A rchive Date
[ 04-06-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[The golden age of me, me, me!
By LINDA WILLIAMSON Toronto Sun February 13, 2000
This being the weekend of the great annual, misguided Valentine extravaganza, it seems as good a time as any to question the growing crassness around us.
Exhibit A - that ad for a national furniture chain featuring a garish-wigged, sparkle-toothed Cupid who advises lovers along the lines of: "Jewelry and flowers just won't cut it, pal ... you want to impress your sweetie, think quality home furnishings."
Romantic, eh? Wasn't it Shakespeare who said, "Nothing says lovin' like a brand new oven"?
Now, as one who has no use for Valentine's Day (and, yes, I do have a Valentine), I'm not offended in the least by this, since it's only fitting for what may be the most crassly commercial holiday of the year. (Overbooked restaurants serving rubber chicken dinners, anguish-inducing gifts, overpriced flowers, stale candy ... what's to like?)
No, what troubles me more is the proliferation of this attitude in most every other aspect of our lives.
I first noticed it around Christmastime, when there seemed to be a plethora of ads hinting that the very best gifts are those one keeps for oneself. To heck with friends and loved ones.
The trend continues. A Toronto couch company has magazine ads featuring a defiant woman saying something like, "He left me. Good riddance - I got the sofa." A new online shoe retailer's ad shows a child's empty bedroom, with the slogan: "Leave the kids at grandma's - permanently. Make room for shoes."
And now that we're into RRSP season, you can't watch TV for five minutes without being prodded to get smart and get rich.
Speaking of TV, did someone say Who Wants to be a Millionaire? We all know why we watch that show. And it's not to share in the joy of Everyman as he demonstrates his trivia prowess on his way to well-deserved wealth. Admit it - we watch to assure ourselves we're smarter than the assortment of geeks who appear. We could be millionaires, and, darn it, why aren't we? It's all about those great deadly sins, envy and Greed, which just happens to be the name of another wildly popular series that's a direct ripoff of Millionaire (which is itself a shameless steal of a British series, as so much American TV is).
ULTIMATE GREED-FEST
Women, I should note, are no more innocent in this trend than men, though they remain noticeably scarce on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Still, there was no shortage of gals crass enough to line up and compete for the Fox Network's ultimate greed-fest, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? (I kid you not), in which the "winner" weds a rich stranger in Las Vegas.
Recently, one of our national newspapers - not the one usually accused of being mean-spirited, either, but the other one - got in on this act, with a self-promoting ad telling readers it could help them "become rich enough to be despised." It went on: "To those of you satisfied with your lot in life, our condolences."
Even street fashion's gone tough, mean and decadent, with stiletto heels, board-stiff dark denim and leather pants making a fierce comeback. Sorry, animal rights types - real fur is in with a vengeance, and the hottest accessory is a pashmina, made from fibres combed from the belly of all-but-extinct Kashmiri goats. (I've never actually seen a pashmina - but whatever it is, you must have one and they cost $400.)
Call it irony and smugness run amok. Call it the obvious result of a dominant American culture where new dot-com billionaires are being created every day.
We could analyze all this to death. We could wonder about what values this new materialism teaches our children. We could even worry about where this hard new edge will lead.
But of course, that would be silly.
No, making a fool of yourself or turning on your teammates so you can win a few thousand bucks on a game show is not mean-spirited. Demanding that squeegee kids not be allowed to extort from panicked drivers in the middle of the night - that's mean.
This is Canada, after all. Here, raking in billions and blowing it without a care in the world is the job of governments, not average folks. Suggesting that taxes be cut, streamlined, made more fair or - heaven forbid - simplified so everyone pays a flat, fair rate ... that's nasty.
Wasn't it our own prime minister who said, "You want to be a millionaire, move to the States"?
It's enough to break your heart.
Linda Williamson is the Toronto Sun senior associate editor. She can be reached by e-mail at lwilliam@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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