If you closely observe the last century of human history, you can demarcate the end of 2nd world war as the de-facto point of change in human nature. And it’s largely contributed to the rise of consumerism. This post will deal with this atrocious trait of humanity which is making us less intellectual day by day.
The basic fact that humanity has always been at war with each other came to a sudden end in the year 1945 with the death of so-called worst human ever — The Fuhrer. And consequently after that, the world realised that winning wars and ruling inferior race/nations isn’t considered a superior race/nation anymore. So, what did these superpowers decided? Economy is the benchmark for a victor. And economy was and still is defined by corporate powerhouses. And thus began the never-ending “consumption of stuffs” which somehow became the new lifestyle of living.
Now, before the world wars and industrialization, majority of humans were not rich. They never had the greed for things. The one thing that they wanted in their life was to be happy. Even now, happiness is still the biggest draw of human nature. Every single human being in this planet wants to be happy. The only difference is that long before, having stuffs didn’t qualified for a happy, satisfied life. Happiness lied in small things such as conversation with like-minded, love, family, friends and following one’s personal dreams. Cut back to 21st century, Happiness is measured in terms of consumption. The more you own the better your life is. That’s became the single valid rule of human lives. The more houses you own, the more cars you have, the more money you make, and so on.. and it became the general perception that the more happy you are. Rubbish!
We live in a very tumultuous period of humanity. Now, humans have lost the pursuit for happiness. They are living the corporate’s dreams. To have a high-paying job, to own an iPhone, to own an Audi/BMW seems to be only motivating factor for humans. People are becoming dumb and money is the only reason why some humans even exist. This reminds me of a very good quote from the 1999 cult-movie Fight Club:
Self-improvement is Masturbation and self-destruction
Surely it is! We are owning up things which we don’t need but we want. We are a generation of shop-o-holic maniac society where shopping is deemed as an essential activity. People are buying Dior, Gucci, Mercedes, iPhone, and thousands of other stuffs to make themselves happy. No, you are not going to be happy if you pay thousands of dollars for something which you could have got for mere cents had you not been concerned with what fellow-humans will say. That’s the biggest truth of life. People are ruled by fellow humans whom they judge fit for following.
Cheers to that!
I own a Samsung galaxy music duos (S6012) smartphone which I majorly use for listening to music, using Wordweb application and some puzzle games which I’ve downloaded from play store. I am quite content with what I have. Now, who the fuck are you to judge that I should own a more sophisticated device–an Apple iPhone or a Google nexus 5? I don’t care not having thousands of other useful apps which I don’t even have time to see, lest use it regularly. I don’t want to follow what other people out there are following. This reminds me one more quote from the movie The Departed
I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me
akritik 