Koyaanisqatsi

The Smart Phone is a marvel of modern technology. It is an empowering tool that gives you instant access to any and all information one could possibly desire—wirelessly, at a moments notice. It helps you to better organize your life, to keep in touch with distant friends and family, and to discover new and exciting things. It has processing capabilities that were unimaginable even just five years ago and only promises greater achievements in the not so distant future. It puts the world at your fingertips and your wish is its command.

And that's why, "You don't need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you."

The Smart Phone is the ultimate Individualistic technology. It is designed to conform to your specific needs and is capable of being modified to your personal requirements. Its intuitive functionality integrates with your daily routine and no two phones will ever end up alike. It is customizable down to the most minute detail. From the Apps that you download, to the music you load upon it, to the custom case in which you encapsulate it—every facet of it allows you to express your-Self and to differentiate yourself from your neighbors.

"Because there's no one else quite like you."

And while this technology is awesome, not to mention incredibly useful, American culture is becoming increasingly built on this adolescent fantasy that life is all about you as an Individual—your ideas, your appetites, and your needs. And these HTC ads play on and fan the flame of that fantasy, with its constant repetition of the word “You.” You. You…You! It's all about you! You are the warm little center that the life of this world crowds around. The whole world exists to satisfy your desires, to make you happy. "Your whole world seems to center around you, it'd be easy to make the mistake that maybe you're why the world was made."

And in this Culture of increasing Hyper or Radical Individualism, everyone has set up their "own little separate system" and cannot risk interdependence. We are simply Individuals who have come together voluntarily and who can separate just as easily, without maiming ourselves. There is no longer a bond—Natural or Artificial—binding one to the other and what we are seeing is what Nietzsche called the civilized re-animalization of Man. He thought that a system built on our basest instincts—those found in the State of Nature (self-interest; self-preservation)—will eventually reduce us back to them. And he made it his life work to try and combat this problem.

Whereas, I would not prescribe anything quite as drastic as Nietzsche did (although it's not entirely fair, there can be an argument made that his ideas inspired Fascism, especially Nazism) I don't see how it would be reasonable for us to expect our Leaders—Political or Business—or anyone else who is supposed to be our Role Models or Heroes, in a Democracy (derived from the Greek dêmos "people" and krátos "power") to act with any concern for the Common Good, if the citizens, who their power is supposedly derived from, have no conception of it for themselves.