Victims wanted

Fashion inspires philosophy and cynical observations on society. The author proposes that fashion is not dictated by any particular public tastes of the day, but rather what is the most effective trend in psychological control of the public.

The Mandarin Chinese, to this author's understanding, promoted the fashion of growing long fingernails and for women to tie and train the bones in their feet into stunted, malformed stubs. This rendered both sets of extremities, hands and feet, useless.

In the palace of Louis XIV, courtiers were constantly in competition with the Sun King's regalia to the point that their provincial coffers were drained to purchase the latest and most stylish finery, thus leaving little funding for the defense of their provinces. This was, some speculate, a calculated strategy on Louis' part, to render the provinces militarily (barring successful infatuation of his subjects) vulnerable to his will.

Fashion is in more direct use in modern times by the manipulators:

Leading up to an anticipated war, military fatigues and camouflaged clothing patterns become abundant on civilian store shelves. Is this predictive programming?

During this author's last visit to a well known discount superstore, several of the clothing racks were laden with t-shirts in bright yellow, bright orange and black bearing such text as "Prisoner #12345," and "Property of County Corrections." Is it fashionable in some circles now to be a prisoner? Considering certain "continuity of government" plans and mass detention facilities popping up around the country, many of us ought to get on board now to acclimate ourselves.

Body piercings, dyed hair, chains, tattoos, black clothing: the "goth" look may be hyped by popular culture as an expression of individualism, but what MTV doesn't tell us is that police are trained to alert to such costumes and accessories as code for illicit drug use. Anyone in this subculture can tell you how prone to police harassment they are, and how they have no clue why.

For the hip-hop crowd, sagging pants, shoes without laces and overly large shirts may be in, but this style is derived from prisons: no belts or shoe laces allowed, and prison attire is often a poor fit. Again, this particular trend seems to be predictive programming for life as a prisoner.

Intentionally faded t-shirts and well-worn mustard washed jeans coupled with a "messy" hair style? Great sums of money are poured into achieving a casual, laid-back look that would appear to the uninitiated as dirty and unkempt. This author has seen jeans retailing at a national clothier for over $50 that appear to have been worn by a homeless person for several months. Given the current economic crisis, could this fashion segment be predictive programming for when most everyone IS actually homeless and in poverty?

Fashion is rarely an accident, and when it is an accident and flourishes, it is because that particular fashion serves a social control-manipulation goal. There are countless more examples than observed in this article, but the point should come across that the modern trends are disturbing. They tell us that what is popular is being an IMF mercenary, being a prisoner (slave), being a drug user, being poor, being a man-child and so on. Yet we are obsessed with fashion (this author has even fallen victim to a few).

There is a responsibility (rarely realized and often corrupted by lucrative corporate agendas) for image makers to lead their society away from this method of control. To design, to stimulate the eyes and mind, should enrich and enlighten the beholder, not lead to their dehumanization (more on this later).

Who truly controls fashion, though? What are their goals? Why would certain people want us to take on the semblance of intellectually deficient property of the system? The conversation can turn quite political at this point but it will be left to the reader's reasoning. All parties involved, however, must reckon or already have reckoned that dressing the part is the last step before actually playing the part.