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.