Popular Culture

In high school many of us learn that there is nobility in admitting that it is “what’s on the inside” that is important, rather than these other forms of expression. This seems to be a concept that is widely accepted yet rarely seen or understood; and it can become competitive in itself. For instance, recently I was in a class that discussed the troubles many people will go through to create an exterior that they are proud to be associated with.  As I left class that day I found myself staring at every person I passed on the school’s lawn, making note of the obvious effort that they had put into preparing their appearance.  I remembered myself that morning, I knew that I had gotten ready in less than ten minutes, and that I genuinely felt uninterested in my appearance-and with that in mind, that “praise” for myself, I caught myself, paradoxically, looking down on my peers solely because of their appearance-perpetuating the exact habits of insecurity creating competition that I wished to purge!

This sense of competition is so indoctrinated within us, that we are often unaware of our needless competition. This is why we read accounts of utopia. Of all of those that I have read thus far, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward is in my opinion the most plausible, and complete society I have seen offered. In the story, Dr. Leete states that his daughter Edith is an “indefatigable” shopper. This does not, however, mean that she is consumed with her family’s privileges as it may today. In Bellamy’s Boston in the year 2000, each family is given an annual credit that they are allowed to spend as they please, so each of Edith’s peers has the same means that she does. This is a more authentic manner of expression-where our styles, interests and appearance are not created by our uneven means.

When Edith takes Julian shopping she tells him that the clothes she is choosing from are the same clothes offered in all clothing shops. There is a kind of socialist stigma that is attached to this idea, which had to have been overcome. Many of us fear that we would become robots, replicas of everyone else if we were unable to wear clothing that was unique compared to those around us. At this point we must embrace a more mature version of our “it’s what’s on the inside that counts” motto and begin to believe that we are better off not being identified with our clothing, musical preferences, favorite films, novels and so on-and on a greater scale: our political ideologies, religious beliefs, stances on popular moral issues etc.-we identify with each other as fellow human beings, fellow Dasein. When, in a society like Bellamy’s, everyone is given equal access to the same material goods, pop culture ceases to exist. Pop culture has no place in utopia because there are no commercialized motives, no sleight of hand tricks informing us of what we want, and no incoherent competition to stay ahead of curve.