Consume, Consume, Consume With The False Promise Of Happiness!

[mia]

http://themindunleashed.org/2014/07/consume-consume-consume-false-promise-happiness.html

“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats, his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies.

We’re Attached To Physical Objects

Not only have humans become attached to physical objects or things, but also to relationships, ideas and opinions. We anchor or associate happiness, success and fulfillment with these external objects in the hope that we will find lasting happiness. So what do we do? Like the mouse on the treadmill we hope we will eventually get to where we want to be. We are always trying to achieve, in a never ending cycle of wanting and having, thinking this will lead us to lasting happiness.

The current Western economic system with the mantra of growth and prosperity has let us be seduced into a pattern of wanting and external gratification. Most of us have been herded onto the plains of consumerism with the promise this will bring us closer to fulfillment. While on the forest fringes, we see a small group of enlightened beings that realize happiness and contentment comes only from within and cannot be bought, sold, acquired or accumulated.

Non-attachment gives us the freedom, space and time to contemplate the true meaning of life. Attachment distracts us from reality. It influences how we perceive and react to our immediate world. A world of excess leads to a roller coaster of highs and lows. This in turn motivates us to seek out more of those high moments of pleasure. We enter into a hedonistic world of want-fulfillment which creates further wanting in an attempt to bring lasting happiness.

[PowerToThePeople]

1. Do you follow Buddhist teachings?

I had read several writing about it in the 90s while I was an underclassman in college. College life gave me the opportunity to rid myself of most physical possessions (attachments) several times over those years, via moving mostly. I never truly rid myself of all attachments though. It is a freeing experience to not have to support all of the stuff any more.

I am trying to teach my son to disdain consumerism, I tell him that they (the people buying all the fancy cars, etc.) have a disease and are not healthy people for themselves or the planet. I need to get back into these writings again and reassess where I am and how to free myself from these self imposed chains.

[mia]

3. Not sure.

I've come across Buddhist writings and practices from time to time and have enjoyed thinking about that approach to life. I know the "freeing experience" that you described - getting rid of stuff feels so good!

[snagglepuss]

2. .

[mia]

6. Yes.

[WinkyDink]

4. I thought all of this was well-known.

[mia]

8. I need to remind myself from time to time.

[davekriss]

13. Yup, well known, and very Buddhist

[randome]

5. "Demands"? Well, if you can't think for yourself, I guess that's a fair characterization.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[mia]

10. All those advertisements must be working.

[leftstreet]

7. Consumption preserves the illusion of middle class comfort n/t

[mia]

12. ... and reduced consumption helps to extend the illusion into old age.

[Trillo]

9. It's the basis of advertising.

The promise of happiness, if only you'll buy, then we find out the product we receive doesn't match the images the advertising presented. It's interesting to consider that within the context of our supposedly inalienable right to pursue happiness.

[mia]

14. It's as if having particular things that others can't have will make us somehow better.

Advertising stimulates envy.

[Populist_Prole]

11. You're all not going to believe this but

I recently had a conversation with a hard-right acquaintence and his take was that this consumerism was...get this..."driven by the libruls and the librul media that we have to have all this stuff".

I was like, "The liberals!!?? YGBFSM! You damned well it's a conservative thing! Whose coffers is all this money spent on this stuff going into?"

Definitely a case of a hammer seeing everything in the world as a nail.

[mia]

15. I can imagine...for him the 'libruls' can be blamed for everything.

I guess your hard-right acquaintance wasn't around when Bush Jr. told us to all "go out and shop".

[Populist_Prole]

16. Yeah, pretty much

He's too much of a brainwashed team player to think things through. If it's adverse to him or anything he sides with, then it's the liberals or government's fault. ( government was OK under Bush though ) Regarding Bush, he would refer to him as "our beloved president" in emails and such.

See what I mean?

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. I disagree with redefining of materialism to encompass relationships, ideas and opinions.

While I reject conformity to social norms as expressed by merchandise. I fully intend to remain attached to relationships, ideas and opinions.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Indeed. It's a shame. 10,000 years ago humans were much more enlightened.

There's something about spending the majority of one's waking moments running from sabre-toothed tigers, and then dying at age 25 from rotten, infected teeth, that allows the mind to pursue higher-planed non-attached wisdom.