Fuck It, Before It Fucks You #31 (Careful, the medicine's designed to stain, So we can see your veins)

What up party people? It’s another Friday night, and of course there’s no better way to spend it than writing a blog that maybe 5 people are going to read, so let’s get to it!f So last week I wrote something kind of semi-personal and I realized I like doing that. So I feel like moving forward I should at least start my writings from somewhere personal. We’ll see how that goes.

So I’m kind of sad this week because I don’t have my bike. I mean, I still own it and it’s not broken or anything. But the store offered me a free tune up when I bought it so I figured I should get that done before I move cross town in a couple weeks. I was thinking that maybe I should have done it next week since I have 3 days off from my “real” job this week, Then I realized that that’s not a reason to wait longer, it’s a reason that I should have done it earlier, which is a lesson to apply in the future.

Anyway, there is kind of a funny story connected to this. I’m at the bike shop yesterday, and I notice this dude bringing in what I’m guessing must be about a $2000 bike. I mean, I don’t know what it actually costs, but it certainly cost more that mine. Then att some point I hear him say “I’ve had it for a year and I’ve ridden it once.” I’m like “Well fuck, He’s not getting his money;s worth.” I’m not saying I’d never spend that much on a bike. If I had that sort of money to spend on a bike I bloody well might, but I’d make damn sure I was getting plenty of use out of it. I didn’t even spend that much on my computer and I use that every day. Not nearly as constructively as I could, but still.... I’ve always found it kind of fascinating how much money people will spend on stuff that not only do they not need, but they barely even fucking use. I wonder how much people spend on boats that just sit on a trailer most of the year? Yet, working at a natural foods store as I do, I often hear people bitching about how expensive our food is. And I want to tell them “Hey first of all, what are you even shopping here for?” It’s not like we’re the only grocery store in town. There’s plenty of cheaper places to shop. Secondly, it’s a little fucked up that this dude standing there in his $200 basketball shoes that he doesn’t play basketball in is Mr.. Fucking PennySaver when it comes to what he puts in his body. Consumerism gives us fucked up priorities. On top of that he’s probably just going to end up going to McDonald’s anyway to spend gods-know-what they charge for a Big Mac these days. I don’t know what that is anymore because I wouldn’t get near enough to one to find out, but I do know I could make one cheaper and with better quality ingredients at home. Of course, that doesn’t have the same status attached to it. And most of what people spend their money on is status symbols. Pretty sure most of the people who do shop at my store are just want to be seen there.

Of course, the people with real status in the world aren’t spending their money on symbols. I mean, they are, but they’re status symbols are the companies that sell the rest of us fake status symbols. In the West, freedom mostly just means freedom to consume. There’s other places where the people probably have more freedom than us, they just can’t consume as much. Of course, as much as we love to spend money we don’t have on shit we don’t need, we also love free shit don’t we? Oh yeah! We’ll sell our souls for some free shit. I guess there’s this new app that just came out that takes a picture of your face and can project what you’ll look like as you get older. Of course they catch is that you’re signing over the right for them to use your face forever. But hey1 It’s “free’! Someone much more famous than me said that if you’re using a service and not paying for it, you’re not their customer. You’re their product. Most likely your face is being sold for advertising purposes, because corporations spend most of their profits on marketing. Which means they take the money you didn’t have that you spent on their shit that you didn’t need and they use it to brainwash you into spending more money you don’t have on more shit you don’t need. This creates a vicious cycle of debt that makes a small handful of elites richer and richer and traps the rest of us in perpetual indentured servitude.

Of course, there’s a way out, but it’s not easy. It’s to tear yourself away from a life of pointless consumption, and employ your labor and the product thereof as constructively as you can. Or failing that, you just drop out of the system altogether and live out on the fringes of society, yeling “Fuck It! Before It Fuck’s You!”