Business
An entity that seeks to purchase your allegiance.
Businesses have historically sold products, however since the advent of formalized marketing models, they currently barter in NARRATIVES. If a business can correctly identify a human niche that can be exploited, they can construct a brand or image that will incline us to seek it out with an implied promise that our anxieties associated with exclusion will be mitigated. We will belong to something bigger; we will avoid being alone. Once our allegiance has been procured, the quality of their products is no longer part of the equation. We seem fine with this arrangement.
As time progresses, we maintain our brand allegiances because we feel beholden to the comforts and status associated with whatever is popular. We do not value our time, which means we do not value the money it earns us, and we are merely waiting for the next business to acquire our ALLEGIANCE. A product need not be reliable, retain value, be functional, or even be aesthetically pleasing, so long as it makes us feel like less of an outcast. It is clear that our relationship with businesses is an illusion due to how willing we are to transfer our allegiance to the next big thing, and so the promises of belonging are obviously fallacious.
When a civilization is experiencing an identity crisis, we are far easier to prey upon because we are desperate for a sense of stability in the world. The remedy is to discover who you are, be yourself and cooperate with a broader community in shaping one another on terms that are honest, clear and as close to approximating wisdom as possible.
No strategies can guarantee a sense of belonging, but it beats having your identity intertwined with a business or a product. The only thing worse than this is being defined by an IDEOLOGY.
Posted: 30 Dec 2022
