Packaged People

 Packaging functions to create curiosity, to attract, to inform, to contain and protect its contents from outside contamination, to protect its contents from certain degrees of impact or from spillage. Some packaging is punctuated with bright, high contrast color. Some wears the colors associated with its ethnicity, the red white and blue, the white and green.  In almost all packaging, the list of ingredients is the most obscured by small print and cryptic chemical names.

Is it my imagination, or are people more likely to “package” themselves, their children, and even their pets these days…t-shirts with messages, clothes touting designers, eye-glass frames festooned with identity, MAGA caps…packaging, designed to let others know what’s inside, and what isn’t…”Stupid” and “<—I’m with Stupid.”

My guess is that humans, however dull are much more complex than any packaging could describe.  "Identity" is a form of packaging. Apparently individuals can change "identity" at will. Turns out it not something you're just stuck with from birth, decided by others.

My identity is that of a cranky old white guy who is disappointed at how "stupid" the world and its inhabitants have turned out.  For example, I had expected faith-based religion and its unreasoned superstitions to be pretty much gone by now.  Turns out church membership and participation is declining, but the noise being made by the shrinking group is even louder, as populist politicians appeal to its mindless capacity for emotion.