A Different Point of View
I am a big fan of fads. For me, fads provide a good study into a culture’s whims and impulses, and highlight where we are psychologically as a nation. Some fads are short-lived even though they spread fast, but some do endure the test of time, if only to lose public enthusiasm slowly. Remember fidget spinners. They took over the country like a Biblical plague of locusts, descended on every counter in stores, and then disappeared, almost the next day. Then there is the Rubik’s Cube. It appeared instantly throughout the world, but has stayed with us in the toy aisles of every major store.
This may show my age, but does anyone remember the Pet Rocks and Cabbage Patch Kids?! These fads were hard to explain. Those of us who fell for them were very passionate about having them, while the rest of us wondered about their sanity. It was hard to explain why they were so popular, yet, one couldn’t resist having them just so we don’t get left out of whatever magic they possessed.
I remember when kids used to wear clothes with price tags still attached to them and proudly displayed those price tags for others to see. How about fanny packs? I had a friend who was so fashion conscious about fanny packs; it was like a tie for him. He would not go anywhere without one attached to his waist. How about pogs? Don’t know what pogs are? Shame on you!
One fad that has always boggled my mind is grown men’s tendency to wear their pants halfway down their legs and display their underwear to the public as if it is a medal. They struggle to walk straight, yet the underwear must be showing, along with the assets it is supposed to cover, without shame or disgrace, in front of women and kids, friends and relatives. I can’t fathom the logic behind such a display. Does it really make them look so cool? Yes, I am talking to you, the guys that come to my business with their wife and kids in tow. One meme did explain it to me very clearly: “Easy access for the homies.”
Another equally obnoxious fad I’ve noticed around town is the tendency of some pickup truck owners to put this wall of bright lights on the front of their trucks and blind every driver in front of them or those going in the opposite direction. I am not talking about a bar of LED lights; I am talking about this oval of lights that comes at you like a river. These should be illegal, and we should increase the funding of our police to fight this crime against humanity. I mean, pickup trucks are obnoxious in their own right—I know because my wife owns one—but to equip them with these torture devices is just too much.
Speaking of obnoxious fads: Donald Trump. How many of us that voted for him, now feel ashamed that we supported him for all these years? He was our craze, our fling with the bad boy, which fizzled out once we realized that he was using us and abusing us for his own lust for power. He doesn’t love us. He doesn’t respect us. He doesn’t even care for anything that we stand for. It was all about him. Can we really see his poor behavior, and that of his weird and ridiculous cronies, and feel any sense of pride in picking him as our leader? He and his team are
so busy denigrating our system and insulting our fellow citizens, so busy in making us look stupid in the eyes of the world, so busy in spitting in our faces, that we must feel embarrassed at his feeble and pointless attempts to hang on to power.
Yes, it is time for this fad to go and it will go, come 20th January. I just hope that the next similar fad that comes along, will not take such a heavy toll on our dignity.
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