The fight against aging is just like another drug with which consumers destroy themselves.
The dream of immortality has become a mass-produced fantasy.
Over the last 100 years, people have bought a slew of snake oil treatments and bathtub cures. Believing that it is possible to maneuver around the inevitable physical flaws that the passing of time creates to our bodies. The marketing of products and techniques that claim to remedy the processes of aging is a $100 billion industry. It continues to climb. People are filling perfectly good faces with bacterial-made deadly toxins, having surgeons perform multiple invasive procedures that they don’t need. Popping every pill on the Internet that proposes results they usually cannot achieve, such as maintaining a “four-hour erection.”
The existence of this rapidly expanding market is undeniable. It’s out there, in front of us all the time, product after product after product, different names but the same basic construction. I call this the Soap Box Effect. A salesman stands on a rickety platform and loudly boasts about his new wonder tonic to a crowd, who are frightening in their gullibility. Ten feet away is another salesman, kicking up dust about his new and improved wonder tonic. This craziness stretches back years: at circuses, fairs, bazaars– a barker calls out another potion, a salesman tries to snare another buyer– except today’s advertising gurus can reach millions with their products in only seconds. In a way, this kind of power is dangerous.
That is what the aging fixation has done to us; it has altered our thinking patterns so that we put the importance of beauty before risk, leaving the consequences for the aftermath.
The physical image of beauty will not change in our lifetime. It is ingrained in our minds. It would take centuries to undo the perception that has been forced upon on us since birth, if it were at all possible.
A physical image is currently being presented to the public that defines beauty. Our eyes bend towards symmetry. Someone– such as a woman — becomes more appealing to us if she has the perfect shape, the right curves, and a surface free of imperfections. Think about picking out an apple at the grocery store, sifting through bruised, unwanted fruit as we carefully search for the ripest, shiniest one in the bunch. This same selection process takes place between men and women around the world. We strive to keep our teeth whiter, our skin blemish free, and our bodies toned and lean. In the hopes of boosting our chances of being picked by that special someone.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to do these things. You should do them if you believe you can keep your body healthier. It is good to feel attractive, it boosts confidence, and staying fit benefits our physical and mental health. But some people overdo it. When does aging become an obsession?
