In a world where we are told to strive for success and push ourselves further, are we just being set up for a fall by ‘the-big-guys-in-suits’? As statistics take over the world and we all become obsessed with what the figures say I wonder if we are forgetting who we are.
Has our obsession with money gone too far? Perhaps we really are trying too hard to ‘achieve the unachievable’, resulting in us forgetting the important things in life. I was always told ‘Be nice to the little people on your way up because you’ll meet them again on your way down’ but as the gap between ‘the little people’ and ‘the top’ gets bigger I can’t see the two ever meeting again. If one was to fall from the top floor how long would it take before someone caught you, surely you wouldn’t have to travel all the way to the ground floor!
With shows such as ‘The Apprentice’ on television it’s no wonder people want to earn heaps of money in the easiest way possible. As far as television viewers are concerned you can earn yourself a cool £100,000 by simply selling a few flowers for more than you bought them and convincing a very rich man that nothing was your fault. In reality, of course, this is not the case, you have to work hard, make friends and ultimately be willing to lose everything for that one promotion.
Even in the day and age we live in I fear we have lost all sense of direction. Surely a generation which is so obsessed with reality shows couldn’t have lost all grip on the real world. Of course, in actuality, these ‘reality’ shows represent nothing more than a dream land we all wish to escape to, people who can get anything they want with a simple smile and celebrities bigger than their fake boobs. And for what? For us to get annoyed when their faces pop-up on the front cover of our favourite gossip magazines, claim we’re getting annoyed with these ‘undeserving’ celebrities and then tune in next week to see who kissed who.
I’m not saying we should not aim for the stars, and I’m definitely not saying we should refrain from watching all reality TV shows, lord knows I am a HUGE Made in Chelsea fan, but surely there is a way in which we can get what we want and still appreciate the finer points in life like a good friendship over rivalry. Can we really stop being a number without becoming one of ‘the-big-guys-in-suits’?
Alexandra Whittle 