It’s becoming clear that for the human race, one is never going to be enough because we want it all.
Excess, this is what scientists warn us about and nutritionists beg us to not to succumb to. It's almost impossible to practice moderation because we know the feeling of getting more, and to be blatant, we love it. In fact, we love it so much that we forget the toll that it's taking on not only our fragile world, but also the self-esteems of those who simply cannot keep up with the "better" side of society. You know, the wealthy, the beautiful, those who have more than they need.
Yet, despite the warnings on the news, or the evidence suggesting that we should moderate the amount of time spent in the shower, we don't realize the damage our short term actions are having on our future world. In the midst of all this excess, we don't acknowledge that materialism is an addictive drug, and are too ignorant to realize that it is slowly degrading the basic elements we need to survive. We're not thinking practically because we aren't constantly exposed to ketchup packets floating in the sea, or wondering if the Co2 from our cars is slowly dismantling the atmosphere. We continue to waste, to judge, and as we do, we slowly witness a shifting climate which is making way for one very hot, wet, and polar bear-less planet.
Our materialistic tendencies blind us from rational ways of thinking. We use objects to grant us a sense of security and the right to take part in a higher social status. When we see a tattered shirt or unkempt hair, we associate this appearance with filth and failure. We refuse to see it for what it really is; an evident depiction of an individual who slaves and endures difficult days to merely scrape up enough change to feed a family of four.
We pay no attention to the corporate bully, McDonald's, who manipulates the weight of an individual through addicting artificial properties and colorful adverts. It's easy to look past the skinny men eating big burgers in advertisements, but we are somehow willing to make negative comments when we see the actual result in public. We scoff at the victims of obesity, the ones who are not on the television, but instead, tricked into becoming the laughing stock of society. We don't think of this because we only take note and judge immediate physical properties, and forget to look at the roots of much deeper issues. They are the victims and we are willing to ignore it. These issues do exist but are not obvious until they are directly before us.
As you read this from your phone or the computer screen, think back to the last person you judged. Perhaps it was done subconsciously or maybe not. What was your reason? We do it because when we see a flaw, we see associate it with being incomplete, the opposite version of societies interpretation of perfection. We play along with stereotypes that make us unequal. When we frown at the stains on a person's jeans we create a distinction between what is right or wrong, despite the fact that those stains are the result of an unfair governmental system.
We associate the term 'stuck up bitch' with those who work desperately to cover imperfection, and forget that makeup is easily at the disposal for those who feel pressured to mask their insecurities in fear of becoming one of societies rejects. It's easy to leave the lights on in your apartment while others must feel their way through the dark. We don't know what we have until it isn't there anymore. We don't know it now because we do have it. So we keep taking more. We need all of these extra possessions to prove some silly point, more to “feel” good. Most importantly, we ignore the fact that we keep taking more when others have nothing at all.
It will become clear to us when we must fight for water, or sacrifice the health of our lungs for the production of unnecessary goods which fill our over-sized houses. People will mourn for those who take their lives because they cannot keep up with our ever growing interpretation of perfection. We will regret the days when we could have recycled, as landfills slowly overcome cities and ocean tides emit nothing more than chemical breezes. We'll see firsthand the ugliness we created right before our eyes and then go on to judge it like we always have, forgetting that there was something we could have done to stop it. We need to acknowledge the flaws that we are all guilty and aren't learning from our mistakes.
We will continue to laugh at the less fortunate and do nothing to help put an end to it; we will continue to let our world waste away when we could be cleaning it. We will always want more until it's gone, and then when it is gone we won't know what to do. We can say we seek a change, but it will never happen because ultimately, we need to see it to believe it. The only thing is we won’t want to when we do.
