Aram Extinction

Starting today, I will no longer be using Myspace. I feel that I am spending too much time on this website, time I could be devoting to what is real in life - to my friends and loved ones, to walking in the woods, to protest, to writing, to music. Myspace is a supremely depressing phenomenon to me, and I do not want to buy into something I feel is fundamentally sick. The very premise of Myspace - a competition to collect the most and coolest friends - is artificial and unhealthy. When I look at Myspace, what do I see? I see the worst in people. I see pictures taken at calculated angles to expose "the best side," to cover up the flaws, to slim down, to emphasize breasts and muscles. To objectify oneself, to totalize oneself into a labelled commodity - punk, emo kid, hipster, crusty. I see an entire generation desperately trying to appear original, to break away from the dehumanization of modern life, while at the same time grasping onto a trend or image. In every survey bulletin I see a desire to be understood, to bewanted, to be seen as human, unique. I also see unspeakable superficiality, to the point that Myspace groups exist which only approve people for membership on the basis of their trendiness and looks. That is not the way human beings should act. We are more than this. I don't want to be part of this any longer, even if only as a spectator. This isn't life. This isn't communication. Something is lost when we cease talking to other people and communicate instead with internet personas who have little or no connection to who we really are.
If you want to contact me, talk to me on AOL Instant Messenger. I realize this, too, is an inhuman method of contact. Such are the times we live in. Nevertheless, I feel that AIM has the advantage of allowing two people to develop an understanding of each others' personalities without the detriment of pictures and blurbs. My screen name is Thus Spake Aram. Better yet, write me a letter or meet me in person.
I hope this reaches those it is meant to reach.
In peace and love, Aram.
It saddens me that most life is fraught with misery. Even for those lucky few in the first world with their basic material and physiological needs fulfilled, the misery of psychological and spiritual unfulfillment and the boredom of the "daily grind" oppresses them. In the richest nation on earth, there is a permanent underclass unable to free themselves from the oppression of a cycle of violence, poor education, and drug abuse, frequently originating in racial or religious prejudices, which has forced them into ghettos, public housing projects, and trailer parks. We aren't talking about a group of shiftless indigents unwilling to work - even those able to find jobs are by no means guaranteed a large enough wage to provide adequate food and shelter for themselves and their families. Capitalism is based on the idea that anyone can "succeed." It is evident that there is a systematic failure when so many are never given the chance to escape their dire situations. Hard work no longer equals success. It hardly even creates the means to survive. Meanwhile, a malignant cultural machine projects an endless stream of sexualized, materialistic, and misogynistic ideals which we are told we must attain or be considered defective or ugly. Advertising and entertainment play on our fears of rejection and failure to coerce us into buying into a vacuous, hedonistic, and competitive consumer culture. The corporations which produce the goods we buy are increasingly reliant on the poverty, and hence, low cost of labor, in Asia, South America, and occasionally Africa. This poverty is perpetuated by the low wages these corporations - or the factories to which they contract - pay their foreign workers and the massive political power big businesses wield. The people of the third world have even less recourse than the American poor to escape their situation. As a result of the demands of industry, commerce, and an ever-increasing human population, the trees, lakes, and fields of the earth are being systematically clear-cut and paved over to make way for still more factories and characterless shopping centers.
Still, life is basically beautiful.
For these and other reasons, I'm a radical. I reject the idea that one must choose between destitution and a meaningless life of materialism and dehumanization. Nothing can really improve under capitalism. I'm against hierarchy and unnecessary bureaucracy, and I identify myself as a libertarian democratic socialist, with the caveat that I also believe in the existence of the state.
I'm more than the sum of my political beliefs. I'm a 17-year-old college student. I don't do drugs, I don't drink, I don't eat animals or animal products. I don't live my life in the fear of god. I hate malls. I like wearing black bandanas. I was born in Butte, Montana, but sometimes I tell people I was born in Umea, Sweden. I lived in Eugene, Oregon before ending up in Johnstown, PA. I dance in my dorm room with the blinds closed. Sometimes the blinds aren't even closed. SMOG shows are really lame. I like to mosh. When I put things in the microwave, I make sure the seconds digit ends in a prime number. I need more CDs and LPs, but I'm too broke to buy them. I'm a sucker for anything that sounds like Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I love coffee. I alternate between being withdrawn and shy and being brash and outgoing. I don't wear deodorant. I don't shower every day. I smell like me. Sometimes I sleep with my feet at the top of the bed. I love you.
I don't have any songs in my profile. I'm always listening to good music and then I browse onto your myspace page and am assaulted by Green Day. I fucking hate that, and you probably hate it too. If you want to hear what I listen to, there are some good bands in my "Top Friends" list.