Sex sells..so does Death - A Dark Comedy? Basic Economics?
As consumers, we have plenty of choices to ponder upon and fuss about. As producers, (if we are producers that is), we find ourself faced with intense competion. You take time to research, plan, and come up with a product. You enjoy the fruits of your hardwork for a while, alas, the realisation that suddenly there are many other products that match yours appearing in the market, dawns on you. What do you do now? You fume over the fact that your hard work has been somewhat reproduced with less than half the legwork and research effort you put in. This is after all a market economy. You either change your product or differentiate it from all the others that look like yours, face up to the competion or simply fold. So we have Zoe Tay saying "I swallow" and suddenly Imedeen, ( a company selling beauty products) have all the spotlight on them. ( what they do with the spotlight though is another story- an issue of capitalisation). So sex sells.In the light of all things being fair in love and war, (business is somewhat like war, in the economic sense), sexual innuendos are employed to win market share and biological weapons are employed to win military conflicts.No biggie.
Speaking of love and war, I always puzzled at the wierd pairing of these words. One connotes acceptance and giving whilst the other achieves the reverse, enmity and destruction. How then did these 2 words get paired up in such a famed saying? I thought about this for a bit and came to this conclusion. Love, (or social status, popularity for personal gain), like war, has become a matter of life and death - profiteering from ones death in the betterment of life for another.
We, yet to even enter the workforce, also find ourselves in a market economy, though of a different sort. In this economy, we do not need to own a business to be a market player.Indeed,every heterosexual is in his or her own right both the market player, (ie. producer of a product) and the consumer. We are producers of a product; our own social image and consumer of a product; the social image of a member of the opposite sex.
By social image, what I mean is how we choose to portray ourselves in the light of public scrutiny. We all hope to come across as a good person at least to the people we are close to or want to be close to ( for whatever reason). In that spirit, some of us are willing to go a little further in proving our 'goodness' to whoever we are close to or want to get close to.Some of us, even to the extent of exploiting a death.
I knew this guy a few years back.I do not really know him on a very personal basis, but when you belong to a large social circle, you do not have to know a person on a personal basis to know about him; you may not know him; but you could know about him.When he was still alive, he was not exactly everyone's best friend. For that matter, probably none of us are. This guy though, did have a considerable amout of people who had a considerable amount of grievances about him. A lot of gossip was going around about his ways.As life would have it, he passed on, suddenly and abruptly.And just as suddenly and abruptly, he became everyone's best friend. This was a rather interesting phenomenon, with people who barely knew him crying buckets and mourning as if the deceased was even one of their very own, there were those who even rolled on the ground mopping and grieving. With all due respect to the genuine grief many were feeling, these particular some really had no reason to be mourning that intensely. Unless of course, it was all part of the effort.The effort to be accepted and looked up to. Some may have been grieving to make up for the guilt they felt for treating that particular guy in the way they did, some to justify their behaviour toward him, and others to simply be connected to the spot where the spotlight shone.As onlookers of this strange phenomenon, me and a dear friend, couldn help but feel like as though we were in a dark comedy, where someone's death could actually be manipulated for personal gain.
My friend and I, we did not shed a tear. We were shocked, no doubt, but not shattered. We did not attempt to conjure up a sudden flood of sorrow either, which is why we noticed this strange phenomenon, encompassing some of those we knew.
Death is a somber event.The deep loss felt by the loved ones left behind cannot be expressed but by tears.The yearning, the hopes, the plans for the future, instantly shattered, all in that one instant. We should honour the dead; not exploit them. Dead men may tell no tales, but the manifestations of the conscience does. All may be fair in love and war, but should we really go to the extent of exploiting the dead? Do we really want to be part of a dark comedy or meagre men seeking merely economic gain? Death like sex sells. Dont sell it..after all, whoever we are and wherever we are, death, like taxes, is certain.
Another young person, a schoolmate, someone I do not know on a personal basis, has passed on of late. Lets honour the dead. May their spirits rest in peace.
As consumers, we have plenty of choices to ponder upon and fuss about. As producers, (if we are producers that is), we find ourself faced with intense competion. You take time to research, plan, and come up with a product. You enjoy the fruits of your hardwork for a while, alas, the realisation that suddenly there are many other products that match yours appearing in the market, dawns on you. What do you do now? You fume over the fact that your hard work has been somewhat reproduced with less than half the legwork and research effort you put in. This is after all a market economy. You either change your product or differentiate it from all the others that look like yours, face up to the competion or simply fold. So we have Zoe Tay saying "I swallow" and suddenly Imedeen, ( a company selling beauty products) have all the spotlight on them. ( what they do with the spotlight though is another story- an issue of capitalisation). So sex sells.In the light of all things being fair in love and war, (business is somewhat like war, in the economic sense), sexual innuendos are employed to win market share and biological weapons are employed to win military conflicts.No biggie.
Speaking of love and war, I always puzzled at the wierd pairing of these words. One connotes acceptance and giving whilst the other achieves the reverse, enmity and destruction. How then did these 2 words get paired up in such a famed saying? I thought about this for a bit and came to this conclusion. Love, (or social status, popularity for personal gain), like war, has become a matter of life and death - profiteering from ones death in the betterment of life for another.
We, yet to even enter the workforce, also find ourselves in a market economy, though of a different sort. In this economy, we do not need to own a business to be a market player.Indeed,every heterosexual is in his or her own right both the market player, (ie. producer of a product) and the consumer. We are producers of a product; our own social image and consumer of a product; the social image of a member of the opposite sex.
By social image, what I mean is how we choose to portray ourselves in the light of public scrutiny. We all hope to come across as a good person at least to the people we are close to or want to be close to ( for whatever reason). In that spirit, some of us are willing to go a little further in proving our 'goodness' to whoever we are close to or want to get close to.Some of us, even to the extent of exploiting a death.
I knew this guy a few years back.I do not really know him on a very personal basis, but when you belong to a large social circle, you do not have to know a person on a personal basis to know about him; you may not know him; but you could know about him.When he was still alive, he was not exactly everyone's best friend. For that matter, probably none of us are. This guy though, did have a considerable amout of people who had a considerable amount of grievances about him. A lot of gossip was going around about his ways.As life would have it, he passed on, suddenly and abruptly.And just as suddenly and abruptly, he became everyone's best friend. This was a rather interesting phenomenon, with people who barely knew him crying buckets and mourning as if the deceased was even one of their very own, there were those who even rolled on the ground mopping and grieving. With all due respect to the genuine grief many were feeling, these particular some really had no reason to be mourning that intensely. Unless of course, it was all part of the effort.The effort to be accepted and looked up to. Some may have been grieving to make up for the guilt they felt for treating that particular guy in the way they did, some to justify their behaviour toward him, and others to simply be connected to the spot where the spotlight shone.As onlookers of this strange phenomenon, me and a dear friend, couldn help but feel like as though we were in a dark comedy, where someone's death could actually be manipulated for personal gain.
My friend and I, we did not shed a tear. We were shocked, no doubt, but not shattered. We did not attempt to conjure up a sudden flood of sorrow either, which is why we noticed this strange phenomenon, encompassing some of those we knew.
Death is a somber event.The deep loss felt by the loved ones left behind cannot be expressed but by tears.The yearning, the hopes, the plans for the future, instantly shattered, all in that one instant. We should honour the dead; not exploit them. Dead men may tell no tales, but the manifestations of the conscience does. All may be fair in love and war, but should we really go to the extent of exploiting the dead? Do we really want to be part of a dark comedy or meagre men seeking merely economic gain? Death like sex sells. Dont sell it..after all, whoever we are and wherever we are, death, like taxes, is certain.
Another young person, a schoolmate, someone I do not know on a personal basis, has passed on of late. Lets honour the dead. May their spirits rest in peace.
posted by The Sch O Hard Knockx at 9:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home