The Bling Factor

There is an interesting phenomenon in pop culture these days. The phrase "bling bling" has permeated the masses. Enough so that my father asked me what it was about. Scary.

What is bling-bling? Well, to a majority of people, its a descriptive set of words that refers to the sound you think of when you see something thats, uh, bling. That run-on sentence illustrates exactly the difficulty I have grasping the bling factor. What is it? I guess I think of anything that's can be described as bling-bling as ostentatiously, overbearingly showy. Something that apparently is supposed to let the world know that you've got money and you've made it.

You made a rap record? Bling it up.
You got some money leftover from the parents? Bling it up.
You won the lottery? Bling it up.

The consequence of the bling factor is that people will expect you to have so much money (benjamins, lincolns, jacksons... whatever) that you should be able to make a home video, where you have strippers stripping and you're throwing money into the camera, as if its nothing to you.

What about if you're a good person, who saves judiciously to afford a nice car and you don't want to throw it in people's face? You don't bling it up. In fact, if you're normal and do not worry about what other people think of you - you don't bling it up. You already know that you've made it. No need to throw it in someone else's face.

I bring this all up because some people make their selections (cars, houses, rings, etc) based upon the Bling Factor. They actually worry if the car they end up purchasing will be showy enough to let people know that they have money. Its that important to them. They actually wonder if an Audi S4 will have enough Bling Factor. Because surely, the E55 has a lot. But if they buy the S4, no one will know that they have a money bin like Scrooge McDuck at home to swim around in!!! (super heavy on the sarcasm here)

Unlike them, I choose cars based on how I think it looks, drives, etc. Not on how other people think about it.

I apologize to the Bling Factor abusers, but having class and being confident in oneself means that you don't need the Bling Factor. Who cares if other people know you have money or not? Should people judge you based upon that? What happened to judging people for the good in their heart? For the generosity (no not monetary either)? I tend to think that this is all that is important. I don't care what car you drive. I don't care how big your ring is. I don't care the size of the house and the type of appliances you use. All I care about is if you are a good person at heart, who cares about others, does not make others feel inferior, and is concerned about the people around you and the ones you love.

Don't get me wrong, I happen to like the looks of a lot of things with a high Bling Factor. I just don't choose it because of the Bling Factor, I choose it because I actually like the looks of it myself.

In the end, 85% of people have little appreciation for understated class. Thye rely on teh Bling Factor to tell them what looks good or not - because they think that the more money it costs, the better it is. The other 15% understand that great art, great looks, etc have no correlation with the money spent. Thus they aren't lazy and don't rely on the Bling Factor to tell them. They just know because they have class.

Long story short, I can't stand the Bling Factor. Just do things because you like it and not how others will think of you because of it. It really is pretty simple.