If you’re studying political science, there’s a chance you’re going to become a bit of a paranoid. Your mind, striving for knowledge, finds itself flooded with conspiracy theories, false consciousness and the inability to think for itself. Big Brother’s eye—watching, analyzing and most importantly, guiding—seems much more realistic from the high windows of the academic ivory tower.
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When you leave the academia and join the ‘evil forces’ of the free market, the paranoia releases its grip a little and you start to understand, consent, and even collaborate.
Every now and then you’ll hear faint voices from the past, in various contexts, warning you: Beware, conspiracy ahead!
I get this feeling occasionally when I surf websites that identify new trends. It‘s hard to complain when your job requires you to be updated on all the latest global trends. Hard, but not impossible.
A paranoid surfer will find it hard to ignore the sneaking suspicion that all these trend sites have joined forces into one ruthless monopoly that tries to persuade us, as hard as it can, that it is only here to identify, when, in reality, what it does is dictate. Marginal phenomena are defined as growing trends with great social and economic potential.
The persuasion process is cyclical: the industry, determined to reveal the next best thing (although it doesn’t always have the courage to adopt it… but that’s a topic for future posts), begs to be told what it is; the trend prophets have their say; the marketing and advertising firms pump up the volume; the consumer listens, and like a well educated proletariat, does what is expected and makes a purchase.
But what came first? The trend or the prediction? It isn’t obvious, and it might not even matter at all. Part of growing up is facing the fact that you’re better off leaving conspiracy theories on campus and jumping into the water (albeit very shallow) of the trend industry.
Because, no matter how you look at it, being trendy pays off. Being innovative in the world of trends is even more advantageous. Finding those places ‘inside the box’ that have yet to be conquered, but have been identified as trend-controlled zones, is a demanding, never ending, but very rewarding task.
So even if you are convinced, like I am, that somewhere out there, a committee of people of means and interests dictates the next trend, you might as well listen to its verdict, if only for stimulus. The path leading from there to new ideas is a fascinating one. In the following posts, we’ll walk down this path together.
