Not Just the Flamingo

       

          I agree one hundred percent with what Jennifer Price says in "The Pink Plastic Flamingo: A Natural History." The fact that Americans extinguished the flamingo, decided "Hey, I really wish those cool birds were still here," stuck fake ones in the ground, and pretended like everything was hunky dory does show a superficiality in Americans. However, I don't feel like this piece was too terribly insightful. Now, don't get me wrong. This lack of deep judgment is not the fault of Price herself. It is the fault of the very Americans she is writing about. The level of superficiality in America is so deep that an analysis like that of Price could be reached through an observance of any given item in the American economy. Not just the flamingo.
         Take the wood shutters.

 

         These ligneous planks can prove the point of superficiality just as easily as the plastic flamingo. Some producing company out there chopped down a tree, the producers of our life gas, just so they could make a couple of boards with stars cut in them to sell to some person or family could put them on their house because all the other houses have them. If they're anything like the shutters on my house, they down even come away from the house to shut over the windows, making them even more pointless and superficial. Not just the flamingo.

         My point here was not to rant about shutters. I just wanted to show the ease with which one can show the superficiality of America through many, many things. Not just the flamingo.