We are defined by the tests we take and ranking lists we favor

Not to sound like a Marxist, but I’m amazed and appalled at how obsessed our culture is with commodities. I’m not saying capitalism and things are bad, but our love for things and purchasable goods seems to mold us into sheep. Maybe it’s because we’re more or less raised on commodities: butter over margarine, Pepsi before Coke, this toy over that toy, etc. Maybe it’s because we get lazy and fall into grooves, like getting our coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts everyday and thus predisposing ourselves against coffees from other food-based retailers, even if we find ourselves in a position where a competitor’s coffee is more readily accessible. And, possibly worst of all, maybe it’s because we feel incomplete unless we subscribe to some kind of ideal; not just to define ourselves, but to set ourselves apart from others. Put another way, it's as if we feel the need to belong to some sort of club or we're nothing.

So, just to be clear, what is a commodity? Well, there’s the term used for trading on the mercantile exchange, with examples like soybeans, orange juice, and oil being commodities. But then there’s Marx’s idea. In short, he has written that the value of a commodity is not based on its usefulness, but by its capacity to be exchanged for other things. For example, a car is a commodity because, even though it may get you from point A to point B, handles well on wet and rocky roads, and has ample space for large loads to be transported, its true value lies in its potential to be traded in for a newer car. And he goes on to explain that the labor that leads to the production of these goods is also commoditized for its potential for exchange rather than its base usefulness. And then, our labor and skills become commodities and more or less leads people to become commodities unto ourselves.

That was a brief glimpse of Marx’s Commodity Fetishism, which is fascinating stuff. And it won’t necessarily turn you into a communist! So if you’re not easily brainwashed, go ahead and look it up. It’s good to gain perspective on the world around you. Anyways…

In one of my previous blog essays, I briefly mentioned how technology molds the way we live. Like, what DID we do before the internet? Well, if we wanted to order a pizza, we used a physical object known as the Yellow Pages. If we wanted to see what movies were playing where and at what time, we needed a current copy of the day’s newspaper. And then there’s the online dating aspect, but that’s a whole other ball of wax. But it’s funny to think that some people just can’t live without television (or, I guess I should just call it TV…). Even better, some people can’t live without cable TV. And for some, even that’s not good enough; it’s gotta be dish or satellite TV! As if we’d just die if we met other people, entertained ourselves, and whatever else by actually going outside!

On a side note, I suppose I’m guilty of some fetishism for commodities since if I have free time, I typically spend it online for hours. But since I do spend lots of time online, I do notice that we as a people aren’t happy unless we rank and organize our interests and other nouns. For example, how often do you see an article on an online form of a magazine or a web-based magazine like the A.V. Club that ranks the top however many movies within a genre? That doesn’t sound so bad, but how about the top [insert type] movie scenes? Do we really care what movies have the most awkward family dinner scenes? Or how about a list of the best songs with the worst titles? Or some other list where the basis is fueled by the author’s biased opinion? How many questions are in this paragraph?

I think I started thinking about this when I was on a free dating site years ago called Ok! Cupid. The hilarious thing about the site is, even though you can message other members for free, find them according to interests and location, and even chat with them for free within the site, one of its biggest draws is all the tests you can take. Like the “What ‘80s movie character are you?” test, or the “What kind of person were you in high school?” test, or the “What psychological illness are you likely to suffer with your current lifestyle?” test. I find this hilarious because, when we were in school, we dreaded tests! We hated having to stay up late the night before studying and filling our minds with rote information we plan to forget less than 24 hours after cramming it in our heads. And granted, the biggest difference is the online tests we take revolve around trivial bullshit that’s relevant to our interests. But the fact remains; we’re addicted to doing something we’d rather not do in a school setting. We’re addicted to pointless self-assessment exams so we can identify ourselves with the results of this test and that. Because, I don’t know about you, but if I don’t take the “Would you make a good boyfriend?” test, then I just don’t know who I am and I’m too incomplete to commune with other human beings.

The pointless lists and so-called friends we “make” through Myspace and Facebook are also hollow things we use to define ourselves and add artificial value to our lives. I’ve always been amazed when my real-life friends have personal pages (either through Myspace or Facebook) and they somehow manage to acquire several thousand friends, when really most of them are people they don’t even meet or talk to. As far as I can tell, many people just include whoever sends a request their way and just pad their friend list to sate an insecure need to be loved by lots of people. We all want friends, right? And the more, the merrier. Which sort of means, in a way, people become commodities because their value is based on their potential to make you seem popular. They’re like cheap designer clothes or bright plumage, if you like bird similes.

It is possible we’re predisposed to useless crap from an early age. I know when I was a kid, most of the cookies I ate were either Chips Ahoy!, Chips Deluxe, and Oreos. If a holiday was near, then I got a few from Grandma or my mom (and for what it’s worth, Mom’s cookies were the best). But it did mean that a lot of cookies I ate were just bought at the store and just eaten leisurely, sometimes even if I didn’t want a snack. They were just there. I know I drank a lot of cans of soda growing up just because it was there and I wasn’t thirsty for anything. And I think that gets the ball rolling and we learn to occupy ourselves with something equally useless, unhealthy, and unnecessary. I think we develop our tastes in movies, music, and TV in similar ways. Think about it, if you grew up with one movie (say, John Carpenter’s Halloween, The Breakfast Club, or Ghostbusters), you’ll be predisposed to liking vaguely similar movies as you grow up. If you started with a horror movie, you’ll probably turn your nose on comedies and blockbuster adventure films and just follow horror movies for a sizable chunk of your life. It’s like you can’t start fresh and decide “Well, maybe I’ll like this kind of movie”. You have to have that seed planted in you in your childhood. For what it’s worth, we get into a variety of films when we grow up so we can appreciate comedies and dramas as well as horrors and blockbusters. But it also means if you’ve never seen a French film, then French cinema will be a hard sell to you. Or, something like that.

This is sort of why I write these blogs. I think it’s important to spend time with your own thoughts and dwell on them. Not to sound like a crazy person, but I sometimes pass the time (usually waiting) just having conversations with myself. It’s mostly like having a viewpoint on a topic and providing your own counterpoint and disputing that. In any case, it’s good exercise for the mind and you can consider all the things in your life and decide for yourself how much of it is necessary, how much is nice to have, and how much is just bullshit.