The Boo Crew

About 4 years ago around Halloween-time, I listened to the song "Thriller" by Michael Jackson too many times…




…and watched the video too many times. The product was this:

A "zombie-nerd" costume and a dead-eyed stare into the camera. I'd say I at least played the part pretty well. I couldn't have just dressed up as a zombie without a theme, I wanted to be something more resulting in a zombified schoolgirl. I had made up no backstory of how I'd been turned into a zombie, I hadn't been watching "The Walking Dead" or anything like that. My costume was entirely inspired by a pop song from 1982. I had even ripped my shirt and poured blood all over my clothes and face.




As for my brother and sister, my brother had started the night wearing a clown mask but had gotten weary of it so I came to the rescue with makeup and red "hair dye". My sister was a "zombie-rockstar". We even had a dance routine to "Thriller" worked out in case we decided to have a mini flash-mob in the streets (we had both been listening to the song quite a bit and were quite into the characters we had chosen for the night). We didn't end up following through with the dance; I felt we wouldn't be as good as Michael Jackson himself.

Plunged Into the Role of an Outsider

Two years ago, I moved from Nevada to California. I was shifted from an environment in which I knew everyone into an area where I was surrounded by strangers who had grown up with each other. It was an immediate alteration from the life I was used to; instead of seeing familiar faces everywhere I looked, I was engulfed in a sea of strangers. In Nevada, I knew all my peers and there were the occasional newcomers, but here I was the new one.

Lucky for me, I'm not an only child and did not have to face this obstacle alone. I have my siblings by my side wherever I go and whenever I try something new; they are always there to support me and be my friend when I have none. They helped me to introduce myself to people and make new friends, but until I made connections with the people of California, I wasn't alone.

If I hadn't had my siblings to back me up, I would've felt inferior, less confident and much more intimidated about the situation of moving to a new state although, at the same time, I would've been forced to make new friends because I wouldn't have had a brother or sister to keep me company.

When placed in the situation of an outsider, you experience what you wouldn't normally feel comfortable with and learn more about yourself. I met new friends and bonded with my family; my insight into what being "the other" is like was a positive one, although if I was constantly put in similar situations, I'm not sure they would all have a positive effect. The experience of not fitting in can be found under many circumstances, and positive life lessons aren't always found from those.

Inequalities Here to Stay

In Kurt Vonnegut's satire "Harrison Bergeron", he overemphasizes the inequalities of people and to what lengths some may go to to fill the gap between those who are different from others and those who are ordinary. For example, in the story those who are smarter than others wear mental handicaps, while more good-looking people are forced to wear masks. Eloquent, well-spoken beings have to disguise their voice and people are assigned weights based on their strength. This is all meant to remove competitiveness and to make everyone equal; but how can people be equal if the handicaps are visible and they therefore know that the other person is better than them somehow?

However much exaggerated, Vonnegut's story gets to the point; no matter what we all have our differences. Try as we might to hide them or change them, they will set us apart. Our differences lead us to our successes as well as our failures, both of which we celebrate, as they make us who we are. Without inequalities to set us apart, we have nothing to strive for, no goals. Life would be a long race with no prize at the finish line. Either that or a race that you train long and hard for and went up against someone who was untrained; say you got first place and they place last. You both get the same reward for an unequal amount of effort. Make sense?

If we reward children equally in sports, as shown in this article, we teach them that life will be like that when they grow up. That no matter what they do, even if they slack off, they end up in the same place as the kid that works the hardest. No matter what life was like in "Harrison Bergeron", that isn't not realistic, and we have to raise kids to be prepared for the real world and not to take life for granted.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses...

If the hypothesis were offered in a world which [...] millions [should be] kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torment [sic] [...] even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain?

This week I read a story titled The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, in which an entire city's happiness was dependent on the complete unhappiness and suffering of one child. This quote inspired the story, questioning if such a simple thing as happiness for all people was really worth the eternal suffering of one person and if all people would really achieve complete happiness if they had the guilt of knowing that they had caused never-ending misery for that one being.

Try as we might to ignore the fact; sweat-shop conditions exist in areas all around the world. It may not be anywhere near you, but I can guarantee you that they helped produce a product that IS very near you. Some of us may be aware of it, some may not be. Those people who are unaware remain ignorant;

Whatever the case, we don't do much about it, making this our own version of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, one person suffering for everyone else's happiness, in this case many people suffering for our happiness from the products they produce; we either go on with our lives using the product we are supplied by the labor or decide that the product isn't worth what those people have to endure and we do without it, not fighting for those undergoing the sweatshop-like conditions but not supporting it further. 

Everyday I use my phone/laptop and my car which were surely manufactured by these conditions. I justify this by telling myself that I need my  phone to communicate with the people in my life and to do my schoolwork (my school requires a laptop and/or phone to turn in homework). As for my car, I could use other means of transportation to get where I need to be, but on a daily basis it's far more convenient to drive to my destinations. 

There are some products not necessary in my life that I don't approve of and that I don't feel are necessary to have in my everyday life. Certain clothes I feel I don't need, I go without and, in doing so,  I'walk away from Omelas'. Other people do the same thing and we may feel that this makes a difference, but it really does not. We aren't actually doing anything to make a difference and fight to help the people affected by the circumstances of the sweatshop-like conditions.