This is strictly because I’m rather irritated to learn that De Beers is responsible for “mining” (get it‽) cash out of us poor saps – by facilitating the adoption of the diamond engagement ring. Lousy scammers.
Regardless, after doing my own research, I have come to the conclusion that this, the following, is intrinsically true, or at least true enough, to the point that I can believe that the whole concept of spending exorbitant amounts of money on what is essentially a rock that is quite suited to embed in drill bits and saw blades is simply rooted in a corporation that was after nothing than protecting it’s bottom line.
That is to say – I do understand that a diamond in an engagement ring is considered the norm and it is definitely a symbol of “love” in our society… but what about the other uses that money could be put towards‽ What about the people living in the other 3/4 of the world that have hardly enough to eat, let alone a bed or even a refrigerator? Bah, whatever. This is MY blog and I can say what I want, and I want to say that we Americans are sick and fat and lazy, as I sit here at my computer, in my single bedroom apartment, listening to David Crowder on my iTunes with my thousands of dollars of music loaded into it, drinking my canned Dr. Pepper, my iPhone beeping that I’ve received a text message invitation to play Call of Duty on my xBox across the internet with my friends on my 32″ Plasma TV. My, my, my; mine, mine, mine.
Where do we start? How do we fix this? We don’t. For us, as a country, it’s too late. It’s moving on. The United States, what it once was, what it is now, will be so dramatically different in 15 years, you won’t believe what you are seeing. See – we as a people forget things. The past is but a shadow, a raven gliding beyond us, dry rustling of feathers, rasping call fading into the distance. We’ve forgotten everything, remember 9/11? Remember that war in Afghanistan? Remember that man in office who has continued to make a fool of himself whilst promising untold riches and unbelieveable benefits to all who would heed his beck and call? Remember the soldiers in Iraq? Remember the Mexicans straining against our borders for a hope, a taste, of something better? Hell, do you remember the Alamo? Custer? Emancipation? The Civil War?
No, once we leave the instituions of learnng that we are so incredibly blessed to have before us, we abandon everything in relentles pursuit of riches and fame and untold happiness, and all for nought. I listen, now, to MuteMath sing My Glorious (didn’t know they were that type of band, did you?) and I realize that there is so much more out there, and we, yes, all of us, fat lazy ungrateful sods that we are are so infetestimally small that it is incredible that we are able to live in this country in the first place. Stick that in your $100K Mercedes and drive it.
This is what set me off, if you’re interested, from the mental_floss Blog:
“Prior to the 20th century, engagement rings were strictly luxury items, and they rarely contained diamonds. But in 1939, the De Beers diamond company changed all of that when it hired ad agency N.W. Ayer & Son. The industry had taken a nosedive in the 1870s, after massive diamond deposits were discovered in South Africa. But the ad agency came to the rescue by introducing the diamond engagement ring and quietly spreading the trend through fashion magazines. The rings didn’t become de rigueur for marriage proposals until 1948, when the company launched the crafty “A Diamond is Forever” campaign. By sentimentalizing the gems, De Beers ensured that people wouldn’t resell them, allowing the company to retain control of the market. In 1999, De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer confessed, “Diamonds are intrinsically worthless, except for the deep psychological need they fill.””
