Difficulty

Let me start this post with a note of formality, just to set you in the context of the text that I’ll be discussing. So Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher during the age of enlightenment. He’s work is very appraised around the world and he’s thinking’s are still relevant nowadays, in our every day life. In “The Social Contract” Rousseau talks mainly about freedom and distinguishes between civil liberty and natural liberty (that I’ll explain later).

 I am sure you asked yourself, what does a picture of shoes have to do here? Well this is what the text reminded me of, the power of fashion trends and brands. We consider ourselves free of choosing what we want to wear. But we never notice that it is not a personal choice, it is rather a choice made under the pressure of society. Brands hold so much power they push people to wear what they decide is fashionable. Trends are created by “one who thinks he is master of others, yet he is more enslaved than they are”(Rousseau 114). In fact this person is indirectly pushed to produce a certain product due to what society is demanding. This leads to standardization and stereotypes, every one want’s to fit so every one wears the same thing. In our society people can’t choose anymore they are forced indirectly to follow the norm due to social judgment and peer pressure. As Rousseau says :”Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”, even in the simplest every day life tasks. People have opted for civil liberty “which is limited by general will”(Rousseau 115) and forgot about natural liberty “which is limited only by the individual’s powers”(Rousseau 115). We chose to live restrained by rules (or more accurately where born in this system that values “liberty” without having any choice) and not free in nature because of power and the illusion of ownership. If you walk around the campus I am sure you are going to see a pair of these,  simple tennis shoes that have become every one’s “MUST”(even mine). This clearly illustrates the dominance of trends (specially when we start naming the object by the brand's name like Kleenex for tissue or Stan's for this tennis shoes) that we follow blindly taking away our freedom.As Rousseau said “the man who has until now considered only himself finds himself forced to act on different principles”.

                                                                 Work cited

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. “The Social Contract” Shifting Narratives. Ed. Zane S. Sinno, Lina Bioghlu-Karnakawi, Dorota Fleszar, Najla Jarkas, Emma Moughabghab, Jennifer M. Nish, Rima Rantisi, Abir Ward. Beirut: Educart, 2015. 113-115. Print. 

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