Quote:
Originally Posted by TAZ007
As long as you like and enjoy it, does it really matter in the long run.
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There are two main audiences for these mods: ourselves and others.
Others:
If we do it for others, then we must admit that it is the attention that it brings that gives that feeling of enjoyment. The attention from those who
are unaware of the difference between a M Sport and an M car versus the attention from those who do will be very different. One will be of admiration, the other of contempt. Contempt isn't something we normally aspire to, so it must be the admiration we seek.
Therefore:
- These mods are meant to gain the admiration of those who lack the knowledge or awareness.
- By definition, ignorance is defined as lacking knowledge awareness.
- Therefore these mods are meant the gain the admiration of the ignorant.
- The argument that "it doesn't matter what others think" in this particular case is nonsense, since the audience is specifically "others".
Ourselves:
If we do it for "ourselves" one could make the argument that we enjoy seeing it when we look at the car, which is a valid argument. But why do we enjoy seeing an M badge? It must be for what it stands for. Again, we can apply the same logic as we did when the audience was "others". If we don't know the difference between an M Sport can an an M car then we might simply be ignorant. If we do know the difference but do it anyway, then we either are willfully ignoring facts, or are trying to fool ourselves. We also might disagree what qualifies a car to be worthy of the M badge.
Therefore:
- We are ignorant through no fault of our own
- We choose to be ignorant
- We want to fool ourselves
- We disagree with others
In reality though, I think we like to say it's for "ourselves" but then we feel offended when "others" have a negative opinion on it. If it truly was exclusively for "others" then this shouldn't bother us...
but it does. Hence 10 pages of discussion and tying to plead our cases
to others. Realistically, it probably a little bit of both, we just don't care to admit it, especially when one audience is giving more negative feedback than another. Our sense of pride pushes us towards the path of lease resistance, which is just human nature. We can further narrow our audience from "(all)others" to "
select others" ie those who are like-minded, but that would simply be living in an echo chamber of self approval wouldn't it? There is little actual achievement in getting the approval of those who already think like us. I think we secretly crave the approval of others. When we get approval, it matters, but when we get disapproval, then "it doesn't matter what other people think". It's very convenient in the protection of our feelings. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm guilty of it to, but that's how we mature as people. The sooner we admit how flawed we are, the better we are as people relating to other people.
So in the end, get an M badge, don't get an M badge, it really is up to the individual, but here's what other people, including myself, have gone through in our journey through self expression through our vehicles. We've all been there, learn from what we have learned through our own mistakes and journey from ignorance.