- Omid-X to Hopesoo-Z (his companion on planet X) -
Oh my most venerable soulmate of past, present and future, since my last lunch with Henry a few weeks ago, I have been roaming aimlessly around France’s countryside, reflecting on my observations on earthlings. And I must say they are peculiar creatures. Furthermore, as I travel around and observe them, I realize that their customs and behavior grow stranger by the day.
Among these strange habits is their obsession with something they call ‘fashion’, which, not only impacts their clothing, but also their habits and lifestyle. It is very difficult for me to explain it but much of the population that has a better than subsistance living standards has become what I would call a ‘fashion victim’.
Historically, fashion applied to the garments that people wore, but as time went by and certainly in recent decades on earth, fashion took over every aspect of people’s lives. Furthermore, like a virus, it constantly changed nature, combination and even names. The term has now morphed into many alternative terms such as trend, fad, craze and so on and so on.
Some earthlings that I have recently talked to about this topic have told me that this movement has been extended into other domains and has accelerated with the advent of internet, and certainly the appearance of people called, influencers.
These influencers generally have shows on this internet network (for your understanding, internet is the same thing as Somatrans, developed a couple of centuries ago on our planet). During these shows, they talk about everything and nothing with the aim of having the maximum number of followers. As they grow in popularity, their influence grows as well and people want to do what these influencers do or say they do. As time goes by, these influencers get approached by businesses and are paid by them to promote their ‘thing’. And the followers gobble up everything they see and hear and are told by the influencer.
I find this whole process quite amusing. On one end, many earthlings want to be special and be valued as unique individuals, and not a commoner. Consequently they follow people who have this aura. They take these influencers’ advice about what to do, where to go, what to eat and what to wear so they can be ‘special’ and desirable. To the follower, these influencers are trend setters, thus they can lead them down the uniqueness path. Yet ….
On the other hand, these same influencers are promoting the same thing to everyone so, the search for uniqueness actually becomes a gathering of sheeps led by an influencer Sheppard dog, and these poor earthlings, in their search to be cool, have become fashion victims and trendiness addicts.
Your Omid,
From Aix-en-Provence, France - 10 July, 2024 (Earth)