Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Oh, hello! Hey, tell me honestly. Do these pants make my ass look too big? Or wait, maybe not big enough? Is it time for a little butt cheek augmentation? Or maybe a little liposuction to take away these love handles, at least; and perhaps while I'm at it, a nice tummy tuck. That can't hurt to even it all out! But wait, why should I stop there? Since I'm a bit too lazy to work on these pecs, perhaps some implants might be in order along with a nice minor neck lift. Of course, I'll have to do something about this male-pattern baldness, right? What's that? An eyebrow lift? No, I don't know if I want to look all alert all the time. Rather, I think I'm going to finish off with a plethora of Botox injections that tighten up these wrinkles. You know Botox, that chemical neurotoxin that temporarily paralyzes your nerves for the illusion of youthfulness? Marshall McLuhan once said that the last thing a fish would ever notice in its habitat is the water. Likewise, the most obvious and powerful realities of our human culture seem to also be the most unrecognized. It is only when we take pause, often at the risk of social alienation, to question the foundational principles and ideas to which our lives are oriented does a dark truth about our supposed 'normality' become more clear. Today, we live in an ocean with enormous waves of status obsession, materialism, vanity, ego and consumerism. Our very lives have become defined not by our productive thoughts, social contributions and good will, but by a superficial, delusional set of associations where the very fabric of our society now radiates with cheap romanticisms connected to vain competition, conspicuous consumption and neurotic addictions often related to physical beauty, status and superficial wealth. In effect, [it is] social conformity masquerading as individualism with the virtues of balance, intelligence, peace, public health and true creativity left to rot on the sidelines. The cultural water we inhabit today runs deep with heavy pollution. It starts in our formative years, where to be smart and achieving is to be a nerd, a dweeb or a geek with social praise instead relegated to those of accepted appearance, wealth and mindless brawn, reinforcing the idea that to think, know and challenge is to be ridiculed, while to uphold the status quo, conform to the ideals imposed by society is to be rewarded. At what point does that multi-billionaire with the 5 mansions go from being a peak icon of culturally accepted success to an example of a severe mental disorder amounting to compulsive addiction, in fact, where the billionaire is revealed as nothing more than a social abomination in disguise by their decision to hoard such excessive levels of problem-solving wealth for no other utility than mere ego status. But then again, we can't be too hard on them, right? For what they're doing is simply what they've been taught. Just as the religions you believe or the gaming strategies you use for survival are groomed and cultivated by the environmental condition of your existence, so are the many other waves of influence in this ocean of memes that comprise the zeitgeist of the time. So maybe we should start to question what it is we are actually trying to accomplish rather than complain and look at the social normalities of progress and success as they exist. I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to suspect that the new commercial lifestyle that has been touted by economists and historians as some marvel of human/social development is actually a hidden form of retardation: an unseen manifest-value distortion that is making us sick, antisocial, increasingly vain, ecologically indifferent and perhaps more and more malleable for the controlling factions of our society itself. Maybe, just maybe, our modern cultural strives for so-called 'success' itself are in fact not symptoms of social progress at all, but symptoms of a culture in decline. A new disease has struck America, rapidly moving across the world: a disease largely unknown in earlier periods and almost entirely unnoticed by those who carry it, a disease spread not by a physical virus or genetic predisposition but through cultural memes, ideas, ideas which are in fact infecting minds, growing and mutating in various strains, inhibiting the mental well-being of many. It's called C.V.D., Consumption-Vanity Disorder. It's a plague of modern society which not only pollutes the minds and values of those infected, it is also turning our world into a cesspool of mini-malls and self-image disorders, wasteful materialism and belligerent social transgressions. So, I've been working with these girls for a few years now. What many don't know about CVD is that many sub-strains or mutations have occurred. These women here suffer from H.G.S. or Hot Girl Syndrome. So, I see we have a few new faces here. Would anyone like to introduce themselves? I moved to Los Angeles a couple of years ago, and I... I started noticing weird changes happening to my body like my skirts started getting shorter and shorter, and... I started spending more and more on cosmetics and heels and cheap jewelery, and then the Botox injections started, and... I just couldn't stop. My lips got more and more pouty, and by the second or third buttock augmentation, I was looping DVD reruns of America's next top model and extreme makeover 24/7, dating one hot football star douchebag after the other and the next thing I knew I was on the cover of Vogue. - Ooooh! It's OK honey. I was on the cover of Vogue too. If we go back to the early twentieth century, we find a critical crossroad for industry, where the rapid technological advancement was beginning to challenge the most basic foundations of traditional economics and hence, social operation. You see, at the core of our socioeconomic system is 'Labor' and 'Demand'. Without product demand, of course, there is no need for production or employment; and without employment, the working public draws no income or purchasing power to buy the goods that keep the economy going. Early in the 1900s, a powerful expansion of productivity through machine application and mechanization, brought about something [that] industry really hadn't seen before: a goods surplus. A 1927 article in 'Nation's Business' conducting an interview with then-labor secretary James Davis, stated: "It may be that the world's needs ultimately will be produced by three days' work a week." Years later, engineer R. Buckminster Fuller described the phenomenon as being able to accomplish 'more with less', in that the energy, manpower and resources needed to accomplish particular goals was actually decreasing while the accomplishments themselves were accelerating. In other words, industry was becoming more technically efficient. However, pre-twentieth century America and Western society in general maintained an ethic of being frugal, overall. There was a conservative ethos where goods were obtained for their utility, a culture of needs, not excessive wants, and most people really didn't see the need to increase their consumption simply because they could. So, the ruling industrialists and social planners had a choice at this point. Either the system was to be adapted to this new 'more with less' productivity which could mean a rise in leisure time, a shortening of the work week and an adjustment of pay scales and good values to reflect this new-found abundance as need be; or, something more dramatic had to happen: the very underlying values and affections of the culture would need to be altered, where the very idea of consuming became a utility in and of itself to consume for the sake of consuming in order to maintain the status quo. Well, needless to say, given the very nature of capitalist philosophy the latter... What's that? Oh, right! Well, needless to say, given the very nature of capitalist philosophy, the latter idea was deemed to be the only rational option. The current ruling ethic of ever-increasing profit and gain by industry could not be compromised, so the alternative idea of working toward an abundance to meet human needs, enabling perhaps a level of personal freedom never before seen, maybe even flourishing a new period of enlightenment for human existence was rapidly cock-blocked by the interests of the ownership class; and the world you see around you, full of ever-increasing bullshit, vanity, materialism, waste, debt-locked wage slaves, conflict and impulsive, mindless consumption has been the result. The holiday shopping season got off to a violent start: a temporary Walmart worker was trampled to death by shoppers eager for post-Thanksgiving bargains. A mad dash into a Walmart store knocked shoppers to the ground near Grand Rapids, Michigan at 5 in the morning. Despite several people falling to the ground, shoppers charged ahead. Calm the F@#$ down! Push one of my peeps and I will stab one of you motherF@#$%*! Another incident here, a 28-year-old pregnant woman was knocked to the ground by that same crowd. Witnesses here at he scene say that woman actually suffered a miscarriage. In Southern California, shots rang out inside a crowded toy store. They say that a woman sprayed fellow shoppers. This actually happened with pepper spray.