citizenschoice

[citizenschoice]

Can you dress up as someone with mental illness?

Before I start, let me make one thing clear; Todd Phillip’s Joker is, when looked at it as -just- a film, fantastic. An eerie look at a desperate and abandoned Gotham City accentuated by Joaquin Phoenix, who gives us one of the creepiest and best acting performances of all time (there’s no debate on this point). Yet the film poses major issues for the perception of comic book characters and/or their films.

Do we need to know who The Joker is?

We’ve all seen Thomas and Martha Wayne getting shot. Bruce falling into the well filled with bats. Him putting on the suit for the first time and the bat-logo high in the sky. But we’ve never seen where The Joker comes from. Sure, there has been some exploring in this area. For instance, Jack Nickelson’s Joker fell into a pot of green goo. Ledger’s Joker presented several ‘’stories’’ of how he got his scars, yet none gets confirmed. For the most time, The Joker exists because Batman exists. This is the eternal premise of good vs. evil. If there is absolute good, there must be absolute evil. The Joker’s reason for existence is to prove Batman wrong, yet he never succeeded. How diabolical, how menacing, how insane his schemes were, there was always Batman to show us the light. That evil does not triumph, and that we can always count on the masked vigilante to keep us safe. Even Heath Ledger’s Joker couldn’t convince Gotham to turn on itself in the end, and that guy blew up a hospital (although empty) which is still an impressive feat. There has even been a ton of chatter on the internet, both in countless Reddit comment sections as in ‘’officially’’ written essays, that Batman is as insane as The Joker. A guy that dresses up as a bat and fights crime without any REAL superpowers must be crazy, right? And Bruce Wayne’s childhood has been traumatic enough for all of us, right up there with the murder of Uncle Ben in Spider-Man, time and time again the story has told us of the orphaned boy who lost everything, even though he was born into unfathomable wealth. Is it right to know the same about The Joker? Does a character THAT evil needs to be explored?

Arthur Fleck

Well, in 2019, that question has been answered. And we know now, that at least in this part of the story, the Joker’s real name is Arthur Fleck. A middle-aged, not-so-impressive figure that lives in the poorest of areas in Gotham City, a place abandoned by politicians and billionaires and left to rot and die in it’s own vomit. He makes his money dressing up as a clown and standing on the street with a sign pointing potential customers to a store. He gets bullied, beaten, spat at, laughed at, screamed at. His social worker doesn’t listen, and when even she gets shut down due to citywide budget cuts, he loses his last anchor to his medication supply (he’s on six already at that time) and is truly, completely alone. So begins his decent into the insane parts of his own brain. Because Arthur Fleck is sick. And not just sick, he suffers from severe mental illness. As he scribbles into his own diary at one point:

‘’the hardest thing about mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t’’

This isn’t the ‘’Clown Prince of Crime’’ as we know him to be. As Fleck goes deeper into the rabbit hole that is his ‘damaged’ brain, he grows more violent. He starts imagining things and almost creates his own reality. One of his more violent outbursts sends shockwaves through Gotham and inspires riots against the rich and the elite. The more Fleck does, the more people notice his actions. At this point, he fully embraces his new identity as The Joker and while the entire city runs to the stores to buy clown masks and starts protesting against the established order, Fleck pieces together his master plan.

The Death of Comic Book Joker

The main issue I have with this version of the popular character is that even though the Joker is evil, he is still a popular character. Ledger’s version inspired hundreds of cosplay fanatics, imitators, praise, awards and an overall impact on pop culture. This is made possible due to the fact that we all accept Joker’s existence as a polar opposite to our good guy: Batman. As psycho as he might get, he’s still a character we’d love to see more of, because he poses a threat to our hero and might potentially give him a very hard time. But now, with Arthur Fleck, we can’t possibly do these things. It’s wrong to think that JOKER is entertaining, because that would be saying that mental illness is entertaining. His motives, as gruesome as they are in JOKER, are suddenly grounded in understanding. One might even say you can sympathise with this version of the famous clown, because it’s out of his hands. The problems he faces that ultimately make him into the Joker are too realistic and hit close to home. Now this can very well be the intention of Todd Phillips. He stated before that Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy were big influences for this film, and if it was a film without the DC stamp on it, there would be no problem. However, Todd Phillip’s movie rips the Joker out of the comic book world (where he can be loved, even though he is evil) and places him into our own everyday world. There is nothing fun about this Joker, because he suffers from mental illness. There is nothing awesome about this Joker, because he suffers from mental illness. He is insane to the core, and so are his motives. This time, there is no Batman to point us to the silver lining. It’s just Arthur Fleck and his decent into madness. We’re spectators on the side line. But we see him now, as a real person. Ignored, abandoned, abused, mentally ill. Now, The Joker is human. You can cosplay as Ledger’s Joker, because that Joker existed in a comic book universe. You can’t cosplay Phoenix’ Joker, because that Joker exists in our world.

You can’t dress up as mental illness.

[citizenschoice]

Disconnected.

I’m going to be completely honest with every one of you. It might be messy, it might get bloody, you might not like me after what I have to say, but that’s alright with me.

For years and years I have felt like I was standing in a deserted forest. Trees everywhere, a lot of wind, a lot of noise, darkness illuminated just enough to see a few steps ahead. A gnarly place. But I have been standing still at this place for so long, because in front of me is a crossroads. The road to the left leads to a place where everything is done the old way. It leads to a world where people talk to each other, where we show emotion through personal contact. Where we care for each other, and not for our status. Where we discuss important matters and have intellectual conversations about what moves us, what’s important to us and where we want to go with our lives?

The road to the right leads to 2015. It’s a road that illuminates as soon as I walk into it, because my smartphone automatically connects to the lights. It gives me the opportunity to connect to Wi-Fi so I can find my way out of there. It’s the road where I can Whatsapp my friends countless meme’s about me being in the dark. Where I can laugh at the issues that are potentially staring me in the face. Starvation, dehydration, getting lost, and ultimately, death. It’s where I don’t have to be anyone else than who I choose to be. After all, people know me through my Instagram feed. My snap chats. My Tweets. Maybe if I’m on that road I’ll send out a tweet saying ‘Look at me, I’m on an adventure!’ and people will be cheering. Not knowing I am desperate for human interaction. Real human interaction.

Slowly but surely, I have taken more and more steps over the years to the road on the right. Like a magnet I can feel myself getting pulled in. Because if I take the road to the left, and I make it out in one piece, not many people will know about it. Only the people I speak to in person in the next couple of days. But if I make it on the right side, everybody knows, instantly. Maybe that will get me over the 50 likes on Instagram.

I long for the strength to back up and take the left road. But it’s a road I would walk alone. Because so many have taken the right one. I would left out, because everyone who took the right road before me will not know about me. I will receive no more invitations to social gatherings, because it’s all done through our apps.  But on the left I will find the time and peace again to read books. To indulge in the art that people have left behind for us, and not just continuously refresh snapchat to watch people I distantly know do every day stuff I do too, that isn’t even that interesting.

Even when writing this, I can feel the road to the right pulling me in. Deep in the darkness ahead a creature is grinning at me. A creature that knows I need that same road to get this published. That knows no one will read this, if it wasn’t for his Wi-Fi, and his social media. A creature that knows that if he wasn’t there, neither would this story be.

Yet I can feel myself slowly stepping back. I look at the left road, full of unfamiliar territory. I think I’m going to take it. I’ll make a deal with that grinning creature in the dark. If I go left and he’ll feed me some of his Wi-Fi, I’ll stay online a little longer. Just on lesser platforms. And no longer when I’m around people. I’ll try to be more face-to-face. To care more about literature, instead of Vines. To listen to people while looking at them, and not my phone. I will tie my hands to my back if I have to, to ignore that buzzing urge to take my phone out of my pocket every five minutes. I hope, after reading this, some of you are brave enough to try and walk the left road with me. To go on an adventure without a feed.

To be human again.

[citizenschoice]

Ugly prints.

For a long time I doubted returning to this blog. Somehow I felt reluctant in posting another view of criticism on modern day society, yet I felt compelled to do so again. All this time I was under the fair assumption that we were being manipulated by mass-media. That we were victims of a larger conspiracy to get people to buy, sell, loan, dress and live a certain way. And of course, we are. But I just read a tweet that sparked the motivation to write this piece. The tweet was the following:

In 2015, the largest taxi company will own zero taxi’s (uber). The biggest accommodation’s provider AirBnB will own no real estate. Alibaba, the world’s most valuable retailer, has no inventory or warehouses. And last but not least, the MOST POPULAR media outlet (Facebook) creates no content.

I never looked at it this way. Who is responsible? We are. Of course, things like Uber are a fantastic way for people to make money, while ignoring the taxi mob that resides in almost every big city. AirBnB is a great way to search for places to stay, as long as you got the guts to let others stay in your house. (We have yet to come across a AirBnB killer, like the Craigslist killer) But the main concern I had was the part about Facebook.

To specify what this means, is simple. Something happens in the world, and we don’t read the articles of the news anymore, we read it real time. From our friends, or our colleagues or just acquaintances. Information that is unfiltered, unchecked, possibly made-up and/or inaccurate. No research has been done to fact-check statements, to give more than one viewpoint or to look at a bigger picture. We make our own news these days. And it’s dangerous.

This also means the brainwashing I talked about in an earlier post, is also our own fault. All the stuff you read these days about food, whether or not it’s true, you accept it. Or about products, or stuff that’s happening in the world. I’d implore you to read more carefully, think harder about what you see and draw your own conclusions.

[citizenschoice]

The Human Show.

We partnered up with www.viewsfromthereel.tumblr.com for this one. 

In 1949 one of the greatest books in our recent history was published. George Orwell’s 1984, a vision on a dystopian world, our world, in 1984. The book described the downfall of mankind as it lives under a firm regime of dictatorship, much like Nazi-Germany that has just been beaten during the time of publishing or Stalin’s Sovjet-Union. It stated that everything would be seen, heard, registered. The book contains some of Orwell’s most famous quotes, such as:

-          War is peace

-          Freedom is slavery

-          Ignorance is strength

And the most famous of all:

-          Big brother is watching you

All of course heavily influenced by a government controlled existence.  We are not on earth to choose for ourselves, but simply to follow a path laid out for us, giving us the idea of choice. It’s a very intriguing book and scary to read what Orwell thought our world would grow into. Thank god it didn’t, right?

In 1998 Peter Weir (mostly known for Dead Poets Society) decided to a movie called The Truman Show. Whether or not Peter was inspired by Orwell’s book, they do have certain things in common, it’s just presented to the viewer on a different scale. Orwell imagined life under a powerful, all watching dictatorship and Weir kind of does the same thing, just a lot more innocent looking. He probably had no idea he could have predicted the future.

The Truman Show, for those who don’t know it (Go watch it ASAP), tells the story about Truman Burbank, a insurance salesman who finds out that his whole life has been a television show. Now this isn’t a spoiler, because it is determined in the first few minutes of the film, where Christof, played by Ed Harris, (Christ off? Christ of?) gives a small interview describing the Truman Show and why he created a television show that followed a human being from child birth to where he is now. Everything in Truman’s life is created, from career opportunities to the weather, from the people he meets to his wife. Even his fear for swimming is fabricated, because Christof decided to write his father out of the show by drowning. Everything he does is registered and viewed by others. Even though his audience consists of almost the entire world, it’s still very much like a dictatorship.

We find Truman at the point where he starts noticing things. It all begins when a lightbulb crashes down from the sky. A technical error.

He becomes paranoid, not trusting anyone but his childhood best friend Marlon, who is of course in direct contact with Christof, making sure Truman doesn’t find out the truth. It’s very interested to see how Truman tries to dodge the all-watching eye but it’s evenly interesting to see how Christof, who has become somewhat obsessed with his ‘’creation’’, deals with Truman’s latest discoveries and how he tries to manipulate him into going back to his normal routine. It almost becomes a personal battle between Truman and Christof, ending in a confrontation at the end of the sea’s horizon.

For me, it was really scary seeing this movie in our day, because our lives are not so different from Truman’s. Granted, I wasn’t followed since birth because I got born in an age where there was no social media, no digital camera’s or anything, but now, people share everything about their newborn, much like Christof did with Truman. Our lives may not be as controlled as Truman’s was, but we most certainly walk pre-determined path’s set out for us by major corporations. In The Truman Show, there was no pause between episodes. It was a constant stream. But they still had to get commercials in, so they would use products that could be bought by the real world, very much alike the great billboards or product placement we know today, influincing every choice we make when deciding what to buy/eat/drink etc. We go to school because we have too, we work because we have too, but ultimately it’s the system that decides where you will be placed. Freedom is slavery.

To make it even scarier, and to totally identify ourselves with Truman, we are also constantly monitored. Not just by the government (who sometimes acts quite like a dictatorship, enforcing privacy laws and data sharing agreements) but also by ourselves. We have grown into our own Big Brother. We share everything. Not everything in the same degree, but the large part their life from taking a shower to having sex to working to being on vacation. We share our locations, our e-mails and telephone numbers. We post everything we see and we grow our own opinions based on what we know of people through social media, inspiring racial hate, war and disgust for others. We even do things because they will look cool to others on Instagram or Facebook. Big Brother is watching.

At the end of The Truman Show, Christof attempts in one final act of desperation to talk to Truman, but he won’t have it. He chooses for himself instead of the billions of people he may or may not inspire. And when he walks off the set, the audience cheers, which felt very weird for me. Where they happy just because Truman was free? Then why did they continue to watch it. Or where they free because he had managed to escape his world, something they could never? As I celebrated New Year’s eve, I also made some resolutions regarding Social Media and sharing. To not lose myself in it anymore. I highly recommend this movie to everyone, even as the book 1984 by George Orwell, to gather some insight into how people thought we would live right now and how we are actually living, and the scary similarities between these dystopian worlds and our own.

And in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night!

 PS. The Truman show - 5/5

PPS. Jim Carrey is FAN-TASTIC in this movie.

[citizenschoice]

Alabama by the lake.

  I have a weakness for those American movies that take place in small towns. Where every kid goes to the same school, local shops are all you need and everyone knows everyone. The kind of movies where the kids hang out at a cafeteria drinking milkshakes and talking up to girls they like. Old cars and a big ol’ factory on the outskirt. A place where the sunsets we’re still undocumented on Instagram and people still fell in love in fields of grain while skipping school. Even writing this makes me want to live in such a place. First and foremost, the reason is what you see is what you get.

I now know so many people twice. And I’ll explain to you what I mean by that. I have… acquaintances, who I talk to sometimes, or see, or run in to. I know them by a certain way. But it’s a fabricated way, because everyone is busy with the way they are seen. But following such a person on social media quickly changes that whole image into another, mostly more fake one. I see people online boasting stories I know for a fact aren’t true. Pretending they are a lot more than they really are. Ashamed of jobs just because it’s not cool to Instagram from the MacDonald’s kitchen. So what makes you so sure you can trust anyone’s character these days? Who isn’t fabricated? Who are the pretenders and who are the real ones?

The same scene I just described at the top would be so different right now. That’s only natural. As time goes by we evolve and become more reliable on technology. Those girls working in the cafeteria might boast online that they work somewhere else. The boys hitting on them do so in a whole different, more respectful manner. People move to fields of grain to Instagram nice pictures and get more than 40 likes and some douchebag with a selfie stick is ruining your sunset photo.

I think what I’m really trying to say is that we are losing ourselves in our online persona’s. It’s so huge now we even celebrate shows like catfish who unmask pretenders online, even tho most viewers are pretenders themselves. We should stay true to ourselves, true to what we do and who we are and never pretend to be something else, because that’s the only way you will be loved for who you are, not who you claim to be. 

[citizenschoice]

Brainwashed by neon.

  ‘’The Guerilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.’’ – Mao Zedong

  Let’s go back to the fifties. Vietnam. There’s a war going on. People dying, people fleeing, people living in the poorest ways possible. The Vietminh and the Vietcong developed a form of war called Guerilla warfare. Some key points of this type of warfare was that it was being fought on barren soil, dense woods, uninhabitable places. They had to infiltrate and move around without being noticed and when opportunity struck, they did as well, hard, swift, merciless. One of the reasons this war dragged out for more than eighteen years was this tactic. The American’s and the French couldn’t find the Guerilla armies, even though the Guerilla armies were keeping taps on their enemies. But the war ended, and so did an era of fighting in Vietnam, or so we think. Ironically, the tactic of the Vietcong is what inspired huge corporations to turn against their own people.

Fast forward to today, so I can explain that bold statement I just made. My girlfriend showed me this video going over the internet. It had grossed 50 million views in just a few days. It was a video about 20 strangers who never met, never spoken to each other. They we’re paired in two’s and put in a room and asked to kiss each other. It was shot beautifully, with immense emotional load. I watched it in awe, feeling genuinely emotional having seen a video this amazing in a time where we become more impersonal by the day. You can watch the video below (and I recommend it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpbDHxCV29A

Now here’s the catch. A few days later rumors spread that a company was behind this video and well damn, there was. WREN, a new clothing company created this video in collaboration with a young aspiring filmmaker, to create a video that would go viral, and after that would be watched again because you couldn’t believe it was about clothing. Thus a new clothing company suddenly has a talked about, shared like crazy commercial, with more than 80 million views to date. You’ve just been the victim of Guerilla marketing. You didn’t die, but you fell victim to a system way more effective and scarier than the Vietcong.

Guerilla marketing is, like its predecessor, the most dangerous tool one can use in order to reach advertising goals. This type of marketing doesn’t limit itself to billboards or giant posters in bus stops. No, it’s on your cab. In your newspaper. On your phone cause you didn’t want to pay for that one app. It’s on your computer, because you once googled ‘Nike’. Everywhere you look, there’s a commercial. It might not be huge, or you might not even notice it, but it’s there. Hidden, small, subliminal. And suddenly, after a week, you get this huge urge to buy something new. You don’t know why or how, or why you even need it, and that’s when you know the marketing has you. They call this anchors, which they leave behind in your brain, by using color combinations and wordplay which is easily overlooked, but still stored in a part of your brain. As soon as you run into a situation or something that has effect on that anchor, it will come up, giving you the feeling you need to buy something. If you want more information about these anchors, try youtubing Darren Brown.

  This happens every day, by the minute. No longer can companies buy airtime for the radio or TV, no, they can literally get into your house with everything they want you to buy. In here lies the lesson that you don’t really have an own opinion anymore when it comes to purchasing things. We buy new shoes because we want to look cool, because Nike has this amazing commercial and marketing strategy and you want to belong. We wear clothing because the commercial of Vans is cooler than the commercial of your local clothing store (which probably doesn’t even have a commercial). We laugh at people who don’t, because we think we belong to something, which in fact turns out to be just a fabricated string of thoughts that trick us into believing they are our own.  

Another scary part of this, is food advertisement. Those of you who’ve seen Food Inc knows that the world food industry is messed up. A lot is wrong in the world when it comes to food that rolls out of factories. The scary part after it rolls out of the factory though, is how it is presented to the masses. Take MacDonalds for example. Has your burger ever looked the same as on one of their posters? Take a look at the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8

Why MacDonalds chooses to show this to the public, I don’t know, but it’s amazing to say the least. The amount of thought, skill and patience that go into making such a picture only shows how badly they want you to think you’re getting a fresh burger with ingredients that look fresh as well, while we all know that’s not the case.

  We live a fabricated life. We do enjoy the things we have, but does it bring happiness. When we try to escape it, we are outcasts, for not joining in on the hype. Back in the day they invented the neon signs so that people would notice them. Now they have the neon signs to brainwash us.

[citizenschoice]

Time, my long lost friend.

Man, have I been quiet on this blog. I really let go of this writing thing for a while, and focussed on other stuff. I think. Did I? What did I do in this time, except just live and breathe and think. I haven't done anything substantial, well, atleast not the things I wanted to do. And one of the things I wanted to do was write, so why did I quit that in the first place? I blame our common friend Time.

Time is a vile, treacherous friend. He would like nothing more for you to do nothing. To linger on in the abyss and die unnoticed, unachieved and loved only by those you touch through birth. Time is a curse. A disease. Lately I've been thinking a lot about life. The life and times. I'm moving out, i'm going to live in a new house, with my amazing girlfriend, and everything changes. And it hurts. But a friend once said, once it starts hurting, you know you're going the right way. Don't take that too literally but I think he meant that, the moment it hurts you to change is the moment you actually change. I'm being confronted with a lot of stuff from the past. Good and bad. And amongst it all, I can only think: ''Where the hell did you go, Time. You perfectly effective bastard.''

The worst thing is that mankind is actually helping time by filling it with useless things like materialism, commercialism and many more. All designed to keep us away from doing what we want and need to do. Time befriends people you know, tricking them into keeping you from your goals, unwillingly, unknowingly, like a true artist. Sometimes thinking about this makes me feel like I'm drowning and swimming against the current. It's just so overwhelming. Why am I not changing into something I want to be? Why do I persistantly choose to linger in nothingness and achieve nothing and become nothing. Even tho I am not satisfied with living my current life for the rest of my days.

As of a few days ago, I decided to change. I still do a lot of shit that takes up time but I manage it. And time-management is Time's nemesis. Suddenly, you achieve things. You finish things. You set priorities and you make them. You meet new people doing so. You go out. You smile, fight, work, play, love, think and become. And at the end of the day you fall into bed thinking about everything you did, and not about the regrets of what you could've done. And if people close to you can't understand why you suddenly have less time for them, then it is up to you to show them this story, or leave them behind, lingering in the abyss, never achieving, never becoming. The sooner we stop treating Time like a welcome friend, the more we can do. After all, Death created time to grow the things that it would kill.

[citizenschoice]

CULTURE CLASH! The Faith Of Black Pete!

As winter is slowly knocking on our door and the weather grows colder and more grey, children and adult alike are anticipating one of the greatest events in Dutch history: the arrival of Sinterklaas. But as of the last few years, these days also fuel one of the most heated discussions we know: the existence, whether it’s harmless or insulting, of Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, as he is portrayed in media all over the world.

Now I’m not gonna write this entire piece defending why Black Pete is harmless or making a case to why he isn’t. I’m writing this piece to, for one time, get my opinion on this matter out there. And before we dig a little deeper into what I feel about this, I want to address one thing:

Dear America, I think it’s great that a small country like The Netherlands gets noticed by such a big piece of land like yourselves. But please, shut the fuck up when it comes to our troubles, okay? I read various articles claiming that everything here happens 50 years later than the rest of the world and that we are possibly the ONLY country where something like Black Pete is possible. For real, America? Must I remind you off all the redneck states, the active and existing KKK clans and limitless racially inspired murders that happen there almost on the daily? Also the quote ‘’When the world ends go to the Dutch, cause there everything happens 50 years later’’ is kinda bullshit. I think it’s a miracle the state of Mississippi hasn’t reinstated slavery with your current government shutdown. 

There’s that. That was something that was bothering me for a while now, but on to the matter at hand. For a few days now I’ve seen friends on Facebook preachin’ why Black Pete is a bad thing. A slavery mirror that stares black people in the face, reminding them of the awful things white people did in the past.

 (let the record show that I despise of these events and that I as a white man do not support or endorse slavery, and that’s saying it lightly)

The media is also playing it’s part in the coverage of this discussion, and here’s why I get so upset it. Dutch people are fucking retards. We get away with insulting and disrespecting black people on TV when it comes to this discussion (referring to an interview that aired on TV here, see below.) and it’s this that angers me. (edit: the interview is dutch and the tweets underneath it are dutch as well, but they basically all say the nigger on the show has to get back to his own country)

http://wijblijvenhier.nl/21293/racistische-reacties-anti-zwarte-piet-betoog-quinsy-gario/

We used to be a country build on solidarity (for the youngers that means that you care about the other people here) and that’s why we USED to be a great land. With all these political reforms and changing of character in the last decades we decided to forget the solidarity we once knew. If we choose to be a country that OPENS its borders to other people from other races and cultures, we must also be flexible in making these people welcome here. Otherwise we shouldn’t have opened up the borders at all. If we choose to bring a certain people into our country, we must accept them as one of our own. Technically, we should accept everyone as one of our own, but that’s probably too big to comprehend for most minds.

If we choose to be open, we must be ready to make changes. If you have one of the darkest histories in the history of the ‘’civilized’’ world and the majority is insulted by one of our traditions, we should show the solidarity and the kindness to change that tradition, so that the same people we welcome here aren’t so painfully reminded to everything that has happened, especially when racism is something that’s STILL a very sensitive and actual subject..

On the other hand, we have something called cognitive dissonance. It is, for the majority of the people, hard to comprehend why it’s bothering other people so much if they don’t get hurt from it themselves. If you hear something that contradicts with what you believe yourself, your brain automatically denies that knowledge, making it incapable for most people to accept something new if you have already made up your mind about the subject. With that, it has always been a great tradition for the kids to celebrate the arrival of Sinterklaas and the Black Pete’s are, by my knowledge, always portrayed as very kind, very generous people who love to be friends serving a noble cause: the happiness of children. I also believe that racism isn't a natural thing and that it needs to be taught in order for someone become racist. 

My opinion is that children have greater capabilities to adapt then adults, so the changing of Black Pete will have minimum impact on them. To live side by side with others, we must make decisions on behalf of others. Are you a racist when you like Sinterklaas? No. I like Sinterklaas and my girlfriend isn’t from the same skin-color as I am. However, we are friendly. Or we want to be. And in that case, we must make changes not only to show our support to a great amount of people that live in this country but also to show ourselves and everyone, from every skin-color, that we can make changes in order to live together. That we are able to let things go to assure others and that we are here to help each other in times of need and distress.

I am Luuk and I disapprove Black Pete. Because I want people to feel welcome wherever they are.

To close this off I would like to quote Morgan Freeman in an interview so many years back.

Interviewer: ‘’Do you like Black History Month?’’ Morgan: ‘’No, I hate it.’’ Interviewer: ‘’Why?’’ Morgan:  ‘’Why should we get one month? Do you want a Jewish History Month? I don’t think so.’’ Interviewer: ‘’So how do we stop this racism?’’ Morgan: ‘’Stop talking about it…. I’m gonna stop calling you a white man, and you’re gonna stop calling me a black man.’’

  SAY NO TO RACISM.

[citizenschoice]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Cheap Labor Force.

‘’Everything used to be better.’’ A common phrase most heard by anyone that has grandparents. A phrase often said during harsh times for the elderly, because they are accustomed to old values and believes and might not be able to keep up with the new rules. Perhaps they reminisce about the days before their 60th birthday. The good old days in which the human body they were given functioned more properly. Or maybe, just maybe, everything WAS better back then.

When I was younger (and right after I got kicked out of high school) I was lazy. I lacked motivation to do anything. I wasted a properly good year (I believe it was 2004) on playing video games, hanging out with friends and drinking beer in great amounts. A 16 year old deadbeat. If I had three kids and a divorce I could end up on Jerry Springer. (If you don’t know Jerry, I’m writing this piece about YOU!)

I had to (forcefully) listen to speeches around two times a week. Speeches by my parents. Grandparents sometimes mingled as well. I often heard tales saying that when my dad was younger, there was always work to be found. In the docks, or as a courier, or in the military. That hanging around wasting time wasn’t really an option back in the days. Of course there was free time, but after you had some work done. People would go by houses to see if anyone needed work done in their yard, or re-paint their fences and stuff like that.

Now I’m not saying that my dad’s generation didn’t go to school, because he did and he got a great job because of it. But there were less things to study. When I started my Camera and Editing education there was only one other, more prestigious education on the same area. Right now, on this day, every school of every level has a Media and Entertainment study. Don’t mind me saying, but if you are fairly clever and in possession of a creative mind, you will have no trouble getting a degree here. And this is where the problem starts.

Young adults these days are often regarded as a lost generation. Why? Because if I compare 90% of the people I know with the people my dad described from his youth, we have grown lazy. I have said so before in other pieces, we are the laziest generation that probably walked this big lump of earth. Of course there are exceptions to the rule and good for them, but unemployment within the age range of 16-24 has gone up 17% in the last year. Yes, we are lazy, but there is also a more stressing, important flipside to this story.

Given the fact that you can now do around 12 to 15 studies on every school, ranging from Media to Leisure to Communications, there are a lot more people going to school just for the sake of going to school. Parents are to blame a great deal in this, I think. Because their education was not as ‘’advanced’’ as ours, they want us to have all the chances we can get. Logical. But it does mean that when you’re not sure what you want to become (how can you at the age of 18ish) you will do a study just to do a study. This means less time that could be spend working while you figure out your next move. Some people land on both feet, but a lot of this young folk drop out the first year.

Because of this increase in studies and an unavoidable increase in students, something else happens as well. The market becomes drowned in fresh college grads eagerly trying to find a job and put their knowledge to the test. Only 90% of them won’t be able to. So many companies are buried in admissions of young people wanting to work at their firms, that they are just not able to hire anyone anymore. Most positions are filled, or jobs are simply not created as fast as kids graduate these days, resulting in a lot of people becoming a cheap labor force, taking free internships as a last result so they can at least put some work in and fill that gap on their resume’s. Or at this point people just pick up random jobs to pay the rent or travel the world. Which could often be avoided if we gave each other the time to think about the future and do research to the market in which you want to study.

You are never too old to learn, but I think you can be too young to graduate. 

[citizenschoice]

Death by unemployment line.

‘’It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.’’ – Harry S. Truman

I work in retail. 5 days a week for a total of 35 hours weekly I stand in a phone shop, selling products. It’s nothing noteworthy, but I love doing it. It gives me social contact, something I live for and the people I work with are a lot of fun. Besides my full-time job I focus myself on writing and two small start-ups I am currently developing. So that’s my work life.

Recently I’ve noticed that people tend to characterize people by the jobs they have. Fingers pointing at others with phrases like ‘’Haha, he works at McDonalds’’ or ‘’LOL, she works at a supermarket’’. These people have forgotten the fundamental basis of what it means to have a job. A job does not characterize yourself. It is not a portrayal of who you are. It is simply a means to survive. To progress. To get yourself to a better place than you are in right now. How can anyone laugh at that? Especially the people standing in line for a job themselves.

Day in day out I see people complaining about the lack of jobs in the city (I live in Amsterdam) but those same people I see day in day out smoking weed or hanging on the street of wasting days doing absolutely nothing. When I look into the shopping street where I work I see 4 stores offering work, and that’s only the stores I can see. But people don’t want to work in a shoe store. Or flip burgers at a fast food joint. Or resupply supermarkets. How can you put yourself above these jobs when you have to borrow money from your friends because you ain’t getting any?

During one of my recent travels to New York City, I came across a guy who sold water next to the highway. I asked him why he did what he did and he said that he was unemployed and couldn’t find a job, so until he did, he drove to a supermarket early every morning and spend about 500 dollars on bottled water. He then drove to the spot where I found him and sold those bottles to thirsty New Yorkers and tourist busses for 1 dollar a bottle, making quite the profit for himself. He said, and I quote:

‘’I have to find ways to provide for myself until I get a decent job. I refuse to give up.’’

I never really thought about this conversation until I started seeing more and more feeds on Facebook of people complaining about no work, talking to people being unemployed for longer than they can remember and seeing the ‘’work offered’’ signs in a lot of stores. We have grown into a lazy generation.

‘’Unemployment diminishes people. Leisure enlarges them. – Mason Cooley

Couldn’t have said it better myself. The drag of standing in the unemployment line is like tar. It slows you down. It makes you dirty. The steps you take are small, hard ones and if you tumble it takes a long time before you can get back up. Combine that tar with the status people want to have these days, and you have a fatal combo. Because it’s not cool to work at a gas station, or at a subway kiosk. Imagine telling your broke friends that you work in such a place. Terrible. Your friends will laugh at you. And your bank account will still be empty. Or maybe, just maybe, it would be a good think to ditch those friends, don’t care about their opinion and just make a few bucks for yourself. I bet I know a few people myself who laugh at my job, but I don’t care.

If you consider yourself too good for a job, but you are having financial problems, you are being really fucking stupid in my opinion. Your character isn’t defined by the job you have, it just shows that you have the will and the mindset to adapt to the current financial climate and you will do everything to prosper. If you don’t act, and you continue to let yourself stand in that unemployment line tar, you are going to get left behind. With everything.

Stop wasting away.

[citizenschoice]

How the internet ruined my way of thinking. A criticizing and destructive view on modern day digital habits.

Before you start reading, you should know that this is not a happy essay written by a happy person. It’s a downward spiral of self-reflection and personal criticism along with a burdened view of our future. If you are a social media addict, this might sting your pride, but it might also open your eyes. If you can’t stand social media criticism, you would do wise to exit this website now, but if you suddenly feel that tingling in your stomach, that sensation that you must know what this is about, that human sense of curiosity, I invite you to join me in a journey where we will look at ourselves in the utmost critical way possible trying to answer the most important question known to mankind: 

‘’What on earth are we doing?’’

First off, in order to understand my point of views, you must know a little bit of history about me and my usage of social media. In an age after MSN we got a dutch social media site called Hyves. Hyves was a sloppy and ugly site but it got big fast, although after a while we all converted to Facebook. If I look back on my status updates from when I just started the network, I can only say I bow my head in shame of who I used to be. A short while after that, riding a bus with some friends, we discovered Twitter. I’ve been a long user of the medium and still think that it’s the best social media to discovered what is happening around the world. Unfortunately, it also showed me how ignorant and plain fucking stupid some of my friends were. Slowly but surely, social media spread through the country as wildfire, as it did through my life. I was nowhere without it. The constant flow of information, useless or not, became an addiction worthy of being named in the same category as heroine or coke or meth. 

By the years my Facebook expired beyond belief and with almost 800 Facebook friends it looked like I was doing pretty good by Facebook standards. How many friends or followers you had on a specific medium was often discussion of the day. Oh, how little I knew about the dark days that we’re approaching. 

The level of content posted on Facebook everyday started to go down in rapid pace. With the snap of a finger we found ourselves in a culture where sharing everything we do was considered to be normal, and critique on that subject was frowned upon. Somewhere within me lied the old values my mom and dad raised me with, and somewhere within I started to irritate myself reading those posts. Sometimes I couldn’t restrain myself and start a discussion, which mostly resulted in people unfriending me and thinking I was some sort of strange being. Over the past year I have brought my number of friends back to 350 instead of the 800. But I still face a terrible problem. A friendship, most of the time, is superficial. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with that fact. You laugh together, have good times, dinners, lunches, talk about everyday stuff, but suddenly you see that same person post a picture of his/her grandma in the hospital wishing her well wishes, while all I see is a woman looking so bad she could keel over any second. Suddenly you see that one friend always post status updates about how miserable her life is and how she craves attention. And now, all that irritation has evolved. Not even to mention the fact that your co-workers and boss now eyeball everything that you do and you get frowned upon or ignored if you don't add them.

Not only are we now sharing our most intimate things on a public and social platform, we are also descending into another form of usage since companies have found their way onto the platform. Giveaways and prices can now be won to promote the company. Follow our facebook and like this post to have a chance of winning a new kitchen set or t-shirt or whatever the fuck. Sharing posts of kids with cancer to save them with likes… Sharing posts with pictures that supposedly change when you like them… They have made my Facebook life a living hell. And the worst thing is, it has been considered normal behavior, which makes people who stand out look like fools. This is one of the points that made me decide it was time for a change. For a while , I made no attempt to look at Facebook. I deleted it from my phone, I gave it no mind on my laptop, just to see if things would change. They didn't. I have been drawn into many debates (if you can call them that) about whether or not some social media behaviour can be listed as 'normal' or 'sane' thinking. The following inspired me to write this piece:

Today, in Holland, two boys went missing because they're dad commited suicide. Our national alert posted a flyer with some information on their Facebook which went viral in no time. It was all over my feed. So I decided to create another attempt into sparking some sense into fellow Facebookers. I tweeted:

''Which one of you actually went to the scene where they we're last seen and started searching?''

What I meant by this, was that I don't think sharing a post is sufficient. However I got immediatly shut down by people who were offended. I got insulted and called a cold asshole. My sympathy for the matter was not even included in the attempted discussion, but this showed me, that social media behaviour can no longer be questioned, but should just be accepted. Let me just wake up tomorrow and share a post about kidnapped kids and I did my part in being a better citizen. Fuck off.

In here lies the real danger of social media. We don't think anymore. We buy a new car, we post it on Instagram. We go on vacation, we post in on Facebook. We get a new house, we check in on foursquare. Always ever without really realizing the potential threats. What if a burglar is following you? It would probably take me a few weeks to establish a pattern from a household, say two parents and a teenage kid, which can tell me exactly where and when the people are. You come home to an empty house. Or have you tried Googling yourself? Yeah, thats right. That picture is still on the internet, on a site you didnt even know fucking existed. And see how I am typing this? I am about to go to the movies and check in there, cause I have the need to share it with my 143 followers on Twitter. Pathetic. I can't even escape it myself, in fear of being an outcast. A digital leper. Never invited for things, never been brought into the loop on things. It sounds aweful. 

The fun thing is we spend time watching movies about the future thinking we ain't there yet, but we are. The Matrix really has us, just not in the form of human batteries. In the course of the years we have changed into digital species. We date over the internet, we discuss over the internet, we order food over the internet, we shop over the internet, it's fucking nuts. And it's all just in babyshoes. We are only now seeing the first possibilities when it comes to social media usage and internet. I hope my kid's will grow up to be people with a set of morals and values, who enjoy and cherish life and not spend it indoors staring at a screen. Social media and the internetization of the world is a disease. It's aids. It kills you slowly, and you know it, but you can't get rid of it. In time you will lose friendships, or even more. But you will keep posting. You will keep sharing. Cause it's all you've ever known. Fuck social media. I want to delete it. But oh, the irony. Without social media you probably wouldn't even be reading this.

Fuck.

[citizenschoice]

The price is right! A world ruled and destroyed by money.

“This is Sudeshra. She is eleven years old. Last year she was the victim of a car bombing. Her family has been killed in the same attack, except for her brother and herself. Please donate to ensure a life for this child. Be a part of the solution and dona--”

Hold up, hold up, hold up. Here I am, after a hard days work, in front of the tv, tired, enjoying a beer. I'm watching a sitcom. Something brainless to ease the mind, when suddenly they show me this commercial, along with shots of the girl bleeding in the hospital, asking for my money. Now I’m not some cold-hearted asshole who isn’t touched by the miserè in the world. I am however, someone that needs to work hard to stay ahead of the crisis. Unlike others....

It’s no secret that the world has always been ruled by people who had the most money. Since the beginning of the first World War, decisions we’re made solemnly on the question: “can we make a profit or not?” 

There is no evidence to support the following statements, but amongst conspiracy-thinkers all around the world it is believed that in both World Wars, America staged an attack on their country, justifying involvement in a war they had nothing to do with.

But there was money to be made. And so it was led to believe that a group of people (like the rockefellers and the CIA) staged attacks (the most famous one being Pearl Harbor, which they claim was attacked by AMERICAN soldiers) so that the citizen’s of America cried retribution and revenge. And they we’re in business.

And for a long time, business was booming. Until now. The country has fallen into decay and poverty and unemployment. Never before was the difference between rich and poor so visible and exposed. The government is loaning money to bail out iconic American factory’s like General Motors, raising their debt ceiling over and over to the point it has become a number no man can pronounce. Everything to save the image that the American dream is STILL alive and that wealth and riches lie on the streets.

In the middle east, children are born into unimaginable wealth. Oil sheiks at the age of 20 posessing such large amounts of money, they have everything made of gold, own all the watches in the world, all the clothing, all the cars, everything. Just because they we're born on the land with the most oil. Trading with our friends the Americans who again ship it off to europe, where we can pay full price so their oil is still cheap. They import vehicles from countries 6500 miles away and they sleep in beds of gold. They probably make more money in 1 second then I do in a lifetime. 

But here is Sudeshra. And I must save her. Not the nations spending millions on millions of dollars to stop bankrupt companies from going bankrupt, or oil sheiks with more than 400 BILLION dollars. Not the richest sheik who can give 84 dollars to EVERY inhabitant of earth. I must safe her with 5 euro’s a month. But where is my money going, if I agree to do so?

A good cause probably is a bad one. Where is the money going we people donate to a good cause? If you send food to poor people in third world countries it gets intercepted by dictators or opressors. Is there really a way to get through this vicious circle of disaster and evil. Can we, the middle-men, change it, if anything? I like to think so, however I get demoralized so often I prefer to zap to another channel and wait 'till the commercial is over and mutter something like ''The people with money are probably on it'' as I take a sip of my beer. Corporate money and fraud economies defeated me.

---

Editor's note:

I recommend everyone the documentary called ''Zeitgeist'' which is fully uploaded on youtube. If you have a subject you'd like me to blog about, send me a message!

[citizenschoice]

Sharing is (not) caring: The 2012 info-kill.

In a social media induced world it is hard to image life before free instant messaging and information walls. Where humanity cries wolf about things like the patriot act, which allows governments to tap citizens in order to keep us save and discover bad guys, we gladly post the sensitive information ourselves. Expensive things we buy, pictures of our house that show (maybe without purpose) our interior like electronic equipment or locations. But where does this uncontrollable need come from?

In 2004 a young man launched the biggest network of all times, almost instantly beating smaller networking sites like MySpace. This man we all know as Mark Zuckerberg and the network is something you probably have open on your browser right now. Facebook. A digital world full of fun, games, irritations and show-offs. Where Facebook was meant to be a school/business-oriented social network, humanity turned it into it’s own digital trashcan. We like to share our anger, our sorrow, our happiness and personal problems with everyone. In my years as Facebook-user I’ve seen domestic abuse, boyfriends fighting girlfriends, people breaking up because of Facebook statuses, theft and more. Thank the Lord the Americans can’t tap our phone and get access to our private information.

But the addiction and exposing on social media has taken some awful turns in the past two years. Commercials. Ads, as the digital marketing agent calls them. In the middle of your Wall on Facebook, you see little ads looking like someone just posted something. Do we read it? Maybe. Does it have effect on you? Yes. Even tho you don’t read it, you still skim the message. And if they give you that ad a few times, you will eventually start thinking about it. Is that a bad thing? Maybe, but I’ll get to that later. 

Facebook and Twitter are also good platforms for people to show their support on certain subjects. I wake up, wipe the filth out of my eyes and check my phone for messages and social media (is this healthy?) and the first thing I see on Facebook is the face of a 2 year old baby with a tumor the seize of a football. Like if you are against cancer. I know cancer exists, I know it is terrible, but please dear neighbor, I don’t need to see that at 8AM. And I don’t like the post anyhow. It’s the modern day chain letter. If you do not send this to seven people a dinosaur will travel to time and eat your grandma. Please. The internet evolves, but the human using it mostly doesn’t.

But the thing is, I have family on my Facebook who post things like that as well. And when I don’t like them back or send them back a message, I get frowned upon. So not only are we nearly desperate to share our views on the world, it has almost become a standard that determines your character in the eyes of other people.

What if your boss sends an anti-cancer e-mail because his 10 year old has cancer and you don’t send it back, because you (and all your amazing sanity) don’t believe in chain mails and he holds that against you. What if you apply for a job and they check your Facebook and see that you are a Muslim and your would-be boss is someone who believes that all Muslims are terrorists, even though he didn’t even notice your religion in your first meeting.

Back to the ads. Mr. Zuckerberg, or shall we say the majority of his investors and shareholders, thought it time to get more revenue out of the more than ONE BILLION unique users of the platform. So they implemented ads. And they didn’t warn you they were going to do that. They just did it. So one morning I scrolled down the Wall of useless information and suddenly saw ads for soda’s and local phone companies. Very sneaky. Something that also happens nowadays is that if you visit a page near you, Facebook automatically likes it. Might look innocent, but it’s not. Since Facebook is your digital reflection of life, what if you ‘’like’’ something that contradicts that? 

It might seem to you that this entire view on social media is a bit far fetched, innocent even. But here lies the same problem that the Patriot Act faces. ‘’What if they hear or see something I don’t want them to see.’’ The money moved to a digital world, and so did all the data on hospital records, police records, real estate, schooling and companies. So, the bad guys also moved to the digital world. Your Facebook, for instance, is connected to your phone number and your contact, via mobile phone. Your mobile phone has internet banking and apps of third party developers that you gave permission to log everything you type on your phone. Bye bye bank account. You check in on Foursquare that you’re out to dinner with your parents and girlfriend. Your foursquare is linked  to Twitter and Facebook which you didn’t shield off to the public. Burglars read it, they check your foursquare, you also checked in at your home, they now know your address. Maybe you posted some pics from your living room or home cinema set-up and they know there’s something worth stealing. You have a good dinner and come home in an empty house. Stuff that sounds hard to believe, but I’ve actually seen it happen with my own eyes. There is absolutely no good reason why you should share on social media, other than that it gives you an ego boost if loads of people like it. And that’s why we do it.

These days everyone is tucked ‘safely’ behind their smartphones, hiding from the real world on social media. But it also strains relationships. I follow friends I have on Twitter and Facebook, that I really like, but because they tweet or post about the same bloody things over and over again every day, I really don’t want too anymore. But that’s viewed as impolite and results in a mutual unfollowing and getting ignored. Friendship over. Instead of talking about our problems we post desperate cries in the hope someone responds.

Looking back to my former blog about the Designer’s Cult, this too is a yell for attention, acceptation and compliments. I notice it in my own usage and in others. You upload a picture of a new car and you hope people will like it. You buy new shoes and you Instagram them immediately, awaiting praise. The thing is, if this shone some light on how badly social media can be, it’s already too late. Everything has been logged somewhere, stored in old digital attics, waiting for someone to grab your info. If you use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, do yourself a favor and google yourself. You will see that even though you have a shielded Twitter or Instagram account, you can still see pictures that you upload, or even tweets. It would be good if everyone simultaneously dropped social media, because we truly are not helpless without it. We knew what music to listen too before, we knew which movies to see, we read gossip, news, tabloids before the coming of the social media age. We didn’t flood our friends with useless information, exposed them to all our flaws, irritations, sorrow and depressions, and the most important thing of all:

We called.

[citizenschoice]

Beauty and the Brand: A Designer's Cult.

It appears that we are all being tricked by modern day society. Even though we try so hard to live life the way we want it to be lived, even though we try so hard to be heard and to be different, even though we try SO hard to be what our neighbor is not, we all crave something that is one hundred percent contradicting: being branded. And if that means looking exactly like our neighbor, so be it.

 If you check back into the records of fashion, you'll come across a spike in sales and popularity around the year 2000, when the next wave of so called 'logomania' came along. Being branded is not about the fabric you wrap yourself in, it's not completely about colors (I've seen terrible match-ups forced only to show off a number of brands), it's not even about making you feel like you live in luxury. It's about 3 to 4 inches of surface on your desired product. The logo. The brand's name. Most long-time fashion bloggers and researchers will tell you it was Louis Vuitton who started it with their famous logo and style. Everyone needed to have a bag from Louis Vuitton, and everyone still does.

 These days a perhaps unexpected medium plays a big part in the hype revolving around brands. Hip-Hop artists. Back in the days of 2PAC, Biggie, Dre and Snoop, when rap was still 'gangsta' and they wore baggy jeans and gang colors as outfits, branding wasn't even something people would think about when talking about rap music. However, now that the scene belongs to great rappers in the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye West, P. Diddy and 50 Cent (just to name a few), we've seen a big shift in the rapping business. The artists are developing themselves as businessmen, bringing the people the joy of owning headsets by Dr. Dre or 50 Cent, cologne just like Diddy or eat in one of the finer restaurants in New York owned by Jay-z. With the business portrait there inevitably follows a shift in clothing. Suits and designer. Meaning brands.

**Break records at Louis, ate breakfast at Gucci**

A line from of Kanye West's more recent songs, Clique, showing off his status by saying he bought so many Louis Vuitton he actually set a record and he is one of the few who are actually allowed to eat in a Gucci store. West (who has a self-proclaimed nickname called The Louis Vuitton Don) and Jay-Z singlehandedly placed Givenchy and Balmain on the map amongst youngsters, making them a fan of the brands and eyedrooling on the internet webshops over t-shirts costing more than 500 dollars. Kanye West also designed his own shoe for Nike, selling on eBay for over 20.000 dollars a pair. P Diddy and 50 Cent are rarely spotted without their expensive suits of the biggest designers. Rapper The Game loves showing off his stuff on his Instagram account, like his outfits that range from normal G-Star affordable outfits to full Gucci or Louis Vuitton with his own pair of Kanye West Nikes. And with great, great succes. The youth blindly follows their idols, saving up money to buy one piece of clothing that their favorite rapper wears, to be a part of the only society they acknowledge: Their friends.

No longer is money being saved to buy a driver's license, a house, or a car. Money is being made solemnly for the purpose of spending it on 'swag'. A term popular amongst the youth indicating they have certain style. That they are hip, part of the gang and most especially: not left behind or frowned upon by friends who DO have expensive clothing.

These days it has become a modern sport to have the scoop on designer clothing worn by artists. Countless blogs have been created that track Kanye's latest fashion, Diddy's suit collection or 50's fashion deals for own clothing. One rapper in specific, called A$AP Rocky, raps a lot about his designer buddies, and not the least of names as well: Alexander Wang, Raf Simons and Rick Owens. He dressed good and he makes sure everyone knows.

 **''My Martin was a Maison rocked Margiela's with no laces''**

A line Rocky rapped in his hit 'Goldie', a song actually all about the rock and roll lifestyle of a gangster rapper. He's referring to Maison Martin Margiela, another part of the designer cult.

 With the youth so obsessed and drooling over these names, there is one warehouse that knows exactly what to do. H&M. After their collab with Versace they are going to launch their  Maison Martin Margiela meets H&M clothing line. A line that should appeal to the youngsters because it combines the expensive designer look with affordable H&M pricing. We are living a consumers market, and we're not afraid to show it. However, in my opinion, it is exactly the wrong thing to live. Of course, I want to look good, and yes, I too buy clothes because they are from a certain brand, but buying clothing at ridiculous prices because we are being 'brainwashed' by media and music just seems a bit wrong to me. I took a stroll through Bergdorf Goodman, a huge warehouse located on the prestigious Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The entire Designer Cult under one roof. The only place where you can buy a plain white v-neck t-shirt for 900 dollars.

The Designer Cult is playing a trick on us. They aren't here because they make great clothing, they are here because there are super-rich people who can afford their prices. The design might be out of this world, but a black tee with a rottweiler's head on it (Givenchy) costing 450 dollars just doesn't seem justifiable to me for 'regular' folks. However, by sponsoring and befriending rappers, businessmen and athletes they have made the greatest step in designer history yet: attracting the minds of the young. Who, with no finished education or sense of responsibility, have absolutely no problem buying a brown v-neck tee with a twist in fabric on the bottom for 480 dollars (Rick Owens).

  If you want to see what the fuss is about, or just indulge in prices you can pay your rent with, you can check out www.luisaviaroma.com for a lot of designer clothing.