You don’t say!
Bongi D D M Radipati | Monday December 26, 2022 06:00
Although this request is asked in jest, you are certainly not alone in wondering why some things are just the way they are! The following ordinary tales turn expectation on its heads and transform intuition into everyday reality.
Sometimes they propel us to belong in the present, while other times they transcend our age and flatter our image. Ultimately, though, through one or more of them, we are able to infer the service of beauty through taste and the service of utility through invention.
Spectacles Anywhere you look, you are compelled to acknowledge that beautiful people are already steeped in privilege by society.
They alone have beauty contests (other contests are always called something else!); we prefer to watch them on television or in movies; often they are in the front desks of offices, businesses, and wherever their beauty must meet our eye and to influence us, they advertise all types of wares.
But everywhere you look there should be (or there is) fewer of them than non-beautiful (plain?) ones. (If we were all beautiful, it would be illogical to have beauty contests, or other beauty-specific preferences!) Small wonder that there is a core branch of philosophy called aesthetics. Its aim is to grapple with beauty and taste, and how they are interpreted, valued and experienced.
The experts in this branch of philosophy typically are...you guessed right, beautiful! In the past, if you saw a person wearing spectacles, you ordinarily thought of them as being a librarian, or a person of authority or a highly educated or bookish person - all of whom were (or are) admired and aspired to.
Then, spectacles were supposed to be instruments by which we improved our sight, not an accessory! Reductively, nobody was expected to appear good looking in them, and nobody did! Now, these days, almost everywhere you train your eyes, you see beautiful people, as well, tending to wear spectacles. But worse, these beautiful people manage to be even more good looking with spectacles on, which for many of us, is usually an impossibility.
There is no better way to describe this than admitting that it is the empowering of the already empowered. And it is obviously unfair as it widens the beauty chasm between them and us! How do we respond to this uneven playing field? First, for credible reasons, we are drawn to the fashion sense of beautiful people and then adopt it for ourselves. Second, like philosophers, we too are seduced by beauty. In the end, we too are willing to pay a lot for the optics of spectacles. Se nthee!
Pickup truck In the beginning you acquired a pickup truck because you needed a pickup truck for various activities associated with your job, business or adult passion. In other words, you needed a pickup truck because being a utility vehicle, it was essential to what you did.
This could be farming, construction and manufacturing. Now a pickup truck is almost like a luxury car, with the accoutrements of a modern day high value sedan. It gets worse. Because of its gadgets, small trunk, loud engine sound, and the slickness of its appearance, you are often left wondering if it has not morphed from being a pretend truck incapable of hauling manual labour stuff, into being a Yuppie plaything. If it is the latter, reductively it would make its owners feel different (and attractive?) simply because of the sheer size of its design and appearance. Impressionistically, those who appear able to afford pickup trucks occupy a certain level of societal status.
Actually, it appears that they and the sellers of these pickup trucks ordinarily belong to the same high income level. Given this, the owners of these trucks could probably still get one of their SUVs and tear it apart for blue-collar work. But few car owners would ever want to subject something as expensive and luxurious as their SUV to that treatment. In any case, if you are really serious about a vehicle’s blue-collar capability and you are this new pickup truck owner, you could buy an old, used, cheap truck, and then completely rebuild it with strong, fit-for purpose, reliable parts that are specifically designed for the work you are willing to subject it to. But then, that would not be today’s pickup truck, and its owner would not be today’s manual worker. Heelang!
Backpack
You would not be wrong by judging this unassuming utility bag by its cover. And as with a trusted friend, and a play on its name, it literally has your back. In it you can heave all that you need, from your books to modern day devices to everyday useful stationery. But anyhow you consider a backpack, it really harks you back to your child's high school fashion sense and durability. So why are adults, who should know better, also hauling backpacks? Probably because, on close consideration, backpacks are optimal for carrying things, although they are generally associated with a casualness.
Indeed, if you have to walk around places, such as in a large shopping centre, or business district, or any other crowded or busy place, catch public transport, use public ablutions, move about from one meeting to another, and appear not to be carrying anything of great value, even for an adult, a backpack is an appropriate and a superior alternative to typical adult carriers, such as a briefcase or a wheeled luggage bag.
In this sense, a backpack acquires relevance through its usage within a certain social space. Looked at closely, and with an adult eye, backpacks are equal parts whimsical and practical - allowing old people, at times, to enjoy tiny adult pleasures, such as using the earphones of their gadgets through the backpack’s tiny top holes without being self-conscious about that! For adults who prefer them - and that number is continually rising - backpacks also convey an enlightenment fashion sense and an anti-snobbery statement.
Finally, they deliver a dose of acceptable adult fantasy: with them on your back, or by your side, you may be mistaken for being intellectual, which sometimes is the unspoken desire of modern adults. Wa rialo!
***Happy Holidays*** *Radipati is a regular Mmegi contributor