A Kind of Youth Rebellion.

There was a teenage boy outside Sainsbury’s today, aged around 16 or 17 and dressed in the local high school uniform. He had a few items in a shopping trolley, and when he’d disgorged them into somebody’s car he came back to replace the trolley in the stack outside the store. But then he noticed there were several more empty trolleys standing willy-nilly around the pavement, no doubt left there by the sort of grown up shoppers who are in the habit of leaving things standing around willy-nilly. So he collected them all up and placed them tidily in the stack. I went over to him and said:

‘Doing that doesn’t exactly look cool, you know…’

I know.

‘… but it’s much appreciated.’

In retrospect I decided it was the wrong thing to say. What I should have said was:

‘What you just did was way outside stereotypical expectations. I’d say that sets you apart; it makes you a rebel. Be proud.’

*  *  *

It also occurred to me today that there’s something important missing from the school curriculum – a subject we might call Admanique. It’s a contraction of Advertising – Manipulation, Motive and Technique. I think kids should be taught from an early age what lies behind the glossy and usually puerile attempts by the corporate world to brainwash the mindless masses, and then they could grow up to view adverts critically rather than being taken in by them. It would probably wreck the economy, but I think it would be worth it. It might even change the world.