The Fear Of Being You The Real Identity Crisis
It is a common awe among people, “The terror of being you.” As I give advice as a columnist, I come by many questions center around that fear. This anxiety goes beyond the lack of confidence and self-esteem. It begins with how you want to feel about you.
Hollywood and the “in” person perception.
It is in our nature to want to belong to something. We join groups. We buy clothes, cars, phone, and accessories to be like those we want to like us. The problem is so many people are trying to be comfortable they are making themselves uncomfortable. Hollywood gives people these ideas and idols that are prefabricated fiction. The public knows this and falls for it anyway. Hollywood sets buying trends and fashion etc, etc, etc. Not unprejudiced for kids, tweens and teens, but young and older adults as well.
Television doesn’t predict trends, it molds them.
Go to the CW website and learn to dress like the star of your choice. Did that star create there own fashion, most likely not. Let’s get something else straight, I don’t want the car or motorcycle in the Suzuki commercials, I want the girl. (Okay pass the Geritol and Cialis, please.) I gape the product placement on these programs first then with the neighbors next door The purpose for these trends is for someone to relieve you of your bank myth. This will assure you of being “in as “in” debt.
Why do people do these things?
Marketers prey on the fear of you being you is not good enough. Actually, much of what they say in their ads says you are not. Will a new car make you a better person? Will $1000.00 sneakers make you? Everyone wants to be the “in” person. I was in the mall looking at sneakers, er sorry, sports footwear and shoes, when I overheard a mother who’s kid was drooling over $150.00 dollar sn…almost did it again, sports footwear. She picked up one shoe, looked at the shoe and looked at the kid. “You want these things because you believe they are going to make you somebody. You put these on and you will be somebody alright…somebody who got beat up and robbed of his stupid overpriced sneakers.” People do these things because they fear that they the person are not good enough. The mother in the store said it best, “Boy, you are not no Cinderella.” The magic wasn’t in the shoes, but in getting the mother to pay for them.
You want to be the “in” person?
The singer known as Leif Garrison was the “in” person once. Now, it seems like I only hear about him when he is “in” trouble, “in” jail or “in” rehab. The list of “in” people on the outs is “in”credible. Do people really want to be them now? I don’t imagine they would.
James Dean, when the rebel was in.
James Dean the actor was a rebel icon. He made it “in” to be a rebel with a cause. And a whole generation did rebel for no reason than to rebel. That made them feel different and “in.” What no one figured out was if everyone was being different the same way, they really weren’t being any different at all. Now there is a real identity crisis.
What the rebel was all about.
The rebel was all about being unique. It was not about rebelling to rebel. It was about rebelling against not being who you are. It was not about being someone else. It was about allowing you to be you. Now, there is the truth about breaking free. You don’t have to be jubilant in the 21st century to come out of the closet. You have to be you.
Rejecting you is the same as denying who you are.
An elderly man once told me he wasted his whole life looking for himself. His regret is he waited to look in the mirror so long that now only some old fool who wasted his life is all he sees. The man, I’ll call George, claims mankind constantly is trying to reinvent two things, the wheel and stupidity. He adds the new wheel doesn’t always work, but the stupidity never fails to amaze the world. His point is everyone is special and unique, work what you got and you’ll be what you want.
As FDR famously said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
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Filed under Cialis by on Feb 22nd, 2011. 