Ignorance and arrogance are in. Being an inept dolt is all the rage in our superficial society. Thoughts are bought and sold as the mindless droids of pop culture consume and inhale every sickly fume of this disease. Our society is beginning to look more like totalitarianism and less like democracy when expendable pawns of corporate conglomerates are tossed out like old newspapers. However, my focal point is not global capitalism nor is it growing trend of corporate ascendancy; it is simply the state we are in socially as American youth.

White middle class emulation of urban culture:

This has undoubtedly contributed greatly to the decline of our culture in the last decade. If you are not familiar with the phrase I am using, here is a quick synopsis of the term. Not the integration of black culture into white culture, but ''prosthetic integration'' (with no apparent objective) of middle class whites and the general fascination of black culture among the trendier population. Now having said that I will move along on my discussion of this controversial issue (I use the word controversial to describe the raciness of this topic which can be very easily misunderstood by the subjects of my argument). Getting more to the point of the reason I brought this up in the first place, like other topics I discuss in this document, this rapidly growing trend can be linked directly to the mass media. Justin Timberlake, Eminem, and countless other celebrities obviously epitomize the clones of this growing trend.
When a trend like this is overly glorified in the media like it has been for quite some time, it is no wonder it has caught on to the feckless fools that make up the masses. But why has it grown so greatly in the past couple years? Why has this trend become a national problem to our free thinkers so quickly? It may be as simple as being in the right place at the right time. The extreme over-marketing by corporations to minors mixed with some of the biggest corporate mergers of all time has shot the putrid smell of this issue into the air, intoxicating all who aren't fixated on avoiding such bullshit media trends. The great reduction in vocabulary among high school students is an extremely alarming statistic. We have lost thousands of words in our vocabularies over the past 3 decades. Can this possibly be linked with the glorifying of ignorance on MTV? You can decide this for yourself, I have just aided you in getting familiar with these trends. You are probably sick of reading about this crap so allow me to move on to the next topic.

The dangerous trend of unawareness:

With an unbelievable amount of product endorsement by celebrities, the networks constant ass-kissing of corporate sponsors, and the pressure put on consumers to support global corporations with no question, its is no wonder that the handful of conglomerates that run our country have gained absolute power, resulting in an anti-democratic system. If consumers went as far as to question the products put out by the general institutions that I target in this article, profits would decline greatly. With absolutely no pressure put in intelligence, just pressure to be a devout consumer, we have put ourselves in a state where undoubted faith and absolutely no thought is put into activities like shopping and eating. It is this dangerous trend of unawareness that has taken power from the people and placed it in the hands of greedy global corporations, giving them the power of sovereign nations.
I'm sure you, as a reader of this article, are fully aware that the company benefits the most when the consumer lacks the knowledge to go as far as to criticize its product. The company obviously feels the least amount of stress when the safety and quality of its product are not questioned by its users. Well if this was one aspiration of these companies (which it obviously is as I have implied throughout this entire paragraph) then they have been extremely successful at dumbing down the public as much as possible without turning them into vegetables. Wow, no shit. This is extremely obvious but I thought I would go over it since this site is not politically related and the readers of this article might not have had experience with such topics.
How can the public be so oblivious to what is going on around them, you ask? How come these corporations have been so successful in replacing our democratic system with something that bears a closer resemblance to imperialism or totalitarianism, you wonder? Well I believe that there are many answers to the questions that race through your mind. I am going to go for one that desires less discussion and less of an explanation: we as human beings are generally dumber than we have been since our days as Homo Erectus. The glorifying of stupidity, the lack of interest in left wing politics, and the sharp decline of labor unions since the late 1960's are all valid statements which support my theory which is the fact that we don't care anymore.
The Boston Tea Party might sound familiar to you. Countless protests and boycotts have helped win our freedom. Even the fairly recent WTO protests will not go unmentioned by me in this article. Involvement in issues you feel strongly about is key to change. Why is it that we remain so uninterested in an era where corporate tyranny certainly effects every one of us? An understanding of important issues is the first step in moving towards change. The dangerous trend of unawareness can be stopped dead in its tracks if we as Americans simply show interest in issues that effect such a large population. I will stop there, I certainly do not want you to be late for the new episode of Survivor or whatever mind rotting bullshit you might be interested in.

Sheer alienation of anything that falls outside of the norm:

The blatant message which tells us to conform is truer than ever. Along with an excessive pressure to conform, comes an attitude of reluctance towards straying from pop culture, set forth by the rulers of this fascist regime. An interest in political and social issues will more than likely be found among the general outcasts of this preposterous sub-culture. It is the sparse number of ''free'' minds that has contributed to the gain of absolute power among the leaders of the pop world. While this anti-democratic institution of evil is run by a handful or global corporations, its followers, the mindless sheep that make up the masses, extend as far as the wicked reaches of the corporations. The only hope is the sparse amount of truly free thinkers whose minds have not yet strayed from their morals of individuality. Minds that have not been poisoned by corporations and their slaves. Yes, the mass media really does have us by the balls. Yes, these corporations do control those who lack the intellect to break free from their oppressive rule. It is depressing, but realization is key to escaping the superficial lives that have been set for you. Your job is to educate yourself in the ways of what is true rebellion in our bleak age of superficial thought. Not the distancing from pop culture that can be bought in the mall but what truly matters: realization and an attempt to free ones mind from the clutches of conformity.

Sites of interest:

http://www.corpwatch.org/home/PHH.jsp

http://members.aol.com/traviesaa/repsuck.htm

http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/rulemakers/topTenReasons.html

http://www.indymedia.org/

http://www.alternativetentacles.com