Last Updated on March 5, 2023
Originally published in Beat Motel issue 7, back when I didn’t understand writing with brevity of vocabulary, and I was in my late 20s so probably thought I had life sussed out.
I have recently noticed that several columns in zineworld appear to be nothing more than a series of brash statements back up by shallow arguments. I then thought ‘that looks like fun!’ So here goes…
Banish Luxury
The word ‘luxury’ is a deceptive lie. The idea that there are things in life that can improve the way we feel about ourselves (and our quality of life) in exchange for some cash is insulting and serves only to line the pockets of profiteers.
I’m not suggesting we live in puritanical self-denial, I am suggesting a slight shift of focus with regard to what we consider the finer things in life. The very use of the word luxury implies that all else in life is grey and miserable and the only way we can hope to elevate ourselves from this melancholy mire is to hand over money to a corporation which will offer us the opportunity to fruitlessly grasp at the short-lived happiness their products claim to offer.
Anything that tries to convince us that we are incomplete without purchasing a product grossly insults us on many levels, both practically and spiritually. It removes self-reliance and the ability to amuse and look after ourselves without the assistance of faceless corporations.
It’s this erosion of our own responsibility that enables marketers to convince us we need luxury items. If you’re in any doubt go and look at the toilet roll you have in your bathroom, if it is a ‘luxury’ brand did your health, wealth and virility improve when you started wiping the shit from your arse using this luxurious product? Luxury is bullshit, spending money is not the path to happiness.
You are a pauper
You’re skint right? I mean, you don’t have as much money as you would like to? Am I right? If so then think about how you came to believe you don’t have enough money. What specifically is missing from your life that having a limitless amount of money would provide?
Is it a bigger house, a better car, a bigger telly or that age-old falsehood that is ‘financial security’. Everyone of those things is the focus of an elaborate web of deceit. If you have a bigger house it would need more maintenance, would take longer to clean and offer you large expanses that you may feel need filling more ‘things’.
A better car will cost more to fuel, more to repair and will be more liable to theft and vandalism. Financial security is a falicy, if financial institutions can convince us that the future is a dark foreboding place it sweetens the poison that their policies embody.
A sense of financial inadequacy is instilled in us from a very young age with the thousands of hours of advertising we are subjected to, everyone offering us happiness in exchange for money, therefore logically the more money we have to spend on products the happier we will be.
It’s a messed up theory that hundreds of malfunctioning millionaires stand as living evidence of. When you were a toddler life was exciting and adventurous, you had no concept of material wealth. You were yet to launch into the manic and ultimately fruitless lifelong race to accumulate ‘things’ that appears to start at school with pastimes as seemingly innocent as a game of marbles.
When I was a teen a friend of mine called Dan Foden decided to quietly forgo Christmas gifts from his parents and instead asked his folks to donate any money they might have spent to a charity that worked with Romanian Orphans.
At the time I thought he must have been insane, brainwashed in some way or at least a pious fool. Looking back I have a newfound respect for the teenage Dan, he had started to realise something that it takes some of us a lifetime to realise, and apparently evades the majority of western society. Things do not equal bliss. It’s my mission to invest my life in experiences and relationships, key to these experiences and relationships are human beings, current friends, future friends, family and the musical community at large.
Absorb Your Surroundings
We are constantly told to hurry up, be efficient and to keep our eyes down to get the job done. The biggest problem with working with your head down is that you are likely to miss out on living the life that surrounds you!
Friends of mine who have taken acid generally claim the one persisting gift this has bestowed upon them is the ability to find beauty in things that others find mundane. Whilst I have never taken acid, I have found a great deal of pleasure in stopping and staring occasionally, it’s amazing just how much you miss if charge though life with a single-minded goal in mind.
Next time you are walking though a town stop in your tracks for a moment and have a look around. Doing this in Ipswich recently I noticed that above the overdressed honey traps that the huge plate glass frontages of the high street there are lots of interesting bits of ancient and art deco architecture, none match and all hark back to a time unconcerned with planning officials and red tape.
By stopping periodically on my occasional strolls between Liverpool Street Station and Tower Hill in London I have watched all manner of new buildings spring from the ground, including the Swiss RE building (the glass gherkin!).
Most people will agree that time can fly by whilst staring into a fire or out to sea, but by absorbing your surroundings at unusual times you can give your mind a nice breath of fresh air. Actually, screw that, I’ve just realised I’m turning into an OAP!!! The column has carreed off the rails and into the muddy ditch of meandering cobblers!
Make up your own damn mind
Don’t be told what to do and don’t be told what you need, so hey, ignore this column for starters!
- Andrew Culture
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