Was looking at some sci-fi art over at CGTalk.
It's funny that whenever an artist has to design an alien city for an intelligent species, they usually make large industrial sprawl of forms of unified design - the rest of the time it's a religious centre or a centre of dwelling.
Nobody would ever put shops at the centre of an alien cities. Imagine those little leathery-skinned aliens with knobbly backward-bending knees, queuing up to buy some glossy little shoes with their hard-earned alien money.
Having shops and consumerism at the centre of our cities is seriously bizarre, too. It's a pastime which involves lots of abstract things which do not contribute any obvious value to the life of the species and its relationship with its surroundings.
Industry? Sure. Plough the land get food, refine raw materials, survive better. Religion: An attempt to understand and relate oneself to ones surroundings. Science too. Most people would put those at the centre of the city, the altar of life.
To imagine an alien species who invent trade-credit, and then invent abstract beings to amass trade-credit - beings that aren't part of objective reality, yet are the most important citizens in the alien society.
The aliens are forced to lease themselves to the imaginary beings in order to survive. Then the imaginary beings do their best to brainwash the aliens into giving back as many of their hard-earned trade-credits as possible, which they do by selling things to the aliens at falsely inflated value.
Aliens that oppress themselves - that would be daft.
In the developed parts of our world, wherever there's lots of people living, go to the centre. CheezeStrings, TV, iPod, and pre-frayed jeans - 10 pence of fabric for 100 pounds, right at centre of town where there should be… a swirl of democratic processes taking place, and research projects, extended communities, culture and so forth.
Contemplating everyone that gets in their car to go hand over some money to ASDA and TESCO and TOPSHOP at the nearest shopping mal makes you wonder - what else could this be apart from a consumer cathedral? What else could these people be doing here?
posted by Fred Stidston @ 6:07 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Makes perfect sense to me. Consumerism is a perfect solution to a world where deep universal desires have always been hard to come by, though we now live in an era where they appear much more readily available. Why shouldn't we all have good friends and be in good health, our bodies functioning like well oiled machines.
Rather it's become easier to satisfy our desires with objects that don't impose the threat of complex emotional hurdles. Your jeans won't judge you, nor will your MP3 player play hard to get. And yet they bring us status, pleasure, entertainment. They make us feel worthy members of society, and allow us to belong in an ever disconnected world. Logic dictates that we will choose the path of least resistance to fulfill whatever needs we have. If that involves buying into manufactured blister-pack love then so be it. In some ways, consumerism is more in tune with our nature than what we usually define as nature itself.
That's a dead on explanation! But thin justification in my view.
There are myriad important causes in the world which have been completely overshadowed by manufactured desires.
It is as in tune with our nature as MCDONALDS or HOVIS crust-free white sliced bread is. Short term buzz, long term malnourishment.
I've no doubt that the consumerist life-illusion can keep scaling up its promises to fill more of the holes it leaves. Even the genuine desire that many people feel to give charity to the overwhelming number of poor and under-educated at home and abroad, which occasionally shows its face in defiance to consumerism, is beheaded and used to gain capitalist advantage with (PRODUCT) RED campaigns.
Life is one long emotion hurdle, it's the difference between juvenile and mature and it's life's journey. Synthetically creating and modulating emotions is not in anyone's best interest, and is only a shallow imitation of our needs and nature.
Sure, it's great to have these ideals and yeah, our society is in a pretty sorry state but wringing our hands in defiance will accomplish very little and will only relegate us to the scrapheap of history.
Interestingly, I see the Product Red campaign as one of the more appropriate ways to address this issue. By operating according to rules of engagement that our culture deems appropriate, the campaign is ensuring its own relevance and allows mass culture to buy into it, directing the full brunt of consumerist power to make real differences. Sure, a few people's pockets will be lined in the process but is that so bad?
Life's still full of wonder and magic, and it'll take a lot to change that. Just because living up to emotional reality plays second fiddle to the lowest common denominator, that doesn't mean the war is over and it's time to go home. There's no use in taking one's toys away in a tantrum just to prove a point, even if it seems hopeless. Being the underdog is a good thing!
There are certain realities at play that are unavoidable, and yes, maybe a revolution is called for. Maybe we do need to exact change at the tectonic scale. But for now, let's just build momentum quietly and steadily and take courage from the prospect of a monumental backlash against the cultural void. "The taller they grow..."
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