Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
TUesday, June 21, 2005
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Bret Furtwangler | Graphic artist
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■ In my opinion
Store-bought happiness
it s the little ironies that sting the
most, and this one is a zinger. Today,
the headline on an MSNBC article
read, “Fake impotence drugs at center
of U.S. probe.” The sponsored links
next to that tasty piece of news were as
follows: “Suffering from Impotence?”
“Levitra Impotence Drug - Low Price”
and “VIAGRA PUNCH: Get Real Pfizer
Viagra Online.”
It’s nice to know that the hypocritical
nature of advertising is showing itself off
in a blatant manner. Unfortunately, U.S.
citizens still do not see or truly under
stand the harms of a nation built upon
the existence of a battle for the most ma
terial goods (“capitalism” if you will).
In this country, as well as else
where, many lives are built upon the
desire to achieve an image. The prob
lem is that those images are by their
very nature unachievable. Companies
do not strive to leave the consumer
happy, they strive to leave the public
constantly searching for more. Com
modities in the short term are just
building blocks used by advertisers to
keep people buying more. Why be sat
isfied with just a big screen television
when the happy family in the ad also
has the matching speakers?
Instead of consumers buying one
item and realizing that commodities
aren’t making them happy, they are
led again and again by advertising to
believe that their comparatively
mediocre lives can only be bettered by
obtaining every blender, workout ma
chine and kitty litter box owned by
those mystical commercial families.
It is a well known, proven concept in
psychology that money truly doesn’t
buy happiness. Although lottery win
ners are in the beginning more happy
than recently diagnosed cancer
._
AILEE SLATER
FURTHER FROM PERFECTION
patients, it has been shown that within
a relatively short period of time, those
amounts of happiness will even out. It
is within the evolutionary nature of hu
mans to find a level of contentment in
their current situations.
The plight of sick or disadvantaged
people should not be ignored, but it is
important to understand that there is
scientific proof that looking for joy in a
new SUV is comparable to learning
how to play the banjo or planting
a tree.
And the best part is that most people
already understand that fact; no one
truly believes that deodorizing himself
with a masculine shower gel will cause
random girls to rip off his clothes in the
middle of the street. But we continue
to believe the core value of the con
sumer industry; Ridiculous as the
products’ commercials may be, those
items will still bring us some amount
of happiness.
The problems within that idea of
happiness are themselves far-reaching.
Consumers have been taught that com
modities will make them happy, and
advertising usually shows a utopian
world that is certainly unaware of di
versity or the real world. Most impor
tantly, that pipe dream brought to us
by commercials has (understandably)
designed a utopia in which products
are treated like gods. Characters in ads
spend all of their time using and laud
ing material goods; families, relation
ships, and all other aspects of life are
important only when a product
is involved.
In modern times, the dream world
of commercials means that women es
pecially are persuaded to spend sick
ening sums of money on clothing and
makeup to overcome everyday sorrow,
while men save up to buy cars and at
tract the women they think they want.
Gay people are mostly non-existent,
and some racial diversity pops up
every now and then to fulfill
a stereotype.
Commercials make the real world
pale in comparison to ad-worthy
items. Too many fathers work full-time
jobs (instead of taking three days a
week to join a local tennis team, or
write a book of poetry) so that their
children can spend $10 more to buy
socks at the Gap, while their mother
loses out on her dream job because
she has to stay home and keep the
family’s accumulated stuff clean.
Of course, all of this is not unexpect
ed. The job of advertising is to sell
products, and the job of products is to
get themselves sold. It’s no joke that
the world as we know it would fall
apart without the consumer insistence
on vanity goods.
Can anything be done to end the
quest of people striving to find happi
ness where it can never exist? Perhaps
not now. But, once the United States
loses its status as the superpower,
peak oil hits and anarchy and terror
ism are the only things that survive the
ensuing nuclear winter, at least we’ve
got something to look forward to.
aileeslater@dailyemerald.com
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■ Editorial
Intoxication
often factors
into violence
and tragedy
The campaign against drinking and driv
ing has been national, international, long
winded and personal to many. However, in
light of recent events, especially those spe
cific to the Eugene community, it seems
that a different kind of campaign is swiftly
becoming necessary: One against the vio
lence and death that sometimes go hand in
hand with intoxicated actions.
On June 10, University student Phillip
Julian Gillins was attacked by at least one
man in an alley between Kincaid and Alder
street. After Gillins was struck by one of
the men, he fell onto the concrete, sus
tained serious brain injuries and died the
night of June 12 in the hospital. Gillins, his
two friends, his attacker and the attacker’s
friends had all been at a bar earlier that
night. The police are still searching for
Gillins’ attacker.
In a similar incident June 6, Scott Ynez
Caraveo, 42, died after Joshua Martin The
bo, 21, punched him in the jaw. Caraveo’s
head struck the sidewalk and he sustained
a fatal brain stem injury. The incident hap
pened at about 9:30 p.m. on Lincoln Street
near East 11th Avenue, and Caraveo died
approximately one hour later at Sacred
Heart Medical Center. Caraveo’s post
mortem blood alcohol level was .31, nearly
four times the legal limit for driving. Sgt.
Scott McKee of the Eugene Police Depart
ment said that Caraveo’s drunken state
made him more vulnerable to the impact,
according to the Register-Guard. No
charges were filed against Thebo; the po
lice said he acted in self-defense.
It is also widely assumed that alcohol
may have been involved in the death of
Joel Meyer, a University student who
drowned during a recreational trip to Shas
ta Lake May 29. Five to 10 kegs of beer are
reportedly present on each Shasta house
boat during the Memorial Day Weekend,
and the Lake sees a large and unfortunate
number of college students with medical
issues related to drinking. Alcohol often
acts as a lubricant to the series of events
leading to tragedy.
June 16 the Corvallis Gazette-Times re
ported that Shasta County officials had re
leased autopsy and toxicology reports for
Oregon State student Gina Zalunardo. Za
lunardo reportedly hung herself using a
sweater the evening of May 7 at Slaughter
house Island during a trip to Shasta Lake
with other OSU students. The toxicology
reports revealed that Zalunardo’s blood-al
cohol level was .14 and no drugs were
present in her system.
Alcohol may be a legal drug for those
over 21, but it is a drug nevertheless. When
used incorrectly, carelessness, irrational
behavior and violence can easily erupt,
and students need to remember these
facts. The good times brought to many by
alcohol can only remain so when users re
tain the knowledge that when it comes to
drinking, safety must come first.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Shadra Beesley Ailee Slater
Editor in Chief Commentary Editor
Tim Bobosky
Photo and Online Editor