I have always been confused by fashion and civilization. For
if civilization had to be proved by adhering to fashion, then many of our
university professors are uncivilized. But what is this fashion that has to be
adhered to, what do I mean by fashion?
Different people have different definitions of fashion depending on so
many other factors.
Factors like income, age, education, environment among
others have much to say on what one thinks is fashionable. For example, I have
found my views about fashion changing as I was growing up. In class one, it was
fashionable in our rural area to have a playing wheel, this could come from the
top lid of the twenty liter cooking fat container or a used up car tyre. The bigger the tyre one had the more
fashionable it appeared. Today I find what is up to date fashion completely
different from what I thought then, I want the latest smart phone, a car, a
three piece Italian suit, and of course, a diamond teeth.
What I liked then was different from what my fellow mates of
the same age, probably in class three while I was still struggling with class
one, in urban centers. Neither were the slum dwellers in agreement in fashion
with the street children nor with their mates in estates. The same as today,
not every other graduate agrees with me on what is fashionable. High school pupils
have a perception of the same which is different from what university mates
have or even what their fellow mates have. One form two pupil will tell you
fashion is toping in class and in science contests, another, probably a lazy
one will tell you fashion is drinking, sneaking out of school and knowing a
particular new dance style made in Jamaica.
Despite the different perceptions, we have no means of gauging which
fashion is ‘really fashionable’ than the other. Trying to compare the two is
like comparing a basket ball player to a rugby one.
In conclusion, I don’t really know what specifically fashion
is. But for me, I have constructed an image of what I think is fashionable.
Wait, have I just constructed or is it really what is? Yea, it is what is in my world. Maybe then
our professors are not that blind to fashion. If then we are the ones to mark
what the world presents to us as fashionable, is not easy for each of us to
mark as wrong some social habits that are a menace to the society? For example,
to me it is not fashionable to sleep with a thousand girls, to sniff cocaine
till my eyes can no longer open, neither is it fashionable to drink all my
salary but African is. Oh my God! I forgot about civilization. I did not
realize I was supposed to link the two. What do we do now? I have an idea, we
can make a deal. I discuss with you civilization next, then on Friday night we
meet at my favorite joint to see if the two link in any way. Do we have a deal?
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