So why is it that New Yorkers are happy climbing over one another all day long? Every time I come to visit my parents in New York (Brooklyn), it just seems like most people spend a large portion of their lives and income to appear better off than they are. Each year, it seems like people get a little more crazy and space gets a little harder to find.
Now, I live in Madison, WI and it's not as though we don't have these types of people there. Usually they assimilate to the more laid back lifestyle of Madison and after a few months, chill out quite a bit. But coming back to New York is like stepping off the plane and into another dimension where emulating unrealistic television and music personalities is derictive numero uno. And for some reason, I notice it more on women than I do men. Women here seem to do everything they can to keep up with fashion to the point where it just looks like they're trying way too hard and no longer comprehend how ridiculous the end result has become. Sadly they seem to all have become poor Paris Hilton emulations complete with yappy little dogs and accessories for their accessories, all being carried along in luxury SUVs with nowhere to park them. The dudes here have become perfect charicatures of the type of men you'd imagine finiancially supporting these primadonnas. Also, it seems as though lately the men have started using more hair styling products than the ladies, if that's possible. The feminization of men in general is certainly a topic for a whole other post, though.
I did grow up here in Brooklyn, and I am not sure if it was always this way. I'm pretty sure women in NY have not always acted like this though. They seemed somewhat more down to earth in the past (I have not lived in NY for about 6 years or so). But now, everywhere you go, women around here behave as though they're perpetually walking down the red carpet. I am guessing these are individuals who as teens roved around the malls wearing T-shirts that mentioned the word "Bitch" on them somewhere. It's irritatingly alarming to see that some things never change regardless of age. And so when you transplant these "porn-y" looking walking billboards to any other part of the country that is not as densely populated, they just become obnoxious people not really worth knowing (i.e. not worth taking the time to get through all the layers of ridiculousness to find that there is no soul inside)
On the campus over in Wisconsin, whenever these people take their CR-V's or Rav4's and move to Madison, the only people they end up hanging out with are other East coasters because no one else is able to stand them. And as I've said, that sort of thing doesn't go away with age. People from New York love "being from New York" because... they're... you know... from New York. People from New York love spending money on expensive cars (well leasing them, really) to ensure that others know they "own" expensive cars. Young men from New York all look like walk-offs from a hip-hop video. And I'm not talking about good hip-hop. I'm talking about the blingy Top 40 bullshit you see on MTV when MTV decides to show some videos. Young men blowing their credit to lease large trucks for a few months until they can't pay for them anymore and get them repo'd. But what the hell, you get seen pushing a Navigator for a few months, right? That's bound to make you king in your neck of the hood, right? Make sure you got the cap tilted to the side, playa. We might mistake you for someone who's not oozing "fresh" wherever you go. The High School girlies must be begging to stand next to your leased Tahoe. Just like the rest of your homies have. Oh, wait. Never mind, you stand out because you've got the Italian colors on the back of yours. My bad.
And yeah, I realize it's all an act, and magnified countlessly due to the population density. But one would think that as these people grew up a little, they'd also wisen up a little. But like the 40 year old who still wears his High School jacket, this doesn't seem to be the case. The only difference is the disposable income might get a little higher, so the toys might get a little "blingier", but the game remains the same. And if this is happening throughout the country, it's no wonder debt is so high. Today, sitting in traffic coming back from Jersey to Brooklyn, every other vehicle was an SUV. And we're not talking about a Ford Explorer or a Jeep Wrangler. We're talking Audi, Volvo, Saab, Porsche, etc. And it's obvious that people in New York are not all independently wealthy, but you'd never know it if you just go by what the cars are that people drive. All I could think is that these poor bastards are all chained at the neck to these vehicles, their clothing, their multitudes of gadgetry and the monthly bills that are generated from carrying on this sort of lifestyle. And all they talk about is money money money, how to get more of it, how to spend more of it, how much they might have, etc.
It seems that every year, people in general are losing more and more of their common sense and are all increasingly subscribing to the impulse buy lifestyle. This is certainly not contained to New York or even large cities in general as I am seeing it more and more in people in Madison as well. And it's not only that it's the succeeding that are subscribing to this sort of thing. It includes everyone. It's as though everyone has gotten a common social cue either from television or radio to go out and buy everything they can, wether they need it or not, budget be damned. It's immediately evident with SUVs (I'm pretty sure the housewife in the Ford Expedition is not going offroading any time soon), and consumer gadgets. But it's also evident on a more personal level, when you look at the lifestyles people around you (and me) lead. Modesty is a thing of the past with most people. The social climate these days is to burn your checkbook at both ends in order to try and attain the lifestyle that television tells you that you need to be living. It's as though people have lost the ability to separate reality (their life) from fantasy (people on TV). It seems that people on TV are living the life that everyone but YOU is living and that must be depressing. So what's the answer? BUY, BUY, BUY. Consume more and more until you achieve that lifestyle. But in the end, with all your money spent, and all of the money that the creditors lent you spent, you're still just another depressed looking face sitting in your luxury SUV in bumper to bumper traffic on your commute to or from work and not exactly living out the American Dream (television lifestyle). And the cycle is perpetual because what's to get you out of that depression? Spending more moeny, of course. Back to the mall.
I will use my parents as an example. They go to the mall (Woodbridge, NJ) to buy clothing and other goods. While I'm with them, I try to point out a few things I think they might care about. For instance, they find no problem with spending $60+ on a pair of jeans. I tell them I can find the same pair of jeans, unworn (with all the tags still on them) at my local thrift store for $5. They ask me if I want to always look like a homeless person. (I don't look like a homeless person.) I then tell them that the jeans were made in a country that promotes child labor and sweatshops and probably cost $5 to make, if that. They wave their hand at me and ask me why should they care. "Why should they care about child labor and sweatshops???!!! What?! Why WOULDN'T ANYONE care?!" I think to myself. But then I realize I'm at the mall and nothing here is made in a country that doesn't support this sort of thing. Scratch that, in Macys I did find a pair of jeans made in the US, but they were $178. And I also realized that most of the people shopping were probably dimly aware of the practices they were perpetuating by supporting this sort of business model, but cared more about the clothing and the fact that they were not paying $178 for a pair of jeans thanks to children in China.
Now keep in mind, I would never tell them what to buy. It's their money and they're free to spend it how they choose to spend it. And it's the same with everyone else. If you want to blow your paycheck on a fat gold chain and some rims for your truck, be my guest. I can't tell you not to. But it just seems to me that these people are not living realistically. They are living exactly the way marketers want them to live. See it on TV, go buy it at your local retailer.
I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm really not. I feel like someone who is walking around, and seeing that everyone is tuned into a completely different frequency. And the information being downloaded is a false message of rampant consumerism without any real personal gain. Religion deals a lot with these topics, but I'd rather not touch on religion for this rant as it has a lot of its own problems and rarely if ever seems to get people to see the real problem (which reminds me of the little crucifix hanging off the rearview of a Mercedes Benz SUV parked outside of my parent's apartment building. I doubt Jesus would drive a Benz SUV). I feel like screaming out "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! YOURE WALKING THROUGH LIFE IN A DREAM-STATE! EVERYTHING YOU THINK, SAY OR DO IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY A CORPORATE SPONSOR". But since I'm not on TV, I doubt my message would get through to anyone. The people that ARE on TV have got the general populace hook, line and sinker. Every new wave of gadget, television, automobile, clothing, accessory, food craze, diet craze, book, etc that comes out has to be purchased before it's mass-adopted. And the speed at which culture is mass-adopted these days is a week to a month, thanks to mass-communication mediums such as the internet and television. Trends are realized, dissected and adopted with such great speed that by the time you've heard of a new cell phone, SUV or sneaker, everyone around you already has it. So is the answer to buy everything all the time? To always keep your ear to the ground of mass-media to be the first on your block with the newest sidekick? It's impossible, but people spend a large portion of their lives trying to accomplish just that, and it's certainly much more evident here in New York.
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