The harnessing of a schizophrenic thought process
Ah, yes, the mustache conundrum...
Facial hair located prominently on the area around the mouth has long been a symbol of masculinity and all-around cool. Of course, this image has been warped by the societal values of the now, much of which values simplicity and simplistic clarity (look at Apple) - and that often translates into a clean-shaven face.
There's nothing wrong with a mustache - or a lack thereof – in modern society. Mustache donners are typically stereotyped as masculine Caucasian men who potentially ride motorcycles and happen to be cowboys. Which really sucks for those who don’t fit these profiles. But not to worry, nobody needs to conform to stereotypes. The significant ‘hipster value’ of mustaches, interestingly, has done a negligible effect on keeping the hair on mens’ faces. Then again, once it does, it won’t be ‘hipster’, highlighting the paradox of conforming to a counterculture, which by definition attempts to defy conformism. Conformis-conception or conform-inception?
Most adolescents harbor little opinion, positive or otherwise, towards mustaches. As a semi-regular wearer of a mustache, mine is representative of eccentricity and individualism; a pathetic attempt to feel older, not a pathetic attempt to fit in or stand out – because if you try too hard to stand out, you’re just another one of those who tried too hard to stand out, and that would mean – yeah, you fit in. Plan thwarted?
Gabe Saporta
Gabe Saporta. What a hunk of a man. And what a name! Saporta? Sounds like Sapporo, the Japanese draft beer. This guy should totally get an endorsement. I’m pretty sure this lead vocalist of Cobra Starship, popular synthpop/dancepop group, has plenty of ‘saportas.’
An Uruguayan Jew in the United States, Saporta seems to be the ultimate amalgamation of all things multicultural. Also a philosophy major, the man tells us all that philosophy is not a piece-of-crap field of study – I bet he’s applying his ideas to his music and his public relations efforts right this second. Also a PETA activist, and almost by definition, a vegetarian, Saporta seems to be the true nonconformist. Take that, hipster mustache-cult-worshippers.
Koreans
Koreans – more specifically, South Koreans – have become a somewhat widespread cultural tour de force in areas outside the tiny peninsular nation in which they reside in. Their incredibly aggressive cultural ministry consistently makes concerted efforts to essentially sell their culture. For a small, ambitious, and sometimes arrogant nation, government clout is necessary to make their television and music known around the world.
It’s obviously worked. The Republic of Korea houses a multitude of game companies that singlehandedly spawned the free-to-play massively multiplayer online game genre, which collectively generates billions of dollars (trillions more Won, due to the relatively small numerical value of their currency) annually. Even more can be said towards their other media foci, television and music. Their developments and efforts in this field has literally created an industry equally as efficient as Henry Ford’s assembly-line process. Entertainment giants tap in to consumer ideology and philosophy to develop attractive television drama plotlines that have apparently captivated more than just the average Korean – after all, there are only about 50 million South Koreans. Many dedicated Korean culture worshippers reside outside of Korea and have created their own niche cultural environment in the process.
More can be said about their popular music, which has managed to sweep the shores of Japan, China, Vietnam, and the Pacific Coast. The “Korean wave” is the aptly-named title of this analogical cultural natural disaster – I meant, financial success. Many of these highly qualified, highly attractive (by artificial or natural construction) pale-skinned vocalists have learned Japanese, Chinese, and English in order to tap into lucrative foreign markets. Of course, much of these things – multilingual ability, vocal talent, physical attractiveness, sold-out concerts, and so on – ultimately benefit none other than the higher-ups in the Korean entertainment industry, a series of corporate oligarchies which have a stranglehold on popular culture, and in turn, socio-cultural ideals for Korea and its youth population. Whether all of this is good is up to you, not me, to judge.
Facebook phenomena
It might be hard to believe that with over 800 million Facebook users, many of them are doing pretty much the same thing. Status updates from the English-speaking population are usually not meaningful updates about today’s happenings or musings on the world but rather appeals to ‘like’ their statuses in exchange of some sort of emotional gain – a truth-telling session, an admission of guilt, and whether or not you deserve to be avoided, dated, kissed, or – I’ll stop before things get out of hand.
The big question is whether this is simple ‘attention whoring’ or a larger issue – group conformity. Indeed, it could probably be both. The typical Facebook user uses the social-networking site not for serious business, but because they have nothing better to do (than online social interaction). And what better to do but to post a status that will keep him/her busy for hours? Statistically speaking, the only other things we do on the computer are online banking, movie/Youtube streaming, email checking, instant messaging, and perusing pornographic movies. The individual will probably not post a status just because someone else posted it and it is copyable – unless the individual is an adolescent aggressively seeking conformity, of course.
Congress Super Committee
The 12-man “supercommittee” in US Congress announced today that they were unable to solve a multi-trillion budget shortfall – not even able to decrease the deficit by the minimum goal of 1.2 trillion over 10 years– due to partisan disagreement over key spending cuts, including entitlement programs and tax increases. This disagreement is nothing new, but the new thing all Americans will be receiving soon are severe cuts on all governmental services, and I’m pretty sure all Americans are already tired of it. This is what happens when politicians care more about a party platform’s values than the people they represent, of course.
But perhaps the dumbest part of this whole disaster is that the due date for the compromise is Thanksgiving Day, not Monday. Perhaps the congressmen (there are no females in the supercommittee) want to celebrate their failure with their families and not in a dreary government chamber? The supercommittee’s failure is another reason why US Congress has less approval from Americans than the prospect of the United States turning on its capitalist ideals and turning communist.
Tootsie Pops
The age-old question: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
Siri answers:
START LICKING. I assume no biting is allowed.
Global Peace
Is such a thing possible? George Orwell writes in dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four that “war is peace.” The only way humanity can achieve peace is if…well, we ceased to be human. Even if all global conflict were to immediately end, significant internal conflict would continue to exist. Greed and corruption fuels broken third-world regimes and military juntas in Egypt and Burma alike. Are humans – because we are human – incapable of peace? Perhaps.
The United States proclaims itself as the harbinger of freedom and liberty, but it seems perfectly comfortable in using oppressive and destructive means to achieve their ends – those ends being democratic government, which Washington has long viewed as the only proper definition of freedom and liberty. (Examples: Central American neocolonialism, Cold War interventions, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East) Is communism not freedom or liberty? Communist countries – or proper, non-Stalinist ones, at least – provide better social benefits to the entire populace, with greater emphasis on gender, social, economic, and racial equality than capitalist, market-driven societies. Yet again, the flawed nature of the human personality has undermined the possibility of a perfect Communist state all but entirely.
But to flip over the other side of the same coin, there is no perfect democratic state either, as shown by American foreign policy. Without perfect people, there would be no perfect world, no perpetual peace. And although the current state of affairs is by no means ideal, there’s no goal as unrealistic – or as discomforting – as trying to achieve something that’s impossible to attain. A nation that simply minding its own affairs – a selfish philosophy, one that ignores problems in other nations – is the only method the country (not the world) can be at peace. The limit as x approaches total human equality and world peace: Does not exist.
SAT Vocabulary:
1. conundrum - n. puzzle, problem
2. prominent - adj. conspicuous in position, character, or importance
3. negligible - adj. so small or unimportant as to warrant little to no attention
4. eccentric - n. peculiarity
5. amalgamate - v. to mix or blend together in a homogeneous body
6. peninsular - adj. pertaining to a piece of land almost surrounded by water
7. perusing - v. look over in a casual or cursory manner
8. partisan - adj. characterized by devotion to a party
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