Prison Materialism – Part 1

It may surprise many people to learn that people in prison expend at least as much effort on their appearance as those who aren't in prison. From haircuts once a week, buying new clothes (and keeping the tags on) to ironing their clothes to go eat lunch. Not even like a date! Well, not usually.

I used to just assume I was surrounded by a bunch of latent homosexuals, and I really pitied them: not for being gay! But imagine being surrounded by all kinds of persons of interest and being so full of societal judgements and angst that you couldn’t pursue any of them. I felt bad that they must be so repressed and full of yearning. But I think they’re dressing and dolling up for all the fellas is actually a symptom of something much worse. I think what I’m seeing is a group of people plucked from society who were raised with consumerism in their mother's milk: still buying, still letting the clothes make the man, still "dressing for success". They remind me of those robot dogs that keep barking and moving their little legs when you kick them over, begging to play even when no one is around. It’s sad in so many ways. Not so much so that we can’t make fun of them though!

Most people in here never question who they’re getting dolled up for, who never wonder whose opinions are so important that they have to iron their gym shorts, who never ask why we are supposed to spend so much effort chasing after distractions. For those who don’t question, I’d guess they stopped reading somewhere between "latent homosexual' and "robot dog". But for those of us who are inquisitive by habit and feel a sense of understanding lets us have measure of control over ourselves, I think I may have dredged up some answers. I’ve tumbled this around my head over years as a stupefied observer, wondering who I’m supposed to be appearing affluent for or maybe that its some form of individuation or... there are lots of little goads that move us along, but really I think the root of all of this when the more obvious layers are peeled back is good old-fashioned American Consumerism.

Oscar Wilde said, "They have mistaken gain for growth." I’m inclined to agree. That tricky unseen hand of market keeps so many people feeling perpetually incomplete, anxious to acquire... it’s really so simple? That its only good programming that is driving so much greed and materialism? It would be a worthy question to ask it of the society that produced these people, but that is a huge question, and I am one man: a man purposely separated from society. It makes it harder to ask them.

What seems clear is that my peers around here are allowing everyone else to set their value, prescribing to the idea that they are only worth what they have, not what they are or could be.

Over the next few weeks, Ill post some relevant material and thoughts/ramblings that flow in the vein of this mindset that so dominates this world. Maybe... Maybe you’ll see some relevant analogies to the world out there. I can speak from here on this side of the fence: you really can’t take it all with you!