Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there’s doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

…

Rambling Comments:

It’s worth the disclaimer that this kind of environment / scenario probably at least deserves some amount of credit.  To grow up in a pleasant safe stable suburban environment, get into a university, graduate and start a well-paid stable career (such as doctor, lawyer, business executive) and lead a conservative non-controversial non-creative non-expressive conformist lifestyle, with a mortgage and a family, and hopes to repeat the same cycle with your offspring…  It’s better than a lot of the alternatives, both historically, and in today’s environment.

But it’s far from ideal – especially for people with a certain personality.

And obviously the emphasis on sameness and boxes and dull non-diverse repetition, is less about criticizing specific activities…  And more about criticizing things like conformity, constraints, one-size-fits-all lifestyles, living a banal existence, thinking we should all live a certain way just because our neighbors and/or previous generation did, putting a particular arbitrary non-controversial lifestyle as an ideal, aiming to only maintain the status quo without real change and growth, etc.

Anyway, this is one of those (I’m mostly just posting the lyrics quote) posts – so I didn’t spend much (time and thought) on my comments.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/06/06 (Sunday, June 6, 2010) :: Philosophy / Opinions :: 4 Comments »