Statcounter

Showing posts with label consumerism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumerism. Show all posts

Monday, February 2, 2015

TARZAN'S SHAME


There were shops so Tarzan went to them. Have you ever been to shops? I bet you have. Most people have been to shops. Not Tarzan though. Tarzan had never been to shops before. Tarzan had no need for shops up to this time. Up to this time, Tarzan had been living in hedges at the ends of gardens and feeding on birds, squirrels and hedgehogs. Tarzan had everything Tarzan needed but people who are called 'The Authorities' told Tarzan to change Tarzan's ways or they would lock Tarzan in a room for the rest of Tarzan's life. Tarzan did not want to be locked in a room for the rest of Tarzan's life. That struck Tarzan as very constricting so Tarzan changed his ways.

Tarzan was told that Tarzan needed proper clothes and other things called accoutrements and that Tarzan would get them from shops so Tarzan went to shops. Then a man in a shop told Tarzan that Tarzan had to hand over money if Tarzan wanted to take away the items Tarzan needed. Tarzan asked the man in the shop what money was and the man in the shop showed Tarzan bits of paper and some small pieces of metal. Tarzan realised that Tarzan did not have any money. Tarzan asked the man in the shop if he would take pebbles and litter instead of money and the man in the shop said that he would not. Tarzan told the man in the shop that Tarzan needed money and asked the man in the shop to give Tarzan some. The man in the shop told Tarzan that Tarzan would get money in the bank and told Tarzan where the bank was so Tarzan went there and asked the lady in the bank for money. The lady in the bank told Tarzan that Tarzan could only take money away from the bank if Tarzan put money in the bank. Tarzan did not think that this made sense. Why would Tarzan need something Tarzan already had and if Tarzan had something why would Tarzan give it to someone else to give back to Tarzan? Tarzan told the lady in the bank that she was wasting Tarzan's time. Tarzan left the bank.

As Tarzan was leaving the bank, the lady in the bank told Tarzan that Tarzan should put some clothes on. Tarzan told the lady in the bank that the world was Tarzan's clothes and walked out the door, putting one foot into the world just like most people put one foot through the leg of their trousers every morning.

Tarzan asked a man on the street if he knew where Tarzan could get money and the man on the street told Tarzan that Tarzan could earn it by working so Tarzan went looking for a job. Tarzan asked people if there was a job that Tarzan could do for them in exchange for money and they told Tarzan that Tarzan needed qualifications before Tarzan could get a job. Tarzan asked them where Tarzan could get qualifications and they said the college so Tarzan went to the college and the people at the college told Tarzan that they would only give Tarzan qualifications if Tarzan gave them money. Tarzan told the people at the college that Tarzan had no money and they told Tarzan to get a job.

Tarzan was beginning to get very confused. Tarzan was confused and hungry. Tarzan saw a small dog but Tarzan did not eat it because Tarzan did not want to be locked in a room for the rest of Tarzan's life by The Authorities.

Tarzan wandered the streets naked and a man pointed at Tarzan's penis and said 'cover that up or I will call The Authorities'. Everyone seemed to be disgusted by Tarzan's penis. The men all had their penises covered up by clothes and the ladies had their breasts and vaginas covered up too. Lots more of their bodies were covered up by clothes. Only their heads and hands were showing. They had hidden themselves from themselves because they found themselves disgusting. Tarzan realised that Tarzan better find Tarzan disgusting too or Tarzan would be locked in a room for the rest of Tarzan's life so Tarzan practised being disgusted by Tarzan and to go around thinking about the money all the time. 'Tarzan needs money, Tarzan needs money', said Tarzan to Tarzan all the time and Tarzan's hungry belly agreed with a growl.

Tarzan never got any money. The once mighty Tarzan got weak and skinny and Tarzan still had no clothes. An old lady saw Tarzan and said 'you should be ashamed' so Tarzan became ashamed. Tarzan became ashamed of Tarzan's nudity and Tarzan's poverty. Tarzan had never felt shame before.

The shame hung around Tarzan. Even though Tarzan could not see the shame, Tarzan knew that the shame was there because Tarzan felt the shame. Tarzan could no longer see the world because of the shame. Something Tarzan could not see was stopping Tarzan from seeing. 'Tarzan is blind yet Tarzan has eyes!' exclaimed the confused and miserable Tarzan.

Tarzan tried to hide from the shame but the shame found Tarzan wherever Tarzan went so Tarzan went to the only place the shame could not follow. Tarzan went to death. Tarzan dived from the top of a big shop and landed on the pavement. Splat. The shame was gone but Tarzan's skinny naked body remained, crumpled on the path. Tarzan's body was left there. No one would clear it away because of a thing called an industrial dispute. The men who clear away dead bodies wanted more money and the people who gave them money to clear away dead bodies did not want to give them more money. So, Tarzan's body rotted where it was and those who passed by it said it was a shame. 'What kind of world is this at all?', one lady asked. Tarzan could not answer her because Tarzan was dead but she did not want Tarzan to answer because she did not want to know. She already did. Deep down, she just wished she didn't.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

THE WAY OF THE FÜGHRER


My uncertainty is, of course, simple affectation. I am certain of everything. In fact, there is no one more certain than me. When you come to know how certain I am you will bask in my certainty. You will abandon your lack of certainty and abide by my abundance of certainty. I will sit high in the mountains of southern Bavaria and pose for certain looking portraits that you will hang on your uncertain little walls. Certainty is all you want. You crave certainty. For you, it's all about certainty and, perhaps, a pinch of demagoguery. You are lost and want only to be shown the way. Any way will do. Even the wrong way. As long as you feel that it is The Way. I will mention The Way a lot when I take to my podium, gesticulating and embracing myself as I become overwhelmed by the power of my own words. The words of The Füghrer.

You will come to understand that The Way is the only way. It will start with a fashionable chain of coffee houses and clothes shops called The Way. First you will 'hang out' there and then you will work there, both earning and spending your money in the same place. You will feel the brand of The Way providing you with a sense of identity. No more will you long for that vague thing you couldn't quite identify but always felt missing from your life (it was a sense of communal belonging and purpose). With calm newfound confidence, you will lounge in The Way apparel as you sip The Way coffee and listen to me orate about The Way on The Way's very own radio station – that will also play the odd tune by Ray LaMontagne and The Polyphonic Spree.

'The Füghrer says that we are no longer to serve albinos in the shop.'
'The Füghrer lifted my chin and kissed my forehead. I am in ecstasy.'
'Did you note the Füghrer's pantaloons at today's rally? The becoming and unique cut denoted both authority and discernment.'
'He may have interned half the population but the Füghrer's love of alsatians reveals a sensitive soul beneath the cut and thrust.'
'The Füghrer says that cretins and intellectuals are alike in their wilful cerebral aberrations and that both are to be rounded up and left in the courtyard for collection at noon.'
'The Füghrer promises us a golden future but a golden future that demands blood red sacrifice.'

I will give you boots, britches, braces and little hats to wear. I will fortify the crumbling battlements of your souls and send you out to war against those who, by their very existence, offend our people. Our enemies, the unfashionable, the aged, the portly, the unsightly, the impaired and the unwell, will be first to fall and then we will expand our franchise into Europe, Russia, Africa, Asia, Australia and across the Americas. We will have no allies but that will not bother us because all the world will soon be ours and think like us and dress like us and drink coffee like us and both work for us and buy from us alone. We will stand, sartorially exalted, above the rest of our species, flashing our abs and waving our hashtag flags - #EinVolk,einReich,einFüghrer - and we will sing rousing choruses of Light and Day by The Polyphonic Spree.

Of course, there will be some resistance. The malcontents, the sneering older brothers and sarcastic big sisters. But we will pay them no heed. We will bar them from our outlets and all the world will be our outlet so they will find themselves barred from life itself. Let them be swallowed in the shadow of our glorious advance as we live our lives The Way lives should be lived. All of us certain in ourselves because we are certain of The Way and because we have good bone structure.

And that is The Way things will be and that is The Way things will remain until battalions of enraged Slavic conscripts pour through our defences and tear each and every one of us a 'new one'.

It has happened before and it will happen again. That is, after all, the way of things and the way of things is, after all, The Way of The Füghrer.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

HAN SOLO


Swimming pool acoustics. ATMs. Escalators. Nothing of interest anywhere. I bet they have nothing by Durkheim in the bookshop. (I'll ask for the laugh.) People, unattractively good looking and numerous. Hollister. Harvey Nichols. House of Fraser. Nama. Austere couture. I could have sworn I saw an imperial stormtrooper. My mate calls this place the Death Star. I met her for coffee on the fourth floor balcony. I couldn't see her and that's how I knew it was her. Her voice emitting behind a tower of purchases. She spoke of fit celebrities and favoured restaurants. She cast doubt on welfare recipients. She made frequent mention of her sundry achievements. 'I guess as a person, you could say I'm kind of driven.' And that's when I felt driven to do something.

I stood on my chair and jumped on the table. Then I placed a foot on the balcony rail. She screamed beyond her shopping as I escaped the Empire's clutches, plummeting down and away from consumer dismay. As Han Solo once said – 'boring conversation anyway'.

Friday, November 29, 2013

THINGS


You love things don't you? I've seen you, picking things up, looking at them and saying 'ooh, what lovely things'. Hallowed be thy things. You're a thing lover.

You're a thing lover and that suits me fine because I am going to give you things. I am going to give you things you really like and then I am going to threaten to take those things away from you again. That way, you will do whatever I say. 'Please, please, not my things', you'll beg before complying with whatever demand I make of you. You will do whatever I say because that way you will get to keep your things.

And you'll go about the world speaking of your things and comparing your things and belittling those without things and criticising them for wanting your things. And you will die and you will become ghosts and you will wander the earth wailing out to be reunited with your things. ‘Wheeeerrrrre aaaarrrrrreeee mmmmmmyyyyy thhhiiiiiiinnngs?’ And all the while, all during this lifetime and beyond, all during the time you spend thinging, you will never realise that these things were chains and that I put them on you and told you they were gifts. 

I'll never forget how you thanked me.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

ANIMALS DOWN THE SHOPS


Animals, what good are they? They just hang around making noises and doing shits on things. Let's put them to some use. Let's get them spending. Let's get animals down the shops. Let's train animals to buy and get them contributing to the economy. They aren't contributing in their own trivial little ecosystem so it's time to get them involved in the real system. Train them to work and earn and consume. They'll learn to love it. Magpies already like shiny things.

Just think of the business we could drum up: furniture for bird nests, shoes for spiders, wigs for bald eagles, contact lenses for bats, mittens for lobsters, lingerie for dogs. Enough with the feral, let's get financial! Creature consumers consuming creature comforts! I can see the cash flooding into our pockets now!

Let's make animals hate themselves so they'll buy stuff to like themselves more. Let's make birds ashamed of their wings. We'll make birds believe that flying is a lot of exertion and embarrassingly old fashioned. We'll get them to see their wings as ugly twitchy flaps. That way we can sell them airplane tickets and specially designed jackets that hide their foul feathery appendages. Let's make it so ants want to be individuals. We could make hats for ants and they could all get different types so that they feel unique - cowboy hats, bowler hats, baseball caps. They'll probably still behave the same way, all regimented and routined, but they'll perceive themselves to be free spirits and perception is all that matters in this post-reality age.

'Rhinos, reindeer and gnus of the wild, what are those horns and antlers upon your heads but elaborate head warts and cranial verrucas? Worry not, a pricy yet inexpensive procedure will be made available so you can be shorn of your unsightly shame.' 
That's the way we should be talking to beasts. The animal kingdom is an untapped market. The way to get them shopping is to make them ashamed of their fur and beaks and primitive abodes. We'll have them eating out of our hands and filling our bank accounts.

I think it's a great idea and I've been trying to get things up and running for a while now. Ten years ago I had a goldfish and I convinced it that it really should be silver, like other normal fish. I made him really ashamed of his crass and flashy colouring so he set about earning money to buy a form of scale dye I'd developed. He earned his money by doing tricks, allowing Steve-O from Jackass drink him and puke him back out into his bowl, that kind of thing. Sadly the acclaim the fish received went to his head. The combination of adulation and self-loathing made him a very confused little fish. He ended up spending all his money on drugs and passed away in a motel room. That's the danger of excess. What a waste of life. A potential consumer no more. I didn't know what to do with all the bottles of scale dye I was left with but then I had a bright idea and sold the stuff to chameleons. I told them they needed it to get themselves 'noticed'.

Oh yeah, and another time I sold a rasher sandwich to a pig. He didn't really enjoy it but apparently eating it made him feel more 'human'.

Monday, November 4, 2013

TASTY-LICIOUS


(pictured – Try our Cock-A-Doodle-Deep-Fat-Doo)

I'm opening a new chain of restaurants called Tasty-Licious. With a catchy name like that, I reckon it's going to be a big hit. The food won't be very nice (mainly mechanically separated meat stuff with added sweetener and things called 'bovine approximate', 'anabolic emulsifier', 'pulverized extract', 'black rot mix', 'Xanax' and unwanted pets) but the outlets will be bright, cheerful and child friendly and we'll deliver to your door. We'll even have stuff in the shops. The Tasty-Licious range in stores will make it so you can still enjoy a Tasty-Licious treat at home even if you don't have a Tasty-Licious near your home. Mmmm, that's Tasty-Licious. I'm sure some begrudgers will say the food tastes awful but it will also be cheap so that should appeal. I'm not going to waste a load of money on ingredients when there's the whole promotional campaign to be paying for. (Journos don't pepper their lifestyle pieces with references to your product for free you know, LOL!) I reckon if you see the words Tasty-Licious everywhere and constantly hear our jingle – 'Ooh Tasty-Licious, that's Tasty-Licious, mmmm Tasty-Licious, Yeah!' – you'll realise that food is just as much about 'fun' as it is taste and nutrition. I find the whole nutrition thing very Calvinist anyway don't you? The whole 'eat your greens' thing. Booorrrring.

So, Tasty-Licious will be making food fun. We'll have this thing called a Grub Mug that's basically dinner in a big pink plastic mug! And there'll be the Party in a Bucket, which will be a load of food thrown into a huge cardboard bucket type thing for people to share, although most will probably enjoy it alone. Speaking of 'alone', Tasty-Licious will also be introducing Bachelor Chow for unmarried men who are too busy playing GTA to bother preparing anything decent. The ads will feature a debonair Roger Moore type ordering a portion of Bachelor Chow to his 'pad' but we'll also have a parallel campaign, a kind of shaky camera thing with a documentary feel, that will feature lads with drinking problems and depression who can't get access to their kids and all that stuff talking frankly to the camera about how Bachelor Chow 'brings some light to a very dark place'. It'll be great!

I'd say you'll be dropping in yourself will you? I mean there are lots of good places with great food but I bet you'll be drawn to Tasty-Licious. 'Ah, I don't really have time for anything nice, I'll just head for Tasty-Licious and get eating over with', you'll say to yourself. When it comes to fast food there'll be nowhere faster than Tasty-Licious. Try our Tasty-Licious Time Saver, for people on the go. With the Tasty-Licious Time Saver you don't even have to bother sitting down. You just stand there at the counter while a member of staff pushes the food into your open gob. Then you can get back to the telly or work or shouting at employees or doing whatever it is you need to do to love your life. Remember - 'Ooh Tasty-Licious, that's Tasty-Licious, mmmm Tasty-Licious, Yeah!'
See ya soon snack seekers!

Friday, May 10, 2013

I THINK I WILL GO SHOPPING


Compliant revenue and data providing labour units, that's what we want. That is what we want you, the citizen, to be and that is what you, the citizen, should aspire to be. It's better for us, it's better for you, it's better for everyone . . .but . . .it's not that simple to achieve.

The trouble seems to be twofold. Firstly, you are not readily and constantly visible and could be up to anything at anytime. This hinders our ability to provide services. How can we help you live the life you want to live if we don't know what kind of life you are living? The more we know the better. Secondly, you keep secrets and these secrets are stored in your brain which is in your head and difficult for us to access. We can't get access to your head and so remain ignorant of what potential revenue generating desires reside there. Imagine it this way - the world is a shop, you are in that shop but you will not tell the shopkeeper what you want, which means he doesn't know what to put on the shelves. It is better for you if the shopkeeper knows what you want at all times. The ideal scenario would be if the shopkeeper knew you so well as to practically be able to read your mind. Imagine the super shop we could all live in if the shopkeeper could read your mind.

So, in order to make the world a super shop we need to be able to practically read your mind. For us to be able to practically read your mind we need to know EVERYTHING about you. Where you are at all times and what you are thinking at all times. To do this we need to build a profile so we can meet the needs of that profile because that is what you will ultimately be - you will be a profile.

To help you become a profile (thereby helping us make your world a super shop) we suggest the removal of the human head and its replacement with a CCTV camera. A population of CCTV camera headed people recording themselves and each other at all times will ensure that we know where you are and what you are doing. We will also know what you are thinking. You will be thinking nothing because your head will no longer have a brain and just have camera bits. Do not worry though. Thoughts will be provided for a reasonable price. You will be able to purchase these thoughts in the super shop the world will become and to which you will provide both custom and security footage. These thoughts will be transmitted straight to your CCTV head and will probably go something like: 'I think I will go shopping'.

Irresistibly yours,

G.I.T.T. (Global Initiatives Think Tank)

In other news, here's some footage of what happened in Dundrum 'Town' Centre yesterday...
 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW


IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
Everyone will try to get on TV
and they will get on TV
in a show on TV
about them trying to get on TV.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
People who are overweight by 120 pounds
will repeatedly spend 120 pounds
in failed attempts to lose 120 pounds.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
People will avoid getting old
by acting like they are young
and end up seeming older.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
We will use shops for parks
and parks for car parks.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
A dog will bark at a postman
so the postman will sue the dog’s owner
and then the dog’s owner will sue the dog.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
A nation of child killers
will condemn another nation for child killing
and they will go to war
and kill more children.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
Everyone will worry that there will be no tomorrow
but there will be a tomorrow
and everyone will worry more than they did the day before.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
We’ll give kids lots of toys
and then resent them for having too many toys
and kids who never had any toys
will spend all day making the toys.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
Everyone will have their say
but no one will have anything to say
except for what they’ve been told.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
Everyone will drive cars
and spend most of their lives in cars
driving to and from work
to pay for their cars.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
Everyone will own a house
that belongs to someone else
who owns lots of houses
that belong to someone else.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
Everyone will have lots of money
because everyone will owe lots of money
but no one will have enough money to pay the money back.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
People will belong nowhere
and nowhere will belong to people.

IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW:
The great void will spill forth
and eat up all matter
and replace it with antimatter
and no one will even notice
that there’s anything the matter.

And that is how it will be. And that is how it is. Today and every day, IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

RETINA SCAN ROCK FESTIVAL


(pictured above: it’s nearly almost fun!)

This summer why not go to The Retina Scan Rock Festival? A genuine simulacrum of the free festivals of yore-sans off putting idealism! Chicks in designer wellies and shorts . . .mmm! Watch Battles and say you preferred the early stuff! See Peter Sutherland do a duet with The Flaming Lips! Visit the Blackwater Security Dance Tent! Upload the fun to Facebook! Twitter the good times! Text and Text and Text and Text and drop into the Ideas Boutique where you can see all the latest apps! Roll around in mud with graphic designers and students from Kings Inns! Feel Freeish! The fajitas are delicious! Nothing matters anymore!

. . .then go home and talk about it for a couple of days.

PLEASE NOTE: Attendees must don a collar and leash to prevent profligate wantonness. Fajita queue skipping will meet with modest voltage application.