Perception Is Reality

There is no culture, except the one advertising has sold to us through a number of media, mainly television. Our dreams have been packaged and sold to us, a lifestyle – nothing more than an article of trade. We consume this lifestyle and enjoy short bursts of satisfaction, much like an orgasm. Then we want more. The authenticity of life, of being a human being has moved away from inward reflection, to outward exposition. We have become what the consumer society has made us, individuals looking to satisfy our own needs and desires. On Maslow’s pyramid of the hierarchy of needs, then, we ricochet off the stages between needs for security and needs for love and belonging – which too are meagre, artificially fabricated needs.

It is no wonder then, that we tend to disregard the bigger picture and indulge in our own foolishness: we are too busy looking for the satisfaction in the wrong places, in effect, ignoring the true institutions from where we derive the atonements, our family, friends, and ourselves.

The result is therefore a loop, a mindset which benefits not our community as it should be, rather the marketplace. We become the fuel for the hungry engines of the corporations that try so hard to keep us innoculated with their ideas of culture and happiness.