Estate Agent Visit

There's two Estate Agents local to me, a Reeds Rains and Bridgfords - just off the main street in the centre of Marple. I decided to take a look inside, have a quick look round and ask to take some brochures/leaflets home with me, and they very nicely obliged and both shops gave me a handful of single house brochures.

Both shops pristine, 2- 3 desks and a door into the back area, probably the staff area. The walls filled with hung advertisements like the ones in the windows, and members of staff busy bargaining with customers on phones. Glancing at these advertisements whilst waiting for brochures, made me equally as anxious as the outside windows. Only this time I was so much closer to it all. An eery experience, and quite uncomfortable in fact. I can only imagine what it will actually be like once I reach this step to buying a property, which seems so far away, along with my 'place'in society.

I've scanned these brochures and they will be up with the resources in the right hand panel.

The Estate Agent

After looking at the mass amounts of advertisements that pressurise and manipulate society into thinking it needs said material goods for a proper claim on existence, I started to think, well since I know this affects me personally - what makes me anxious in the world today? What brings up feelings of unworthiness and need, to become a 'Somebody'?

It's views like these (below), that get me really anxious and worked up, my mind goes through this state of imagination and fiction of what my world needs to be for me to have my claim on status in society. I feel that unless I reach a certain state in living, on the property ladder maybe - will make my existence be more 'real', and this makes me very anxious. My failure to do so should  be my failure to be a somebody in the eyes of the world?

I suppose this ties in closely to the whole 'Keeping up with the Joneses' idea. My situation is currently so far away from these ideal situations, societies perfect view of a four bed house with lavish gardens front and back, family of four, a dog, and a fish. I'm living in a fiction, it's like I'm working myself up to becoming part of this view of society, ensuring my part in the world as a somebody. 

The number of these Estate Agents in the surroundings of Manchester alone is phenomenal, it's like a mass organisation to prepare society for their perfect lives, but really I bet there is only a small part of the population that actually see themselves in their situations and think that actually this is perfect, for I believe even all the riches in the world cannot buy the happiness and fulfilment of life for this perfection.

 

This is the google maps street view of my situation, one room, for where all my belongings lie, my partner occasionally stays, and where I am currently writing this post. 

I guess I am pretty happy about it all, but when I look into these Estate Agents windows my whole sense of reality and fiction seem to go into overdrive and I become anxious, for I know that I am so far from this reality perceived in the window, therefore I believe that I am so far away from having a position of value in society.

I suppose even the way I have used google maps to view these windows, and my window, is interesting in that in a way it really is the worlds view....

Images: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=estate+agents&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=estate+agents&hnear=0x487a3515ca33c427:0xf418f67b823efe48,Stockport&ei=9NwvT8mrGaWf0QWB4qmtCA&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&ved=0CCsQtgM&iwloc=cids:5888026970577455730