Mile High Post.

This is something I wrote while en route via airplane to good old western New York.

I'm standing in the security line of the airport this morning. A guy of 20 years or so was standing in front of me. He had a bright white t-shirt and on the front it read, in big red all-capital letters "YES I AM A DOCTOR." You've seen these shirts, the one ones with random oh-so-clever lines. Maybe you own one -- and that's fine. I look behind me. I see a boy maybe 13 or 14. Young, eager, confused and trying not to show it. Maybe I'm projecting. He's also got a t-shirt with some cheeky line (that now fails me).

It's easy to see how they nuetralize each other. What was a punchline, a way to standout, is now just a syllable in the societal summary. These t-shirts were mass produced and marketed and these two people both went for it. If the shirts weren't mass produced they wouldn't be wearing them.

Style is bought and sold. Consider the collegiate look at only 80 dollars an article. The marketing campaigns were so successful that in no time the style reached critical mass and another refreshing of the wardrobe at no small cost becomes some kind of necessity. So they rough it up. Now we'll sell bohemia to the masses , they say. And in one christmas season everyone is talking the talk and a few take it all the way to drugs and debauchery. But hey, "we only meant to sell the clothes."

Ever notice how the more expensive the brand the fewer they have in stock? It's not like they cost more to make or are somehow of higher quality. But having fewer on display creates a simulated lack of quantity. It allows the consumer a sense that they are unique, somehow outside the system of marketing.

My good friend Kristin is a real authority on these things. The tipping point she tells me, is Andy Warhol. He sold individuality in mass quantities to people desperate to be different and willing to pay for it.

I think advertising will take you over if you don't realize thats the point. And when you do realize thats the point the consumer decisions you make become a choice.

Thinking about free will, t's a fascinating dynamic. A lack of knowledge means a lack of awareness regarding what choices you have which is a lack of free will. Once you attain that knowledge you are forced into making a choice, again a lack of free will.

Still... I dont think thats all there is to it.