If you want to get an idea of how out of whack our capitalist system is--the amount of useless wealth that is in the upper one percent of the population--thumb through WSJ. (The Wall Street Journal Magazine) published occasionally by the Wall Street Journal or the magazine, Departures, (created by American Express). These magazines show that designers are scuffling to create products that are pricy enough and odd-looking enough to attract the attention of the mega-rich. How else can some of those mega-bucks be pried loose?
The bs-factor (the opposite of authentic) is staggeringly high in these magazines. For example, on the inside cover-facing-page of WSJ. is a Cadillac coup being extolled with a quote from Henry David Thoreau. I ask you: What the #*!!&#! does Thoreau have to do with a Cadillac coup?
The magazines are about half comprised of full-page ads for name brand, high-end designer apparel, fragrances, private jets, jewelry and watches. The watches are the most obscene items costing hundred of thousands--even millions--of dollars and useless, as we used to say in the South, as a "broke-dick dog!" Of course the jewelry is obscenely expensive (and equally useless) but one expects that.
Naturally, there are plenty of anorexic, zombie models (two of whom forgot to put on their shirts) . . . some with scruff-bearded men breathing into their ears. Can there be any field more inauthentic than the high-end fashion field? Everything is about surface appearance which leaves out the entire inner human being. Surely this is the very essence of bs-shallowness.
Oddly enough, there are a series of full-page adds in WSJ. from The American Cancer Society, using various emotional trigger words to solicit donations. Not so odd, really . . . after all, the WSJ. is designed to pry bucks from the mega-rich. You have to wonder, however, at the inner conflict that could be caused by turning a page and going from coveting a 300 thousand dollar watch to being guilt-tripped into a 300 thousand dollar donation to the American Cancer Society!
There is some content in the magazines . . . articles about various artists, photographers, designers, actors, etc. . . . utterly boring. No article can compete for attention with a Cadillac endorsed by Thoreau!