Consumerism: the vicious circle

“Consumerism is a social and economic order in which the aspirations of many individuals include the acquisition of goods and services beyond those necessary for survival or traditional displays of status.”  Wikipedia

 

    Consumerism is the modern-day opium for the society, Modern societies are so obsessed with it now, that even procreation also aims to contribute to this consumerist society. Consumerism always helps the rich to become richer. It can not stay alive alone, it requires a continuous supply of consumers or cheap labourers or producers. This is a vicious circle.

            Capitalists have a huge stack of money at their disposal, which is also collected from the people, potential consumers or workers. These capitalists with a small portion of that money can lure the people to consume their product. We call this process marketing and advertisement. The only way to break the cycle is to train the mind equanimity. We need to learn the art of slow living. When we stop fuelling the consumerist society, those capitalists will become weak. Of course, there will still be a few rich and ultra-rich, as before, but we will not be filling their pockets by surrendering to consumerism as we are doing now. Also, as we will have less desire to acquire unnecessary things and services, we would be requiring less money to survive, and Jobs will be less stressful. The development will be sustainable, consequently, everyone will have their portion of natural resources. Right now, crony capitalists control those resources with the help of their government friends.

            We buy most of the things because we want them, not we because need them. Even for daily consumables things, we fall for the trap of discounts, and end up buying an excess amount of them, resulting in overconsumption. The want is influenced heavily by the ads also. Some ads would show, how important it is to have a particular phone, to gain status in society. Now Replace the word “Phone” with car, house etc, the meaning will remain the same.

            Nowadays we do most jobs without passion, especially corporate jobs, just because of this illusive view of reality. The nature of jobs is also profit-centric only.

            I have not seen much of innovation lately in the field of science and technology. The AI is not a new thing, we have just enhanced it in the last few decades. Most of the R&D is now consumer-centric as it will give profit to corporates. I am not much aware of things happening in the medical domain, But I assume even those would be profit-driven.

Consumerist society does not care about climate change, nature and work ethics. It is driven by the mentality to consume more. People are running behind things, attaching consumerism to their personal lives and putting themselves in situations of anxiety, and stress. This consumerism ignites the animal instinct inside humans, we want to acquire more than we need. It is not going to be sustained for long.

As I mentioned earlier, one solution would be to live a low-profile life, with less greed and aversion. Localization of the economy could reduce consumption and help sustainable development. Electing a government which will not focus on gaining profit for the crony-capitalist friends is also important. 

Show off ,seeking external validation

       We are in the era of showing off. The technologies at our disposal, along with our dystopian society are encouraging us to do so. Showing off is an old characteristic of humans, but we seldom observe that, until social media has arrived. For the last two decades, we have been observing this trend. Previously the show-off thing was in the domain of rich and wealthy people. Rich people earn money to show off, and physical pleasure things come next on their list. Also, those who think they have knowledge of everything do it, from time to time. But now everyone(especially the middle class) is doing this, as social media and the internet are accessible to anyone. Now boasting is not limited to social media, it has become a compulsive habit.

        So why do we need to show off? because we are seeking external validation, of course. And why do we need the validation, because we don't value ourselves. It is always like if we don't get that job, that apartment(Read so-called family life), or that car, etc, we have not achieved anything in life. We attach our peace of mind to our desires. As a result, we are becoming so materialistic, a salve of consumerism. It is easy for manipulative masters to control us by showing us the carrot of growth, and success(the name varies according to the domain in discussion). The intended outcome, peace of mind is always out of our reach.

        Now there is another category of people, the so-called knowledgeable, those who are worried about their status in this dystopian society, so they show off to keep themselves relevant in their social circles. Previously politicians would maintain a low profile, at least in the northeastern side of India. Now because of this, corruption has reached a threshold level. So-called religious people are also not untouched by this trend, after all, they are also part of this society. Their pseudo-spirituality has made them live a luxurious life so that they can attract more disciples, resulting in more tax-free donations (income).

         The life is to live, not just to survive. Living life on our own terms is difficult, as society does not permit it. Society wants human resources to run the system smoothly for their masters, especially those who have control over natural resources, the corporations. We need to understand that our boasting would not take us anywhere. To know ourselves fully, to be aware of our true nature, and to seek the ultimate truth can only help us to achieve peace of mind.

Happy Loser (reluctant to participate in the rat race of life)

     People would tag person like me as Loser ,I would call myself  Happy Loser . I don't want to participate in the race of life ,as I don't find meaning to be in that race. If it is a race that means even if on one is winning ,someone will definitely be getting defeated . I am not the person who conform to the norms of civil society. In my observation I have never seen members of civil society doing anything different than any animal would do. We are just doing it the same things that animals do ,but wrapping it inside the name of civilization. The cognitive skills we human have, we are using it just to acquire resources more than we need ,and as a result there is competition (competitions are never be healthy when it is not about knowledge). Someone would say we need to improve ourselves to survive. So we are following the same survival of fittest strategy . And this society has already became the slave of consumerism ,as a result  if you don't earn enough to be above the threshold of society defined standard of Loser, you would be to consider as a loser. In this civilized society there is no place for spirituality . We should not mix religion with spirituality . first one is business ,later one is to find yourself. So there are stress ,anxiety etc. due to our  so called growth and improvement.

          "Resources."  Now if we talk about resources ,there should be enough of those for every human being to have a good life. But the current structure is in that way that those resources are controlled by only few people, sometime with the help of ruling government . The sustainable development is a myth nowadays. People may ask me if I am suggesting human to go back to stone age . I may ask the same question "Are not we?". What makes us civilized!! the car ?the Airplane ?AC? or improvement in health sector ?or improvement in technology to build weapons for mass destruction. What are we actually doing with those development? Nothing. Just creating more competitions . From the day of birth ,one is put into the competition ,like any other animal in wild. Difference is that we are kept on our toes ,we need to learn consistently just to survive. 

           Again lets move back to the Happy loser topic. From the beginning of the civilization there maybe lots of them, "the  Loser". This blog post is not my excuse to  currently not having any Job in corporate sector or anywhere . I imagine the whole society as a circus ,and here someone is a clown playing in their character, someone is juggler and other performers performing their scripted acts .Only few enlighten persons are seating in the gallery observing the whole show. In the Centre everyone is running in the circle, but no ones knows why. few of them has just decided to stop running and go to the gallery to have a seat and to enjoy the show. "Happy loser" they are.

Importance of Money and Job

        As I mentioned in the earlier post(the post) that I left my job ,kind of whimsically. I would not do that if I had a settle lifestyle, I would have other responsibilities, though it would put me in pressure cooker situation again. So as a consequence people (including friends and people connected through social apps )started keeping distance from me (a must needed step for them for survival), as this rebellion mentality is contagious.  

         I came back to this city Kolkata ,with the expectation in mind that it (the city) would accept me as I was ,would give me company in the tough time. But my prediction was not correct . This is like any other city with no friends around ,which is common characteristic for any city for an introvert like me. Beside that this city is going through a moral crisis ,political situation is at its worst condition. So the scope for doing something new here is out of question now. I may have to go back to corporate world ,but with different mentality . I have accepted that I have to work as corporate slave util I find another way. 

        I have seen posts about romanticising poverty. We all need money. Because we assign value through money, and absence of it would be considered as worthless according to the contemporary society norms. I have seen rich people preaching about why poor people are poor ,most of them came from from wealthy rich background. Yes they took risks ,avoided paying taxes ,avoided payment of loans and most important is that they convinced common people whom they call poor ,to invest in their venture.

        It will be very tough for me to return to corporate world due the the unstable employment history, but anyway I am left with no other option. hope the next year will be better than this one ,where I could forget the past or at least accept the disasters happened in the past.Two more months to go .

 

Bus ride and seat belt

It was a cloudy autumn morning in Kolkata , I recently quitted my another job within a month ,by paying hefty amount as buyout of notice period . If people ask why would anyone do that , my answer would be ,perhaps because i am crazy or out of my mind . generally this time of year , in the month of September it would be little hot and humid weather here, but this time it is completely different. I got a call from my maternal uncle that my cousin brother studying here in Narendrapur, was not well ,so if I could visit his place to check . 

Anyway As was officially unemployed(by choice) , I thought I must go . now I was thinking of availing public transportation ,instead of Uber or OLA. It was long time since I had travelled by Bus in Kolkata. maybe last time I took a bus ride in the year 2018 or 2019 here. In Bangalore I had to travel by bus for first few months. So in Kolkata the option would be Uber always ,and in recent time due to medical emergency we had to depend on Uber and OLA due to the distance of the Fortis from home.anyway most of the time I would take the front seat ,so for safety had to wear the seatbelt . 

So let's go back to the day I decided to take public transport . I found that this option is cheap too. I know it would be a break journey and may take more time than a direct Uber ride ,but I still decided to do that. Taking an auto from 206 Bus terminusI reached Karunamoyee Bus terminus ,from where I had to take a S9 or AC9 (air condition version of S9 ) towards Jadavpur.  It was Friday, very few people were scattered here and there,I found it unusual. Maybe because I have not travel by bus for a long time here ,so I was excepting crowd . I entered into the terminus crossing the big opened gate and the AC9 was standing there at the platform left side. I got onto the bus ,there was only one passenger sitting back row of the bus. I went to a back side of the bus. as I was accustomed Uber ride so , first thing I checked was the seatbelt .Then i reminded myself it was a Bus and Bus did not have seatbelts.Not only that ,as I was so obsessed with Taxicab rides I was impatient as the bus was not moving from at platform of the terminus for 15 minutes. then also I recalled that there were arrival and departure time ,before that it would not move .

so making the long story short, Taxicabs are spoiling us ,changing our habit to face crowded public transportation. 

 

Harsh Reality: Society discourages failure

     I have experienced it time to time .Due to my (So called ) unplanned life, I have seen when the life was going smooth, also have seen the darkest times.both of the time will repeat itself in future. But the thing is that when it was going smooth ,one could see people around me celebrating even tiny successes . But when it comes to rough and tough time ,people tends to not to keep contact. and I am also no exception.I did that knowingly or un knowingly in past to others. Now the definition of success vary man to man.but Society imposed norms try to generalised it ,most of the time it is based on Money or power.

    It is human behaviour(keeping distance) programmed by the mother nature , to avoid problems which may come if in contact with such not doing so well persons . But in my childhood days I have had seen the opposite of this behaviour ,people would be helping other people in need .I guess that time the sense of community was there, which is missing now a days.self centric people were there from the beginning, but the society would limit their effect with the commune mentality.

    But nowadays we all are victim of consumerism. we all are trying to achieve an unrealistic goal in life, as a result compromising with corruption, little or big, making the future existence of human race uncertain. We are trying to follow the lifestyle of western part of the world without knowing the ground reality there. I have seen people called themselves religious ,but the main motto of any religious scripture ,the truth, they avoid. we all are going for money to secure our future.The question is secure from what? from disease? from  bankruptcy? from natural calamity? actually we don't trust each others to get help from others at the old age, which is common in commune system, but not in this consumerist system .That trust issue and sometime ego ,force us to earn more(?) money, to be self -sufficient at any time. 

    Very few people like to do the work they are doing everyday. the creativity has gone from the mind of people of India .Creativity is only alive in the field of arts. In other fields we are just following order to please the clients. This dissatisfaction can be seen at the bars in weekends. we think intoxicating ourselves with liquor will relax us.  

       At the end of the day it is all about survival of the fittest . Harsh Truth.

Imagination : curse or blessing

    Today I realised that imagination can take you anywhere ,from moon to hell. My recent disaster is the result of overthinking and imagination . Today I talk to the person, about whom  I had negative thoughts  actually we both had. But when that person called after I requested to have a chat ,then I realized the texting is a very dangerous thing ,that can be misinterpreted . 

        If it were my last day of my life ,i would have no regret for anything ,as I got assurance that there is no more bitterness and we are fine with the ending of the movie .Everything has to come to an end and it should be graceful termination.

        One thing I have learnt form this experience is that whenever in bad mood, don't text.  So the thing is that Imagination helps up to improve ,invent and innovate things if channeled in right way. But it will destroy if accompanied by overthinking and channelled in negative way.

        so in relationship ,whether it is Business or personal ,if  I feel negativity I will stay way from the keyboard and will meditate.