I think what these kinds of trends reveal is that very few people are true individuals, and that "individuality" can be bought and sold much like any other good. Johnny Rotten of the sex pistols, in a mid-career interview, once complained about how he dressed the way he did to be an individual, but people started showing up to his shows dressed like him, to try and be an individual like him, which he despised. If it weren't an app and an algorithm telling us what to look like, we'd get our influence from somewhere else. I think what's most alarming about our age is as we've gotten better at communicating and labeling these trends (goth girl, trad, norm core, etc.) we've collectively realized that we're almost all followers, and this is something we're probably better off not knowing.
> I really should take some time to think about what’s actually me.
Well, I'd say you have an astoundingly deep vision of current reality, and it comes through in every paragraph. So deep, I'll just ask this: have you read Ecclesiastes, where it says "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."
I hope you don't let knowledge get you down, because it will only keep increasing as you get older.
Well, it seems to me that they created the fetishism merchandise algorithm on purpose ?
"In Marxist philosophy, the term commodity fetishism describes the economic relationships of production and exchange as being social relationships that exist among things (money and merchandise) and not as relationships that exist among people."
I think what these kinds of trends reveal is that very few people are true individuals, and that "individuality" can be bought and sold much like any other good. Johnny Rotten of the sex pistols, in a mid-career interview, once complained about how he dressed the way he did to be an individual, but people started showing up to his shows dressed like him, to try and be an individual like him, which he despised. If it weren't an app and an algorithm telling us what to look like, we'd get our influence from somewhere else. I think what's most alarming about our age is as we've gotten better at communicating and labeling these trends (goth girl, trad, norm core, etc.) we've collectively realized that we're almost all followers, and this is something we're probably better off not knowing.
https://iweothers.substack.com/p/manifesto-image-and-certificate-01
https://iweothers.substack.com/p/manifesto-image-and-certificate-02
https://iweothers.substack.com/p/manifesto-image-and-certificate-03
> I really should take some time to think about what’s actually me.
Well, I'd say you have an astoundingly deep vision of current reality, and it comes through in every paragraph. So deep, I'll just ask this: have you read Ecclesiastes, where it says "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."
I hope you don't let knowledge get you down, because it will only keep increasing as you get older.
Well, it seems to me that they created the fetishism merchandise algorithm on purpose ?
"In Marxist philosophy, the term commodity fetishism describes the economic relationships of production and exchange as being social relationships that exist among things (money and merchandise) and not as relationships that exist among people."