Sophistication - 

so·phis·ti·cate

verb…

To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly.

To make impure; adulterate.

To make more complex or inclusive; refine.

Please allow me to comment on society's use of the concept of sophistication. The idea and very word "sophisticated" has been butchered and twisted to mean something as sickeningly sweet, yet ultimately as unsubstantive as saccharine. We use the word to describe a purse, a pair of shoes, or a pair of eyeglasses. Society is obsessed with the "appearance" of sophistication, as if the ideal can be summarized by where you hang out, what you wear, or how you talk. Our culture has built a home with the imaginary ideals of false sophistication as the walls. Our clothes are expensive; our congeniality is verbose and laced with catchy slang that hasn’t yet been relicated to the depths of trite obscurity. We work very hard to produce an illusion of complexity and refined “elegance” that burns holes in the American culture. As a result, those with the idyllic cultural congeniality and possession of the objects that embody our imaginary sophistication are given reverence of superhuman proportion. Our celebrities, mere humans who flaunt themselves in Hollywood babble and are surround by opulent indulgences, are idols we strive to become.

People, this is not sophistication. I have seen sophistication with my own eyes. Sophistication appears as ridiculous as a long underwear shirt with the overcoat from a cheap suit worn with jeans and aviator glasses. I have chatted with him on a number of occasions. "To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly. " What makes designer clothing less natural? "To make more complex or inclusive; refine. " What makes the newest hip restaurant complex or inclusive? Nothing. Sophistication, whom I met the other day, wears his clothing because it's what suits his complexities, not because he's trying to appear different or unusual. He's not chasing some fad. Intrinsically, he is his own person and he's learning from everything he does, every conversation he has, every book he reads, every mistake, every folly, and all the people he meets. Plus, he has plunged himself into a culture that is different from his own in order to pursue these principles.

This desire for stepping outside of one's comfort zone for the sake of true education and diversification makes one less naive. He embodies this…

…this true sophistication of character.

Do not be fooled. The false pretenses of imaginary sophistication seem to be compellingly quirky. Yet, underneath it all, the people who chase these ideals have discovered a realization that is every bit as unrefined as that of the punks who think they're being different by spiking their hair and dying it purple. Die your hair purple! Spike it to the sky! Enjoy your hip restaurant and clothing! Just don’t assume that this alone makes you different or meaningful. This is why people must find a balance of expression, something inside themselves that touches the world in ways that sends shivers down the spine of our society’s now malformed backbone. Each person can change the world subtly. People should strive towards being sophisticated as often as possible. They should push themselves to become less natural, to make themselves less naïve. We must work outside of our comfort zones.

Imperfection is life. We must douse ourselves in impurity. Do not bother with the impurities of places like Hollywood: hypersexual, economical, hierarchal and otherwise. No, we must sustain ourselves through the impurities of the human spirit and our consciousness: the inefficiency of compassion, the evolutionary implications of error, the cloudy internal governing of emotion, and the basic survival endangering pangs of curiosity. These complexities and impurities should define the true human ideal of sophistication, to which every human should endeavor. We must realize these facts if we are to truly develop as a race. If curiosity killed the cat, it endures the human spirit in amazing and fantastic ways. Live to sophisticate yourself and those around you.

-Dan Connor