When did they figure out what everyone wanted?

Seems there's a store everywhere catering to every subculture out there. You've got your store for indie kids, and hardcore kids, and punk kids, metal kids, rich kids. Everyone's got their place to shop, to buy exactly what they want. They've found a way to capitalize on our differences, especially those who want to be on the fringes. They've created admissible images for everyone. Everyone has been trained to dismiss anyone outside of those boundaries as childish, juvenile, immature. They played up the same looks and the same styles so long that what was once done out of disgust with homogeny has become a status quo, people have become used to what once disturbed them in terms of stylistic choices. We've hit a point where the conveniences of this world have whittled our ability to chose for ourselves into a sharp edged knife with which to cut out our individual style and personality. And no one is doing it to us, we're doing it to ourselves.

I was thinking about this and I can't help but bring it all back to analogies of my life. I buy a band shirt, not just because it looks cool, but because in buying that shirt I'm helping someone I believe is doing something right to continue to do it. Every dollar I contribute gives them another chance to keep doing something I believe in. I want that to become the ethos for all my financial decisions. To only contribute to people that I can agree with in some significant way. It means it may take longer for me to purchase something, I may have to put in more work towards it, but it would be worth it to know I'm contributing.

Now though, there are people out there doing just that. They're doing research, they're scouring the internet stores, they're talking to friends and buying one of pieces, making their own. Their building their own style. I commend them, those that try, those that think. I hope more people think about where things are from and what it means to buy and consume and use what they do every day.