| | Does the Type of Clothing Really Represent Someone? What is it, huh? Does the type of clothing
really represent someone? I'm an avid believer of the "Yes it
does" response. But I also believe that people can't be defined regarding
the clothes they wear (so I just protested myself). We've come to a time that we have just
accumulated a myriad of fashion statements that may actually be without meaning or simply lost it
- just fashion without the "statements". Only that it looks cool or
it feels good to wear and you're all set.
Sometimes the clothes one wears has a
story behind it, and they happen to be in different genres too! I'm not really
a fashionable person, and I may not be making sense to people who may actually
know a whole lot about them; a shirt and pair of jeans and I'm contented. I
also like to wear something historical from time to time, not that I wear suits
of armor or togas. Eh, not that, but you know what I mean. Of course this is
because I love history, but still can't say I'm really good. I yet to read a
whole lot more of books just to prove that love. Usually spending time where
history can be found accessible enough which is through bound paperwork and a
little internet references to go with it, but cyberspace hasn't been a reliable
source for a while now, too many arguments, too many unreliable citations...
 Anyway,
the issue here is self-centric. Wearing a Red Guard cap doesn't make me a Red Guard.
Uh, I’m not. Although, wearing it might give people a
"statement" that I might be a communist or follow Mao's commie
doctrines, or simply think Communism is cool “the least”. Being a light skinned
Asian with Chinese ancestry makes everything almost stereotypical. Sorry to
disappoint you, but I'm not part of a dying league of Mao's student cultural
revolutionaries or reviving any of that godless “religion is poison” shindigs. I
know Communism well enough to know how bad the ideology always ends up. I just
read stuff about Polpot
and the Khmer Rouge conflict and I just watch The Killing Fields (a
movie of the same conflict) with my papa. I said to myself that such thing can
never happen here, but then my papa recounts something from the 80's when he
was in the Scout Rangers and told me when Communism here in the
Philippines almost made it that far when they began a silent campaign by
assassinating key military and high-ranking police figures. Even the toughest
ones didn't stand a chance when the NPA's
"Sparrow Units" systematically initiated their terrorist acts. But
even that, it wasn't long when the civilians themselves (secretly spearheaded a
military general) began deep infiltration operations against the commies that
eventually lead many of the Sparrow Units' demise and weakening of the NPA (New
Peoples Army).
So
there, a little history taking us a little bit out of topic. Truth is I'm not a
commie, plain and simple. I even loathe commie rallies that frequent here,
asking for human rights whenever one of their own gets killed or a prostitute
happens to be raped by US marines, by ignoring other sexually abused victims (naturally
because the assailants aren't Americans). I'm a little confused now. I happen
to live in a country where clothing is somewhere between a "need" and
a "want" either of the two still cost a lot. If I wear it, it feels awkward like the emperor's new clothes without the confidence part especially to the old conservative folks and if not, I feel a little
silly for being afraid to wear it and stupid that I just spent my money on
something that ended me down here writing about it. Its nothing political, man –
its just cool, and I got to admire coolness while I’m still young before I get
too old for that nonsense.
Funny how wise men solved this problem thousands of years ago.
Perhaps I should actually consider the lilies of the field...
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