Culture Trend

I have been completely socialized these past 10 days. I have seen/been around/talked with more people in this space of time than in moat of the past year. I noticed two very overwhelming cultural trends/fads (I think trend is a better word, because fad indicates that it is a passing freak of style or popular, whereas trend tends to imply a deeper root cause/reason for the outburst of whatever may be currently popular).

First, is a culture of death. We all know the stereotypes of Emo, Goth, etc, etc. It goes beyond black hair/chains and makeup. I would like to know one thing I have not seen decorated or in a motif without a skull (or skulls) or skull-and-crossbones, or some type of visual representation of death. Tattoos, clothing, chains, jewelry, fingernails, bandannas, sunglasses....even underwear! (Hey, when they don't know what a belt is for, I can't really help but see...not that I had a choice or that is was in any way shape or form at all anywhere near possibly tolerable -- yes, that is a lot of adjectives and adverbs). It has been so trivialised, that it is included in everything. There are even little pink skulls decorating children's T-shirts.
I remember when my grandparents bought a pair of little boys swim shorts for my younger brother. They were typical tie-died blue Hawaii board shorts, decorated with hibiscus flowers (yes, for boys!). When it was given to him, mother grabbed it up and looked at it closely. Something very hard to see at first, but the pistil of the hibiscus, instead of being little dots of pollen, was a miniature skull!!! I remember being quite horrified that something so ugly would decorate any article of clothing, much less pollute a flower....or be substituted for one!!
However, it is now SO commonplace, that even classy, or "upper-middle-class" people think nothing of donning this insignia and it has even become a "fad". The best way to pollute the meaning of anything is to make it popular. Even well-to-do people who came in with $100 bills in their pockets wore them.
We are now surrounded by a culture of death. Life is so meaningless, so useless, so purposeless.... Satan is more than glad to dominate Hell and Earth and bring more people to end their lives by desensitization to such gross paraphernalia, and then embracing it.

Second, is a culture of fake. Everything is made in China. Use it once and you have to buy another. Fake nails (it took them 3 times as long to pick up change...not to mention fake nails are just SO pitiful...because there is no way anyone other than a blind person could not see that they are FAKE!!!), fake hair (this applies to the dyed and the add-ins and the dreads), fake body (fake plastic even? Agh! Don't ask!), fake tan (orange anyone?), fake height (heels or a slump), fake smile (as in...this is a situation wherein I must look like I am amused), fake suave (bling and slicked hair), fake posture/presentation (sunglasses : see other post for a note on those).....even some people have a fake gender!!!!!! (I will probably remember those two very STRANGE "women" for a very long time... *nightmares*)
Makeup masks the true self into what you see painted on a billboard. You change yous height and hair to attract fake love. You talk cool and swagger and show your underpants to attract fake honor..... It is a cruel downward spiral. Yet, it all means nothing.

It overwhelmed me. Completely shocked me and made-me-take-astep-back-and-try-to-understand.

The people of York City need life
They need something real.

Am I here to show it to them?