Time to take a stand against brands
If you think you're choosing those trainers out of your own free will, you're fooling yourself, argues Logan Uglow-Landa.
Why are you reading this? Did someone tell you to? Perhaps you heard it advertised?
People are like robots now. Rampant consumerism, fake entertainment and the monopolism of corporations control our minds. No one sees through the blanket of what are now social normalities; control over everything lies in the hands of a select few people, and a scenario that all but a few years ago was only seen in science fiction has now become our present reality.
Global corporations control our resources, media, and therefore our minds. Over decades, their monopoly over our lives has become an accepted and ignored reality that most do not even realise. Streams of advertising pour in from all angles at all times and corrupt our thoughts, making us think that we want what we don’t really need. It’s a pandemic of sorts, and it's infecting the world one person at a time until it makes us all sick. Even children are now exposed to personalised, targeted advertisements which indoctrinate them early on in their development to follow, want and hate things that they wouldn’t have before, readying them for a life of mindless consumerism and thoughtless sheep-like lives without any sense of individual agency.
We’ve got to stop conforming to these norms and go back to simpler lives without the influence of brands (or rather the malignant powers behind them) that sell “desirable” lifestyles rather than beneficial products. Young people’s clothing has been monopolised by empty designers whose entire purpose is to profit as much as possible, even to the point of ignoring morality. Their products cost a fraction of their retail prices to produce and the quality they advertise is comparable to products that cost tens, sometimes hundreds of times less.
However, it’s all about the brand: the brand is a lifestyle, something to command social respect and standing. Why?
The opposite should be true. Instead, those who are indoctrinated to conform to the advertising, those who become the consumer that the brands want, are the ones that should be ridiculed. Whilst they flaunt their brands - which they’ve just spent their savings on - the owners of those same brands laugh in their mega-mansions, gloating over their empire of zombified consumers that will buy whatever they sell and who give them more money, power, and influence over the world.
And that’s only one facet of the rhombicosidodecahedron that houses all the powers that are held over the common civilian. Here in the UK, food, electricity and even water is owned, and controlled by more corporations whose only objective is to… make money. It can’t be good, can it? If we need these things to survive, then does that mean that life itself is in the hands of some avaricious rich person who uses the money that we pay for life to expand their network of greed?
And think of the power that these corporations have over governments: some bring in more money than small nations, so it’s ignorant to think that none of them at least influence governments just as they influence us. Some corporations, or even individual people have enough money, and therefore power, to push political agendas, affect laws and control the media; they supersede the monopoly law or any other law that should affect them because they have too much power, and even governments are scared to go after them.
So, now you've begun to think about it, surely you don't want to be controlled anymore. As individuals, we can’t do much, but all together, we can change the way that brands are perceived and realise that they aren’t harmless status symbols but avaricious giants whose lust for power and money is infinitely stronger than their moral compasses. Stop buying these brands. Stand up to monopolism and vote for whoever will change it. Spread this message, for the only reason that we are victims is because of ignorance, and if people know they are being controlled, they will have the choice to break the cycle. Shop local, eat local, and spread the word.
Logan Uglow-Landa Year 12
Why are you reading this? Did someone tell you to? Perhaps you heard it advertised?
People are like robots now. Rampant consumerism, fake entertainment and the monopolism of corporations control our minds. No one sees through the blanket of what are now social normalities; control over everything lies in the hands of a select few people, and a scenario that all but a few years ago was only seen in science fiction has now become our present reality.
Global corporations control our resources, media, and therefore our minds. Over decades, their monopoly over our lives has become an accepted and ignored reality that most do not even realise. Streams of advertising pour in from all angles at all times and corrupt our thoughts, making us think that we want what we don’t really need. It’s a pandemic of sorts, and it's infecting the world one person at a time until it makes us all sick. Even children are now exposed to personalised, targeted advertisements which indoctrinate them early on in their development to follow, want and hate things that they wouldn’t have before, readying them for a life of mindless consumerism and thoughtless sheep-like lives without any sense of individual agency.
We’ve got to stop conforming to these norms and go back to simpler lives without the influence of brands (or rather the malignant powers behind them) that sell “desirable” lifestyles rather than beneficial products. Young people’s clothing has been monopolised by empty designers whose entire purpose is to profit as much as possible, even to the point of ignoring morality. Their products cost a fraction of their retail prices to produce and the quality they advertise is comparable to products that cost tens, sometimes hundreds of times less.
However, it’s all about the brand: the brand is a lifestyle, something to command social respect and standing. Why?
The opposite should be true. Instead, those who are indoctrinated to conform to the advertising, those who become the consumer that the brands want, are the ones that should be ridiculed. Whilst they flaunt their brands - which they’ve just spent their savings on - the owners of those same brands laugh in their mega-mansions, gloating over their empire of zombified consumers that will buy whatever they sell and who give them more money, power, and influence over the world.
And that’s only one facet of the rhombicosidodecahedron that houses all the powers that are held over the common civilian. Here in the UK, food, electricity and even water is owned, and controlled by more corporations whose only objective is to… make money. It can’t be good, can it? If we need these things to survive, then does that mean that life itself is in the hands of some avaricious rich person who uses the money that we pay for life to expand their network of greed?
And think of the power that these corporations have over governments: some bring in more money than small nations, so it’s ignorant to think that none of them at least influence governments just as they influence us. Some corporations, or even individual people have enough money, and therefore power, to push political agendas, affect laws and control the media; they supersede the monopoly law or any other law that should affect them because they have too much power, and even governments are scared to go after them.
So, now you've begun to think about it, surely you don't want to be controlled anymore. As individuals, we can’t do much, but all together, we can change the way that brands are perceived and realise that they aren’t harmless status symbols but avaricious giants whose lust for power and money is infinitely stronger than their moral compasses. Stop buying these brands. Stand up to monopolism and vote for whoever will change it. Spread this message, for the only reason that we are victims is because of ignorance, and if people know they are being controlled, they will have the choice to break the cycle. Shop local, eat local, and spread the word.
Logan Uglow-Landa Year 12