Tagged

So I was watching this music video I haven’t seen in a while, Dirty Vegas’s Walk Into The Sun. Basically the plot revolves around the characters in a restaurant and they’re all tagged. They have their identities, like the white girl that’s ignorant, and the black boy that’s ignored, the waitress that’s bored, then she serves coffee to the guy that’s alone.

So all in all, everyone has their entire character broken down into that one word. Everything they do, say, see, hear, feel and such is boiled down to that word. Their whole lives are defined by that one tag. Usually from a habit, like the junkie or the drunk, some a little more wordy, like the washed-up has-been. Others are age-defined. Preteens, tweens, teens, twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, middle-aged, old…

But what is the purpose of this?

Human minds are made to compartmentalize. Groups of things are easier to process than individuals.

So are we wired to be prejudicial?

Perhaps not. Prejudice is a reaction to this compartmentalization, sometimes made easier by physical differences.

Safety in numbers… A herd mentality. That’s what ends up making the situation the way it is.

Labels… More than meets the eye.

• Алена Водонаева (Alena Vodonaeva)
• Natalie Portman