Day Four: Fashion

"The great guide of this world is fashion and its god is respectability--two phantoms at which brave men laugh! How many of you look around society to know what to do? You watch the general current and then float upon it! You study the popular breeze and shift your sails to suit it. True men do not so! You ask, "Is it fashionable? If it is fashionable, it must be done." Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the common consent of fools." --CHARLES SPURGEON

World, can't you SEE how true this is? Why do people put so much emphasis on clothes? Tonight my friend Persy was in the middle of an existential crisis- "There are millions of types of shirts. Does it matter? One just needs a shirt."

This quote applies more to just threads, it's a universal concept of accepting the flow of something and doing nothing to change it! Why is something popular, whether it be an idea, a fashion style, a quote... anything? If fascist communism was "fashionable", would we all support it or would we realize there are more productive and beneficial ways to live our lives? Popular opinion changes swiftly. When you're down to the bone, will you choose to stick to your convictions or let them pass in hopes of fitting in? We often want to stand out just enough to be noticed, but not enough to make an actual difference.

What are we all WAITING for? I'm inclined to believe it's the laziness and ignorance of first world countries that demonstrates the absurdity of our lives. In reference back to fashion, did you know that the fashion industry decides what is going to be popular a year in advance? Clothing, something once thought to be a basic expression of individualism, is really nothing more than a time-line on a spreadsheet. We can take no credit for our uniqueness- it's planned down to a science. It's recycled from past generations with real creativity and without social and mass media to tell us what to like. Do we have any control?

I mean, maybe it's just me. I could be the only one who thinks like this because I am tired of being looked down upon for wearing the clothes that I want to wear or enjoying activities that are not mainstream ways to spend an afternoon. I am in constant limbo between valuing myself and my opinions or valuing the worlds.

Despite the negativity of this post, I very solidly believe in hope. Persy is a girl who wears whatever she feels like- and is therefore always six months ahead of what will soon be 'the next trend.' Persy's fashion gives me hope that translates to the greater cause for good. People are opening their eyes to the injustices of genetically modified foods, the droughts in Africa, and sexual slavery. People are waiting for a movement, they just don't want to start it.

What will it take to get the people of our nation to choose to fight for something meaningful? A new pair of shoes is wonderful for two weeks, but a safe human life benefits all for years to come.