“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where–” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation. “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
-Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll
Maybe that’s where things went off. We just wanted to get somewhere, anywhere, and we thought we were on the path that would lead us to a better place.But with no map, wandering about following this idea and that concept, we’ve managed to make this world into a quagmire of nightmares and dreams. Johnny Panic runs rampant among us, and we stand around like Alice in the woods, trying to determine which way will not lead to our certain doom.
Today’s build is the Lego set “The Yellow Submarine”, based on the amazing movie featuring a bunch of really good voice actors that sounded very much like the Beatles. It was obviously a work of love by the designer, and as you can see, it’s really amazing. For a Lego build it was a bit more complicated than the Ecto-1, but a heck of a lot easier than that Delorean from “Back to the Future”. It’s even very playable, with enough room inside for all the minifigs and their items. I’ve even managed to plan out how it can be used in Brikwars effectively, in a minifig violent fashion.
But that last line might be the problem I’m having here. 1968. All we need is love. I’d like to give the world a Coke. It was the dawning of fellowship between different peoples. It was the beginning of a new world. We landed men on the moon. We began to pull out of Vietnam because we realized we really shouldn’t be over there. The last of the Boomers were moving past the old systems and striking out on their own.
What happened? How come when I look at this model on my desk, all I see is a failed realization of what could have been? The chance for it is gone and the world has been broken. Repairing it so we can be like we were 10 years ago is going to be hard, let alone 40 years. We have proven that with this last election. We have proven it by simply wandering into unknown territory, willy-nilly, without an understanding of the potential consequences. The true consequences that underlie the immediate situation.
Yes, I know most of the flower children’s dreams were stomped out when all sorts of issues happened in Berkeley. When Reagan had the People’s Park destroyed. When Skinheads started targeting the “hippies.” The Hell’s Angels security at the Altamont Free Concert. These things seemed to taint and undermine the new cultural wave of unity. As they moved into the 70’s and were integrated into the mainstream, the concepts seemed to take on a new feeling, less free and caring, more self-centered and focused on the individual. Not the individual in the sense of McGoohan’s Prisoner, not being absorbed into the collective masses, but more striving to gain everything possible and be above others at any cost.
More than likely this was due to the change in American culture. As Madeline Levine stated, “a shift away from values of community, spirituality, and integrity, and toward competition, materialism, and disconnection.” In consumerism, the trickle down theory actually works. The upper class’s tastes, lifestyles, and preferences have become the standard that all of us seem to strive towards. We attempt to purchase things that will improve our social standing, not things that will truly improve our lives.
Emulation is that core component that consumerism needs to thrive. Whether it’s the upper class we are trying to emulate by striving to achieve what we think they find desirable, or maybe it’s some subculture we are trying to ally ourselves with that requires some type of buy-in, we are all trying to emulate one another. At least on a materialistic level.
Maybe that same emulation is what is driving the Trump masses, with a religious zeal of belonging to a powerful crowd. Not one that utilizes the power for themselves but one that utilizes that power to give their leaders even more power and wealth than they already have. I think that perhaps these people are emulating the people in power because they think they will get the same power in return. I do believe, based on numerous historical situations, they will be unpleasantly surprised when the final outcome is seen.
But this model on my desk, this amazing, happy model that I wouldn’t give up unless I had to, makes me wonder. This model, the movie, the music all represented a time where people were more concerned about helping each other and enjoying life. Where did we wander off that path? Did the marketers say “Look over there. That is what you want to live, that type of life”? By making pet rocks and Jefferson Airplane t-shirts, and eventually leading us to a tea party that made no sense? Made no sense to anyone but themselves anyway.
This model is brilliant, and it shows a true love of the art of the movie and the music. But it feels like a flower in the middle of a parking lot. One that someone has put a box around and is charging money for people to look at it. It’s a trophy of consumerism, selling the carcass of the age of Aquarius, cut short by marketing, consumerism, and government rejection of open-mindedness.
Still looks damn good on my desk and the hell if I’m getting rid of it.