Issue 1, Volume 1: People/The World Scare Me (Branded)

While I will admit that I enjoy some of the materialistic luxuries of life (good coffee, high fashion, upscale dining establishments, etc.), I've recently come to realize how pervasive these things become if you don't make a point of keeping yourself in check around them.

Case in point: although there is currently a Starbucks literally two-and-a-half minutes from my place of work, another location opened last week that is a mere one-minute-and-forty-five seconds away. This new location had a grand opening ceremony, and I couldn't help but feel profoundly uncomfortable when witnessing the entire macabre spectacle. Employees of the conglomerate pranced about like cheerleaders, bribed the people in line to sing songs expressing their love for the coffee chain with $5 gift cards, handed out endless samples of calorically-laden sweets to a clamouring and voracious crowd. All the while, the aforementioned crowd stood there like a pack of lemmings - while the Starbucks baristas handed out free pre-packaged sweets and machinated 'luxury' drinks, each and every person in the 30 minute waiting time line handed over a bit of their dignity.

Is free branded shit this important? (n.b. as is apparent from the majority of the postings on this blog, I don't curse often, but in this case I believe the word "shit" to be particularly apt because really, that's what it is when it comes down to it?) There are, at minimum, four other [empty] coffee shops within a one-block radius of this Starbucks-infested area, but are we all so enamoured of the little green logo on the white cup that we forget what shit we're even lining up for in the first place?All of this being said, I have nothing particularly intelligent to add to the consumerist debate. I myself am somewhat torn regarding the mass consumerism with which I'm faced on a daily basis. I know that I buy endlessly, and will readily admit to willingly shelling out for a Grande Bold every morning - mind you when I find an independent coffee shop that is conveniently located and can make an equally strong cup of coffee, I will be immediately switching my m.o.

But I digress...the issue I'm concerning myself with here is not the fact that we buy endlessly, line-up disgracefully and desire incessantly, but rather that very few of us ever take a step back from this and examine our own pitiful state of existence. Regardless of what certain philosophies and schools of thought may tell us, there is a definite line to be drawn between those who analyse and evaluate their actions and those who do not. Personally, I don't even want to co-exist with the former, but I obviously have no choice and so for the time being must settle with knowing that some of the latter are out there. And really, we should also consider if what we're buying into is worth buying into in the first place? The democratization of luxury is so au courrant, so sadly an affliction of the 21st century, so misleading in that luxury, once democratized, becomes nothing of the sort.

This is for those of us who left Starbucks that day and thought for a moment about our actions. Just for fun, go here to have the Starbucks Oracle help you on your path to self-discovery.