Never negotiate with those in a position of power. They ultimately settle all scores with money, something you do not possess. The world is an easier place to them and so are never on the same wavelength as those attuned to normality. The chasing of paper and coins is the most dangerous drug in the world. Thousands are addicted, and they don't even know it.. Capitalism is the worlds biggest dealer, and thousands are dying each day from it. Drugs are illegal but money is mandatory. It's injected into your eyes when you look at an advert, or it's smoked and inhaled in the lungs. But without money, you would die. The dependency gets so bad, complete withdrawal is often fatal. Nobody helps out someone who's outside the system. The system is everything. It provides your hopes, your ambitions, how to think, the shared values and meaning to life.. whatever you want it to do, the system does it. And in the system, money is the key to everything.

Advertising and marketing has to be one of the most evil careers invented by the human race. I have no qualms with honest, sincere marketing, trying to sell a product based on it's own virtues. A product should, in essence, sell itself if it is good enough with not much effort needed by the people behind it. Merely the basic facts should be needed to prompt people to buy/use/see the product, if it is worthy. My problems with this area of the job market lies in the way marketing and advertising has evolved to become a form of brainwashing. Repetitive jingles; catchy slogans; conspicuous and deliberate use of certain colour; hidden meaning; saturation- all used to make you think that you need the product that is being advertised, or staying in your head so as to make sure that the relevant information is imprinted in your brain so that you recall it at the optimum moment. In reality, the freedom of choice is slightly removed as advertisers seek to persuade you in their own, special way, to spend money. One of the worst things about it is how adverts are everywhere you turn. On buses, buildings, TV, the internet, magazines and newspapers, shops...all 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 1/4 days a year.

Graffiti is illegal. Even the most artistic, informative, thought-provoking, intelligent piece of street art is illegal unless it is on a designated graffiti wall, for example. To write one's opinion, to exercise freedom of speech and to write, on a wall, one's feelings is illegal. And yet advertisement is allowed to saturate one's day, from the moment you step outside your house to the moment you return and turn on the TV or laptop, billboards and slogans and phrases and jingles and pop-up ads pierce your eyes, and travel down your optic nerves to be catalogued in one's memory. It is possible that even in sleep the subconscious is playing out the day, complete with the relevant adverts that you saw that day, all 300 of them. So you cannot write on a wall but advertisers are allowed to pin up huge posters and eye-catching, possibly 'humorous' billboards across the country. The individual has no choice in viewing these, at one point or another throughout the day.

I suppose my biggest issue with the job lies in the job itself. People are paid, often vast sums of money, to come up with the best ways of making people pay money. Not simply buying the product, whatever it is, but by a form of subtle brainwashing that tells people that they need the product, it will "solve all their problems", make them "happier". A lot of the messages are subtler, utilising certain shades and colours and sounds to trick you. The ideal aim of advertising would be, to persuade everyone who saw the advert that they needed to spend money on the product so that the company behind the product and those marketing it can make lots and lots of money. The more people persuaded, the more profit gained. So it is in the best interests of the advertisers to persuade as large an audience as possible. So therefore the advertisers are not going to play fair, and indeed they do not. (1)

Those in marketing have no conscience and they have no soul. As you climb the corporate ladder

you are asked to trade morals for cash, compassion for self-interest, individuality for hive-mentality,

humanity for impartiality.

Some days I really do wonder for the future. Some days it all seems so simple, and on those days I can

almost see the trivialities and wars as being immature. Because, truthfully, we are in the 21st Century, a

new millennium, and we have reached an age of vast technological advancement and monetary gain. And

yet we entered into a decade of warfare and "terrorism", mainly from the western governments utilising the

media to terrorise the people and to enforce martial law and restrict individual rights of the people, rights that

have been fought for for all of human history, in a way. It all seems so immature when you look at the bigger

picture. Whichever way we look at it, we all have to die at some point. We all have a short time, a miniscule

period of time when compared to the timescale of the universe, infinitesimal even, on this earth in order to live

out our lives. And we all have equal and valid share to this planet, as do our children and the children of all of

the nations and tribes. Therefore it is in our own interest to help others, for if everyone helped others we would

be helping ourselves.. We should be doing all we can to prevent climate change, to reduce emissions, to stop

warfare, to uphold human rights, to fight evil. But we accede our powers to those with money, as if having more

money qualifies you to rule the world. Whilst our leaders are attempting to reach a consensus on future "targets"

to reduce emissions etc., corporations such as Texaco (2) (now owned by Chevron), Shell, Nike etc, are

destroying the world, damaging third world countries and human rights, and showing their middle finger to all

those who stand by shocked and confused as to the power of these corporations and their disregard for the

planet. Money buys freedom, the freedom to do whatever is necessary to make more profit, even at the

expense of the planet. (3) It seems to me that the talks of politicians and debates are rendered futile if this

unchecked global capitalism which thrives on disaster and abuse is allowed to continue. This is what is

destroying our planet the most, wars based on profit and resources, with companies such as Halliburton (4)

making vast profits out of the war business. Extremely wealthy companies do not have morals or restrictions,

they are a vast body made up of individuals that aspire for profits, from the bottom of the ladder to the top of

the pyramid, the rich want to get richer and the poor want to get rich, when serious money is involved morals

are traded in. This is what is destroying the planet faster than anything else- corporations, banks and

organisations that are more powerful than the governments, and indeed many of the governments are in the pay

of these companies. Until this is sorted out and this disaster capitalism is unveiled for what it is, then no progress

can be made.

(1) Advertising techniques

(2) Texaco's involvement in Ecuador

(3) Companies Blacklisted