Kerfuffle.

Kerfuffle.
Cute, expressive little word, isn't it? Sounds like the name of a Smurf, or puppy. Come to think of it, I may actually name my future pup Kerfuffle.

For a long period of time, I believed that consumerism, materialism and even capitalism, were sustained by the big corporations of the world, that drove hordes of consumers to believe that having Nike shoes were necessary, that Boost was the secret of Tendulkar's energy and a Hallmark greeting card is the sweetest way to brighten up someone's day. They forced you into thinking that you could buy your way to success. To fame. The great paradox is that they made you believe you could buy your way to individuality. You reveal your own character through what you consume. Yes, the manipulative global biggies and news channels. 

Now that I think about it, the conflict between the conformists and non-conformists in every generation, the competition between members of society for status- that is what drives consumerism. This discord between antithetical persons is the turbine that powers the materialistic tendencies of all members of a capitalistic society.

An example:

You are in your teens. Little by little, you are beginning to understand the harsh realities that are operatives in the big bad world. You comprehend the paradox of religion, the paradigm of censorship, the mindlessness of mainstream sitcoms. But you feel saddled with the inconvenience of societal conventions and expectations. You want to escape, and discover the real meaning of life, and the relativity of it all. You oppose popular music, movies, books, cultural icons, and in fact, become an active dissenter of the same. You dig through all the rubble of pop-culture to find obscure bands and like them, read provocative literature, find symbolism in un-appreciated movies. You identify rebels in the prior generations, and those that live on the fringes of mainstream culture. They're the cool ones. They are not driven by the Versaces and Gatorades of the world. They find contentment in their Che t-shirts- the generic symbol for all things idealistic, rebellious, and iconoclasm. Their all black-avatars. Tie-and-dye shirts. The big glasses. 

So, you purchase that Che t-shirt. You get that post-modernist symbolic tattoo. You decide to wear just black. There is no colour in your world, is there?

You may not be rich enough to out-consume each other, but most definitely, you can out-taste each other. Your cleverly chosen, funny, quirky items of purchase define your authenticity in the blur of a mass-produced world. Those vintage 60s glasses. The vinyls. The DVD of the obscure French crime noir . The objectivists. 

Guess what?

You are just another member of the counter-culture that drives capitalism in the first place.You choose to look past the fact that there's someone out there making millions of bucks thanking God you think the way you do, and you choose to purchase the items that you do.

Conformism and non-conformism are inherently relative in nature, and highly subjective. People find their happiness in either. And they may choose to side with any, as long as they are truly happy with their choice. There isn't any wrong or right here. Never will be.
 All I know is that I sure enjoy digging into the kerfuffle of it all.