There is a natural state of man. Uncorrupted by the constructs of moden society. As Rousseau famously said “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” From 18th century France to the present we have only clamped the irons tighter, this tin serving as strong link in the binding chain.

This tin of sardines costs $10.75. What justification can there be? The design is sleek, perhaps this indicates a worthy fish. Unfortunately, looking closer, we see a symptom of the binding sickness. Nowhere on the cutsey overly artistic packaging lies the cannery of origin of the fish. Their website no more illuminating. Only the faded and small stamped serial number on the tin itself (a legal obligation) points to the fact that this tin was packed by Ramirez (a known Portugese cannery) for Mediterran, the seafood distribution company responsible for this tin. On the Ramirez website, they sell their own branded sardines in olive oil at €8.40 for a pack of 5. It is solely within the marketing, the packaging, the recent social media virality of tinned fish, and the desperate artifical veneer of emulation that goes along with it, that can support this absurd price. We find ourselves many degrees separated from our natural state when marketing overpowers the simplicity of a good fish. Just like man, all fish are born free. But unlike man, these fish did not choose to bind themselves within the manmade systems of modernity. Innocent, like all of our natural states, they lie entombed within a prison dressed by an aesthetic paper veneer.