Thoughts after reading a new book
I have often asked people how can they have a future they cannot imagine and dream about? But there is a dark side to being able to imagine, being able to see, being able to dream about what one can have.
I graduated from business school. I learned about marketing, advertising, as well as psychology and sociology that goes behind the decisions people make every day. In our consumerist/capitalist world today, it is not only about production, but also about consumption. It is not just about supply, but also about demand. Almost all corporations have their performance measured in terms of growth. Singapore measures its success in terms of economic growth. So in marketing and advertising, we try to tell people what they should desire, what they should want.
Walter Bruggemann describes this as:
"the endless demands of economic reality, more specifically the demands market ideology, as Adam Smith had already seen, on the generation of needs and desires that will leave us endlessly "rest-less," inadequate, unfulfilled, and in pursuit of that which may satiate desire. Those requirements concern endless predation so that we are a society of 24/7 multitasking in order to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess. But the demands of market ideology pertain as much to consumption as they do to production. Thus the system of commodity requires that we want more, have more, own more, use more, eat and drink more."
Mix this with instant gratification and you arrive at a soulless society that is not aware of the consequences of its endless pursuit of more, more, more, or the fact that getting more does not satiate the endless generation of needs and desires that we are bombarded with.
You want an example? I'll give you one. We have games today where there are achievement badges. Or games that pit you against your friends. And they get us hooked. Score about 50,000 points and you get an achievement badge! Be top of the scoreboard amongst your friends! That's how Candy Crush Saga, Bejeweled, Farmville, and a whole host of other games get you hooked. It gives you a false sense of achievement. Maybe bragging rights. I know, because I got hooked too!
Some people used to (and still do) travel to find themselves, and to see the world. I see, more and more alarmingly, people travel to consume, to satiate that desire that was created in them through hype and marketing - the x number of places to visit before you die.
I used to think that way. There were several places on my list. Machu Picchu, the Parthenon, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque.... I no longer have a list. Perhaps it is a realization that I cannot have it all, and the fact that having it all does not give me a sense of fulfillment. Having been to these places does not make me better than someone who has not.
I helped out in a funeral recently, and I was moved deeply. I did not know the deceased when she was alive, but meeting her family and friends, I felt like I knew her - albeit indirectly. Her friends flew in from Canada and the UK just to bid her farewell. She was an amazing person who touched many lives. I reflected - this is a life well and fully lived. It wasn't about what she had, what accomplishments she achieved, where she had been. It was about how she lived, and how she loved.
I remember one audio recording from the CD "Graceful Passages" my Christian Spirituality professor, Prof Joseph D. Driskill, shared with me. It is by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, famous for her theory on the five stages of grief.
"When you make your transition, you will be asked two things basically: How much love have you been able to give and receive, and how much service have you rendered. And you will know every consequence of every deed, every thought, and every word you have ever uttered. And that is symbolically speaking, going through hell when you see the many chances you have missed. But you also see how a nice act of kindness has touched hundreds of lives that you're totally unaware of.
So concentrate on love while you're still around, and teach your children early unconditional love."
I think our preoccupation with the culture of more, of consumption, of now, stems from our anxiety around our limited existence, around our mortality. Sadly, though, it is this very culture opposes to what is life-giving, and leads us towards death - not just the physical death, but the emptiness and the dying of our spirits.
What is important to you? Why is it important to you? How does pursuing what you are pursuing bring you closer to what is important to you? Will the path you are taking lead you to where you want to be?
I graduated from business school. I learned about marketing, advertising, as well as psychology and sociology that goes behind the decisions people make every day. In our consumerist/capitalist world today, it is not only about production, but also about consumption. It is not just about supply, but also about demand. Almost all corporations have their performance measured in terms of growth. Singapore measures its success in terms of economic growth. So in marketing and advertising, we try to tell people what they should desire, what they should want.
Walter Bruggemann describes this as:
"the endless demands of economic reality, more specifically the demands market ideology, as Adam Smith had already seen, on the generation of needs and desires that will leave us endlessly "rest-less," inadequate, unfulfilled, and in pursuit of that which may satiate desire. Those requirements concern endless predation so that we are a society of 24/7 multitasking in order to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess. But the demands of market ideology pertain as much to consumption as they do to production. Thus the system of commodity requires that we want more, have more, own more, use more, eat and drink more."
Mix this with instant gratification and you arrive at a soulless society that is not aware of the consequences of its endless pursuit of more, more, more, or the fact that getting more does not satiate the endless generation of needs and desires that we are bombarded with.
You want an example? I'll give you one. We have games today where there are achievement badges. Or games that pit you against your friends. And they get us hooked. Score about 50,000 points and you get an achievement badge! Be top of the scoreboard amongst your friends! That's how Candy Crush Saga, Bejeweled, Farmville, and a whole host of other games get you hooked. It gives you a false sense of achievement. Maybe bragging rights. I know, because I got hooked too!
Some people used to (and still do) travel to find themselves, and to see the world. I see, more and more alarmingly, people travel to consume, to satiate that desire that was created in them through hype and marketing - the x number of places to visit before you die.
I used to think that way. There were several places on my list. Machu Picchu, the Parthenon, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque.... I no longer have a list. Perhaps it is a realization that I cannot have it all, and the fact that having it all does not give me a sense of fulfillment. Having been to these places does not make me better than someone who has not.
I helped out in a funeral recently, and I was moved deeply. I did not know the deceased when she was alive, but meeting her family and friends, I felt like I knew her - albeit indirectly. Her friends flew in from Canada and the UK just to bid her farewell. She was an amazing person who touched many lives. I reflected - this is a life well and fully lived. It wasn't about what she had, what accomplishments she achieved, where she had been. It was about how she lived, and how she loved.
I remember one audio recording from the CD "Graceful Passages" my Christian Spirituality professor, Prof Joseph D. Driskill, shared with me. It is by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, famous for her theory on the five stages of grief.
"When you make your transition, you will be asked two things basically: How much love have you been able to give and receive, and how much service have you rendered. And you will know every consequence of every deed, every thought, and every word you have ever uttered. And that is symbolically speaking, going through hell when you see the many chances you have missed. But you also see how a nice act of kindness has touched hundreds of lives that you're totally unaware of.
So concentrate on love while you're still around, and teach your children early unconditional love."
I think our preoccupation with the culture of more, of consumption, of now, stems from our anxiety around our limited existence, around our mortality. Sadly, though, it is this very culture opposes to what is life-giving, and leads us towards death - not just the physical death, but the emptiness and the dying of our spirits.
What is important to you? Why is it important to you? How does pursuing what you are pursuing bring you closer to what is important to you? Will the path you are taking lead you to where you want to be?