Fash Fashion
And scenes from the Futuroverse
Welcome to the second post in a new section of my publication — Freeform! This is a place for pure experimentation and expression. It’s basically a laser beam into my thought process. Don’t worry, this won’t replace any of my fiction content. It’s purely an add on.
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One of the more pernicious consequences of everyone having to pretend their identity is a “brand” is that we edit ourselves. We imagine what our consumers will think of us, and then create an image that supports our imaginings.
Countless industries profit from this — any company that sells implements of self transformation. We need a constant reinvention of the self, not in a grounded, rooted, spiritual sense, but a hollow commercial simulacrum. The invention is not driven by the internal wellspring of introspection and self curiosity. But by outside forces who are indifferent to the consequences of the transformation. Their motive is to sell transformation. To force transformation. Fashion proceeds at the fastest possible pace — now dizzying and incomprehensible.
Everything is fashion.
Trends. Clothing. Make-up. Houses. Cars. Books. Weddings. Games. Movies. Franchises. Diets. Hobbies. Firearms. Dances. Music. Language.
Everything is an amped-up signifier of the personal brand, the brand we must always protect and preserve and grow. Even if you don’t hustle for a living, you must have some kind of social avatar, which wades into the public eye amongst the other avatars imbued with varying degrees of pretension.
Never mind the alienation that occurs when a dollar sign imposes itself upon human interaction. Where people are always kind of lying to each other. Where we’re all selling something, be it a product or an image.
Never mind if the brand bears little resemblance to the person, or the person’s true thoughts, beliefs, and desires.
How much can one learn from these avatars as they present themselves? How well can one really know them as people? How often is one shocked to learn of some misery that never found much screen time in the online performance of the branded self?
We see this with influencers — the knights and barons and dukes of the feudal internet. They crack. They break under the pressure of performing before an audience. They have no backstage. Their costumes never comes off.
Our rulers — those cursed with extremities of wealth — employ PR firms to craft their public images. We would be fools to assume those images resemble the person in any meaningful way. And because they rule, they build the world as they understand it. One where we all craft public images. Where we spin the circumstances and choices of our lives to fit the fashion.
It’s not enough to keep up appearances with the neighbors — now the whole interconnected world is in competition.
You don’t have to choose to participate in this competition. As long as you follow the fashion, you’re already doing it. You’re comparing yourself to a pantheon of glistening actors, promising explicit or implicit transformation.
The choice is to not participate.
To buck trends. To ignore fashions. To abandon status and external regard. To not be online. To not be always available and amenable. To move slowly and live simply and think radically. To ponder. To please and serve yourself above all others. Not in the cutthroat competition of people who have habituated to dishonesty. Not to gain advantage over anyone and climb some fabulated hierarchy.
But to step sideways out of the hierarchy. Where you don’t snap your neck looking left and right and up and down at what everyone around you is doing. But keep your gaze focused on your goals and values.
You will be judged. You’re failing your customers. The people living as brands, putting on performances that bring them no enthusiasm. To see that someone really can simply ignore the fashion is an uncomfortable feeling. And so the branded punish the unbranded for their obnoxious provocations of discomfort. Especially as the mores of the fashion grow uglier and nastier and the actors more cut and squeezed into their costumes.
Or perhaps I’m totally wrong and life is all about achieving a perfectly timed sequence of trends. Like a game of Guitar Hero where the opinions of other people come flying at your face and the more perfectly you can meet them all, the higher your score.
But I don’t think so.
Rarely does the collective will of the people in your life (let alone the internet) align perfectly with your own wants and needs.
Training yourself to behave based on the reactions of other people might feel effective because you are getting reactions.
But ultimately it robs you of the experience of making your own judgements.
And trusting yourself.
Maybe brand, like voice, should be more about discovery than conformity.
We are all carefully calibrated to a degree. The goal is to recognize if it's by our own design or someone else's. When I was younger I preferred to "brand" myself based upon the influence of others, but now I question everything. But who am I without their influence? 🤔