Mea Culpa

Where would the human race be without apologies? Christianity and other world religions are based on forgiveness of sins, provided one is sorry for their mistakes. It seems to me that even those in the Fashion Industrial Complex have apologies, including Bernie Madoff. Of course, those types of apologies are to be questioned as far as their lack of sincerity. But I'll withhold those criticisms to attend to a more important issue.

In February, I wrote a scathing article on a fashion blogger named Laura Jane Faulds. I was under the impression she had used the term Fashion Industrial Complex to try to mock my cause and and neutralize its effect, as the FIC tends to do. I thought the argument I had made was valid because I had tried to communicate to her beforehand, with no response. I assumed that that was suspicious. Until I checked my e-mail today. There was a message from Laura Jane Faulds, with the subject heading "sorry".

I was stunned. In the e-mail she apologized for not communicating with me, saying she simply forgot about the e-mail I had sent her. It would seem hypocritical of me to reproach her for being forgetful as forgetfulness is one of my many flaws. I can say it was a sincere exchange. Her tone in the letter was very friendly, even though months before I had come down on her like Jehovah. She was very forgiving, and could have done much worse. That speaks volumes to me about her not being what I had assumed her to be, which is another thing that she stated in the e-mail.

Laura, I accept your apology. I have a friend who says "don't become what you hate". In that instance I became what I hated because the fashion industrial complex is all about labelling people and rushing to conclusions about people before you scratch the surface. I'm sorry for running with my passions. All I can say from this whole thing is that I am glad I am not a Police Officer. I would shoot first and ask questions later. Scary.

iPod-wearing Lifeguards at Rockaway Beach

It's getting worse.





On the train, I see various hipsters and assorted sheeple study their poses as they continue to drown out reality through their mp3 players. As is typical with other kinds of FIC-related phenomena, I've somewhat begun to reluctantly accept their presence as part of everyday life. Until today when I read the cover of the New York Post. In full view, a Rockaway Beach lifeguard was spotted on his chair while zoning out wearing DJ-style headphones. In light of an August 1st drowning at the same beach, this is an abomination. Without a shadow of a doubt, it confirms my suspicions that the Fashion Industrial Complex's business in mind control is beginning to put people's lives in jeopardy. And in the eyes of its feeble followers, it's becoming acceptable.




When questioned by the Post reporter about the telling photograph, other lifeguards refused to comment. This is typical behavior of parties who are guilty of the same negligence. It also highlights a certain aspect of dumbed-down pop-culture where people remain, more often than not, silent about important issues. Being good citizens, in other words. Shutting up about life-threatening and job-threatening abuses just to maintain the status-quo. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. This is why governments use mind-controlled slaves to perform their dirty work for them. Adolph Hitler would have a field day if he could lay his hands on these lifeguards and use them as his human population-control experiments. His first creation would be the iPod army faction of the SS, where each member routinely forms a pyramid scheme where the upper echelons train soldiers to brainwash and exterminate people through the use of digital media.



This is where democracy ends and fascism begins. The aim of technocracy is not only to oversaturate the public with media and technology, but to also create an ever-widening divide between the haves and the have-nots of technological prowess. The most extreme case of this will happen when the government begins to enforce the verichip on the population and a cashless system takes hold on society. The Fashion Industrial Complex is already disseminating its propaganda on would-be resisters to make sure nobody speaks out or challenges the system. They do this through psychological warfare, making sure information sinks in through the collective subconscious. But the tools are in our hand to consciously free ourselves from the matrix. Education and self-awareness are what's needed to keep ourselves from committing cultural suicide.

How Self-Reliant is the FIC?

"Imitation is SUICIDE", wrote the great Ralph Waldo Emerson in an essay entitled "Self Reliance". I concur. It is my belief that the definition of schizophrenia is living the life of a copy-cat. Copying the attitudes, beliefs, and yes, fashion choices of other people, thus, adopting their personality traits in psychosis. I believe the individual should stand out, must stand out, and will stand out even in the event that he or she should begin to follow somebody else's mode of thought. That is, even if their vain intention is to follow the norm and conform to society's will instead of forge their own God-given path, they will stand out like a sore thumb. Therefore, their suicide attempts that Emerson speaks of are evident. Blindly following each other's paths. Copying each other's speech patterns. Walking contradictions that are afraid of standing out, yet do stand out, albeit as people that do not think for themselves. The Fashion Industrial Complex is cultural suicide, and it is rampant.

There are numerous terms given t0 the class of people that tend to follow instead of look within themselves. The word that comes first to my mind would be the term "poser". A person that studies cliques and social patterns and does what ever he can to fit in is a poser at best. Posing to attract attention from mediocre circles that do nothing but pay attention to the latest new thing. As if some type of prestige were to be gained from hanging around the cool kids. Other terms follow. Lemmings and sheeple are meant to describe a broad range of people that follow each other into the ditch as far as leaders and political movements are concerned. The more they follow, the more dumbed down they become by their own choices that are influenced by looking at someone else's vain example. And by their own choices, I mean that everyone decides to commit cultural suicide by being a fool and following the norm. NO ONE is forced to conform by any standard. People think they are but they are not. This is part of the illusion the FIC creates.

A person who does for himself and is himself at all costs can be called self-reliant. This is diametrically opposite to what the Fashion Industrial Complex prescribes for every man, woman and child. Even in the United States of America, they want a cultural dictatorship where every saying and teaching put out by the FIC is obeyed by the huddled masses. Without question. Even sayings that were put out by the revolution of the 1960's have been mocked and co-opted by the FIC to exploit the public. That is why I say at the masthead of this blog, "BEWARE" the Fashion Industrial Complex, echoing Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex speech at the end of his presidency. We must beware for our lives are at stake. Bewaring is the first step towards self-reliance. Once that is accomplished, breaking out of the box is possible.

Someone in Vacuous Blogland is Hijacking my Cause: Introducing Laura Jane Faulds, Fashionista Opportunista

As a writer and an activist, my job is not only to expose the Fashion Industrial Complex and all of its soul-sucking endeavors, but to also seek out like-minded individuals who share my philosophy and would love to see the eventual destruction of the FIC once and for all. So I did a search on google for "Fashion Industrial Complex", hoping that my search results would turn up at least one writer with similar views. By the way, I never assumed I was THE person to unearth the existence of the FIC, let alone name it. No doubt people before me have had my observations that in 2004 I had begun to write down and take to the streets.

My search led me to "nogoodforme.com", a website that bills itself as "Your Ultimate Fashion Mixtape". That label is, at best, tacky and smacks of overweening FIC snobbery. Yet Laura Jane Faulds, self-described "senior writer" at nogoodforme.com has taken it upon herself to try

and explain in her own words what the FIC is. Bear with me, and please try not to wretch on your keyboards. She writes, "As you should all know by now, The Royal We of nogoodforme.com is all about loving fashion and loathing The Fashion Industrial Complex (tm). We use the term FIC (tm) to encapsulate the stupid, boring, problematic garbage that unfortunately comes along with how most people think about fashion: Brands and Dollaz and Misogyny and Elitism, Oh My! As such, I generally try to think about fashion in terms of self-expression and garments and innovation rather than associating myself with any particular style-istic segment or school of thought."--Funny. From the content of her website, I would've thought the exact opposite, what with her using words such as "redonk" and "hella-conceptual" to describe things that may or may not suit her fancy. Note that Ms. Faulds curiously places the (tm) symbol after mentioning the FIC. Just whose "TM" are we referring to, honey?! Hers?! I don't think so.  Although I could babble on about the numerous cases I could make against her for copyright infringement, my main concern was her sincerity in defining the FIC's existence. As you already know, the FIC I describe in my articles is far beyond whatever her imagination could grasp.

While my gut instinct was telling me, "Go ahead, Ted, blog her to oblivion!!", I had another idea: A meeting of the minds with the woman. I figured since she had enough ingenuity to coin the term "FASHION INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX", we would hit it off and I would perhaps gain some long-overdue exposure to my blog. No such thing happened. In good nature I sent the editors of nogoodforme.com an e-mail, praising their website. NOTHING. WTF was I thinking?Well, them being a widely-read website I could understand them not answering their backlog of e-mails, so I did the next best thing.  I e-mailed Ms. Faulds herself. Not a word, not a syllable. At this point, strike three was pointless as her take on Obama (see above photo). My general interest in whatever views she might have had on the FIC had already greatly weakened. My only conclusion is that this Laura Jane Faulds is a self-serving fashionista who eagerly co-opted my use of the term "Fashion Industrial Complex" for marketing her "redonk" blog. She could very well be a plant from the FIC itself to try and subvert the noble cause of exposing the truth. Why else would she choose, like a high-school cheerleader, to ignore my e-mails unless if she truly has something to hide? My advice to Laura: Stop lying to yourself. And stop lying to your readers. How dare you claim to denounce the FIC when you yourself ARE the FIC! There are REAL people with REAL problems, like unemployment and homelessness which the Fashion Industrial Complex creates! But you wouldn't care about that, would you? Your life is all about fashion, fashion, fashion, and partying and worrying about which hipster fuckface you're going to screw on Friday night. You don't have any real issues, or real concerns which would pertain to your identification of the Fashion Industrial Complex! 

I have said my piece. Now I leave you with Al Goldstein, porn connoisseur and owner of Screw Magazine. Although he is perhaps best known for his candid "Fuck You" commentaries on Midnight Blue, a cable-access show he hosted from the 70's to 2003, when he went "broke"(he also started speaking out about Bush at this time). If he were here right now, he would most likely say, "FUCK YOU, Laura Jane Faulds, YA FUCKIN CUNT!! And FUCK YOUR "Ultimate Fashion Mixtape!!"