How fickle are we?

[tangaloomababe]

I happened to be channel surfing last night and flicked onto a current affairs program. They were reporting on the latest in eyelash extensions and some new cream that had been developed to make your eyelashes longer. Now this cream cost some extravagent amount and lastest about three months but was guaranteed to make your eyelashes grow longer in three months.
However if you couldn't afford that there were eyelash extensions, lasting about four weeks. Alternativly you could have an eyelash perm, making your eyelashes curlier.
Come on...... Ok I use mascarra to make my eyelashes darker and maybe the appearance of longer but I would never resort to the above. Is it just me or have we become this fickle or is it vanity?
What a waste of time and money. Maybe there are those that dont agree but I would be interested in knowing your reasoning. Ok there may be exceptions to this, I think one lady had undergone chemo treatment and her eyelashes had fallen out, this I can understand, but the majority of women having this done were purely to make their eyelashes look longer and mascarra made their eyelashes look gluggy!!!!!

[littlemissattitude]

That wasn't a "current affairs" program. That was an infomercial.

One of my pet peeves is the way people trying to sell something will dress it up and act like it is "news" program, supposedly presenting "objective" information, when in fact what they are really dealing in is propaganda meant to separate the viewer from their money...usually for something that is either useless or unnecessary.

[Dexter]

Hear, hear! A shame isn't it?

Our culture is based on consumerism, though. Our economies would weaken if we didn't buy the newest and greatest all the time! We are programmed to be dissatisfied with what we have and what we are. We are brought up to be fickle and vain and oh so insecure.

And free with our cash and credit. After all, operators are standing by.

Eyelash perms! Who wouldda thunk it? What's next? Toe hair trimmers?

[Allegra]

The African mothers whose babies starved to death can never imagine such trash being invented. Strange world.

[HardScienceFan]

is anybody aware of the fact i've repeatedly and violently agitated againts the cosmetics industry??????
in world affairs???

[Dexter]

We don't even have to go to Africa. We have enough poverty in our own backyard to serve as examples of grand neglect. The homeless, the working poor...the forgotten and the ignored. We (as a society), who's brains are supposedly soooooo big, can't see beyond our own selves enough to share with those that have less.

Roaches take better care of their own than we do.

But - hey - can they get their lashes extended?

[chrispenycate]

Cosmetics and starvation have coexisted since at least the time of Cleopatre, probably much earlier. That doesn't make it right, or just, but the mere fact that more people can afford them doesn't mean the situation has got so much worse.
It is doubtful that the resources expended on luxuries like cosmetics could be effectively used to improve the lives of the poor; perhaps in medica supplies.
Considerably less is expended in beauty products than in armaments, where a greater proportion os the resourses could be otherwise used.

No species looks after a greater percentage of it's population as "their own" than humanity; generally "my own" covers immediate family. Cockroaches certainly don't.

And it's not because I've a voiceover next week for "Cover Girl" that I'm standing up for them, either. Relative to most branches of industry, their small-quantity production makes them relatively innoffensive.
Not much use, I concede, but not over damaging.
After all, we've already got all this unemployment; what were you thinking of recycling the models, advertising executives, salespeople, even production specialists into? Social workers? Peasants?

[Allegra]

Cosmetic is commodity. However if it goes too far and weird then you wonder if something is wrong with the world and the people. But you are right to look at the bright side - the economy, the job market, though there might be a few psychiatrists grumbling for losing patients as the extended eye lashes will no doubt boost some damaged confidence and self-esteem.

[Dexter]

Greetings Master Witslinger! I see you took an interest in my roaches! Normally they run from the light of your monitor and avoid notice. Are you using an LCD monitor, perchance? You're right, of course. Roaches don't seem to suffer from attacks of compassion and we do. They were an exaggeration made to quickly make a point. It might have been in poor taste. In the future I'll try not to bring them here. My bad.

Starvation does seem unavoidable, doesn't it? But it's a matter of scale, isn't it? Way back in Cleo's time we certainly didn't have in excess of 6 billion people living on the globe. So even if we do a much better job now than they did then in caring for everyone's basic needs, the problem still is likely to be worse than it was on a numerical basis. The real shame here is that we have the ability like never before to gather and distribute our resources and use them pretty much wherever we want.

We do seem to spend a huge amount of our resources on warmaking. It's saddening to realize that if given a choice, our society would rather use those resources to take lives rather than save them. I know that's simplifying things and many would disagree, but that's how I see it.

Eyelash extensions don't take food or money away from the poor, true enough and many of us have the opportunity to give more, myself included. I'm glad that I care enough to give away some of my resources and care enough to feel for the poorer amongst us when I hear about eyelash extensions.

Recycle people? Was that soilant green maybe?

It is good to know that people are living carefree enough to worry about the length and fullness of their lashes. Life must indeed be good.

[dustinzgirl]

I can see buying face cream and makeup, but quite frankly I am sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, of the ten billion paid advertisements that tell people they are not good enough and they should change thier appearance.

[Dexter]

Me too. Me too.

Of course since these messages are paid for by merchants hawking wares, it'll likely never stop. I mean, what frivolity could they sell us if they convinced us that everything was ok?

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by dustinzgirl

I can see buying face cream and makeup, but quite frankly I am sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, of the ten billion paid advertisements that tell people they are not good enough and they should change thier appearance.

I hear you, kiddo. The latest thing they've taken to making people feel guilty and insecure about is having gray hair. There's one that asks all these questions like: Are you sure you can still do your job competently? Do people take you seriously? And their answer is, to make sure that you can and they do, make sure you get rid of that gray hair.

I'm getting quite sick and tired of Madison Avenue trying to marginalize everyone who isn't young and perfect and thin and rich.