Riding on a Semblance of Profundity.... Or Not....

Our generation seems to be defined by marketing.

Whereas the 18th century was defined by discoveries; and industrialization and manufacturing during the 19th; the latter half of the 20th and present century has and is marked by a man’s ability to convince, or rather compel, another to part with his money for things he may not necessarily need.

Take, for example, how we describe our day-to-day activities:

You FedEx a package.

Documents are Xeroxed.

To look up something on the Net, you Google.

Filipinos Kodak when taking pictures.

We even use brand names to describe what we eat: you didn’t have hamburgers and fries, you had McDonald’s.

Am I saying there’s something wrong with that?

You tell me.

Can you imagine the society of this day and age to be what it is without gigantic billboards, TV shows, radio commercials, websites, corporate-sponsored parties and events, bus and train poster ads, mailed-in brochures, shopping malls complexes, text message promos, 3-day sales, magazine centerfolds, showrooms, product samples, Friendster, Starbucks?

A knee-jerk reaction may most likely respond in the negative but that reply merits reconsideration. Yes, it is possible for us to have none of the abovementioned things. But what are we left with then?

Could we truly be what we are today without those things?

How would it feel to have none of the trappings of an age defined by a systematic approach to get people to buy and consume, but never truly being satisfied?

Personally, given the absence of such things, it’d feel naked. By “it” I’d be referring to how we live and have come to know daily life and define what is “normal”.

That “it” in & of itself is not necessarily a bad thing since this is what defines our time. However, should it ever come to the point of being stripped, what would remain? And more importantly, could “it” still function without the withdrawal symptoms?

No one can truly say for sure and perhaps that is a good thing. For at least there is the possibility of the answer that although naked, things can and will go on.