I recently revisited this post and I’ve added some content below. This content may have already been posted in a newer blog entry, however, I think it important enough to add to this earlier work.
This goes hand in hand with observations I’ve become obsessed with – Americans are becoming more and more deeply rooted in vanity. We have the inability to grasp the concept that a choice we make isn’t necessarily the best choice, but we want to try and influence others that our choice is the best. For some folks, good isn’t good enough. Everything needs to be perfect. I have made it a hobby to watch the actions of others, especially those that are hell-bent on making sure their $25,000 car is as perfect as a hand-built exotic. There can be no small blemish on any consumable. Blemished items are discarded as unwanted trash. A slightly miscolored kernel of corn ruins the entire can of corn. A single run on a paint job is a travesty and demands refunding or major discounts. “I PAID HARD EARNED MONEY [spoiler alert: they did not work hard] AND THIS HAS A (almost imperceptible) 1MM SCRATCH (that can only be seen with a flashlight and a magnifying glass) – I WANT 50% OF MY MONEY BACK!”
If you care to participate in my new found hobby, try to open up your mind and allow yourself to escape the clutches of vanity – then, start paying attention to everyone around you, everyone you come into contact with. Start counting the number of people that obsess over the smallest detail (aesthetically). You will have more jaw dropping moments than you could have ever expected.
I began this journey as a classic car buff back in the 80s. I was brought into it by my father and later, by friends. I kept up with the trends, becoming one of the first to enjoy the hobby of detailing (true detailing, not the joke that the industry’s become) my cars and doing cosmetic work. Custom car stereos, custom paint, avoiding cheap accessories. What it’s turned into is finding pure and pristine barn units, with extreme low miles, spending 2x what the car was originally worth to “restore” it, or, begin building a $40k engine and doing swaps with modern drive trains to make the vehicle as powerful as absolutely possible – which in turn allow these cars to take prizes in the car shows, which drives away the weekenders working on a budget.
We have went from being a society where only the 1% elite rich could afford perfection to the majority DEMANDING perfection at every turn. Buying “sub par” because that’s what we could afford and living with it has turned into buying sub par and demanding that perfection exist. Seeking the most economical (cheapest) contractor’s bid on a project, only to DEMAND perfection in their work.
Additional Content:
As a real-world example of what I am going on about……
Someone close to me has a deeply ingrained streak of vanity. To the point, this person’s significant other probably died because of it. No, it wasn’t due to direct malice (probably), however, driving someone so hard that they work themselves to death to support someone’s mental issues (their drive for perfection) could be considered a cause of the affliction that resulted in their death. In other words, a woman was so hard on her husband, demanding better and better, that he worked himself into a heart attack and died while engaging in related activities. Rather than hiring out the work to someone else (because he could in fact do the work), he did it ALL BY HIMSELF (on another side note, no affordable contactor could be hired to do the work to her satisfaction). She was constantly on his ass to do more and more and better and better. Not a piece of lint could be found in a finished painted wall, else, it must be sanded and repainted. No one else would give a fuck whether that piece of lint existed or not. Just because she had to have it perfected, doesn’t mean he should have catered to her. No one’s desire for perfection is worth your failing health. While this may seem like a minor inconvenience to you, when it’s done over and over on every single thing, it becomes an issue. It’s toxic and it has consequences.
Further, considering my “blemish” statement above, and again, I think I went on about this in a newer blog post….
I watch a lot of documentaries. In the background, when I am working, I sometimes allow “Modern Marvels” to play on the television as ambient noise. On one of the episodes, they were covering “canning foods”. As a side issue that I picked up on, they described the same cannery only allowing “x” number of blemished kernels of corn to be packaged for one particular brand. When the number of cosmetically blemished kernels reached a certain threshold, other labels (generic) were applied and sold at a lower price point. Same product, same nutritional value, just with slight imperfections, to satisfy the vanity of some consumers. As far as taste goes, if you did a blind taste-test, no one would know. Only when you see the blemished kernels would some folks have negative feelings about the product.
Continuing on….. sugar (from cane or sugar beets) isn’t white, it’s actually a light shade of brown (not to be confused with “brown” sugar, which is sold as “brown” sugar – that’s a slightly different process, and the end result is a different taste). Actual “white” sugar that is widely used, is bleached, to make it more visually attractive to the consumer. It has nothing to do with the quality, only vanity.
Do I want bruised apples? Well, of course not, because it changes the taste and texture. That’s not the point. The point is, if it doesn’t affect the flavor, the texture, and the nutritional value is the same, aesthetics doesn’t matter to me. By allowing aesthetics to play a part, we drive up the cost of everything. Perfection comes at a price.