Ever hear a song on the radio, or see a movie, and wonder how some garbage could make so much money? I remember when the first “Paranormal Activity” came out and I went with my uncle to see it opening night. We packed in the car and went down to the theater to purchase our overpriced tickets, then proceeded to purchase our overpriced food and beverages, and take our seats. Needless to say, it was an expensive night. So, we are sitting in the theater with our hearts beating out of our chests in anticipation for this film we had heard so much about. The moment of truth came, the opening credits. My family was giddy with joy…then the ball dropped. We realized that us and thousands of others had fallen victim to a devilish scheme that left our hearts down in our chests and wallets totally empty.

Despite this, the movie did wonderful, raking $193,355,800 with only a $15,000 budget. Now granted, the movie wasn’t that horrible, but it does bring up an interesting idea about free will; with the constant interaction in the age we live in, appearance becomes everything to most people. The line between private life and public life has blurred, leaving most people open to the world at almost any time of the day. This leaves the desire to keep up a constant image in any form. Short and short, people act the way people act around them in order to fit in.

I know this is earth-shattering stuff here, but it provides an explanation of how so much junk becomes so successful. Due to the nature of what happens in the world around us, a lot of people join the bandwagon whether they like what it is they’re buying or not.

I’ll give you another example. My band, Reconcera, played a festival in Wisconsin this last summer. We’re a fairly new band and not a lot of people know about us, especially in Wisconsin, so we had to promote when we were playing in order to have any success there. Now, passing out free merchandise sounds really easy, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sometimes it felt like we were convincing people to take stuff that not only cost us money, but we were giving to them completely free. However, we never had a problem in a large crowd. All it would take is one person to take our stuff, and suddenly we would be mobbed with people all due to the fact that other people were near us.

This wouldn’t be a problem if people simply let curiosity get the best of them, but people willingly go into situations and hand away their money for complete garbage, with music, movies, video games, books, anything really.

So we ask ourselves, do we really have free will? When the world around us pushes so much our way that we unwillingly accept, does that bind us to the thoughts and actions of our peers? It may seem like a small issue, something just to complain about, but most people could say they have spent money of something just to fit in.