Our society is so suppressed beneath The Machine, The Establishment . . . The Man, whatever you want to call it, that it would seem there will be no wriggling free of it's clutch. Instead of asking questions and achieving real happiness, we consume to ease the suffering.
In times of old, it would seem people were not happy. I mean, surely a peasant working the land for the King with little possessions and time was not happy. They had no leisure . . . to us at least. But we forget that a peasant, although poor and over worked, had family. They had evenings and time of rest to sit together over a pint of mead or to dance at the May Fair Pole. Their joy, comes from a thing that we seemingly detest. Family.
We live in a time that is full of conspicuous consumption, a byproduct of leisure. It is when people, buy things just for the purpose of displaying wealth. It's for attaining or maintaining social status and it is nothing more than a waste. However, our society is so caught up on it that it is beginning to be a major downfall of our species.
The high paced technological world we live in is cutting back our communication skills. We are friends online, and yet do not take online happenings seriously. People today have two close friends on average, and about 20 years ago people said they had three. The focus of sexual relationships has changed from marriage to casual flings, the idea of having children has been wiped from our minds because, when you have children you are suddenly tied down. You can't buy everything you wanted or have exciting crazy lives like the Hollywood stars, you have a child to raise and look after. That's an emotional and monetary drain. Game. Over.
The suicide rates are highest among people who are electronically advanced. Take for instance, Japan. People there are suffering from something called Hikikimori, which is essentially self-isolation. They go into their rooms and don't emerge for some time, sometimes even years.
The church teaches us about community, good will towards mankind, morality and ethics. At least, that's what it should, if it is talking at all about Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Can someone point out exactly where someone has put this into practice? I do not think that America is the place, nor Canada . . .
We long for community and communal values, a place that looks after one another and is safe to let our children out into the streets of. We contradict ourselves every time we buy something that is not needed. Plasma widescreen televisions are NOT a necessity, and yet why do we want them? The Jones' down the street have one and it is crystal clear and amazing. Yes, but it is just a television. In the book, "Fahrenheit 451", they had wall to wall televisions that you were part of, you got a script and you got to be in the story. Does this seem like a good idea to you considering the rest of the society they lived in?
The Internet and all the high tech gadgetry that people are dying to have, is just another burden. We are stressed about the cost of these things, about not having one, about having one . . . and when we get them, we leave it on all the time, because someone might call, someone might send something, someone, somewhere, might need us. We can feel important for two seconds or we can feel hatred towards someone sending an email at 2am that requires an instant reply. No, it doesn't. Put down the palm pilot, turn off your cell phone, step away from the computer. When I was a kid, if the phone rang after 10pm nobody answered it . . . if it was important they would call back and my mom would answer it then, but the random late night rings were ignored. You need, down time.
Most of all, and say it with me . . . you don't need any of these things. It is the belief that you do, that is causing the anxiety that keeps you up for days on end, consuming over the counter answers in a pill. You need to sit down and think about what is important to you. If you say, anything electronic over family and friends, you are a slave to the machine. If you say new clothes and a fancy car and a good job, you are a slave.
Do you think Jesus would live in a mansion with an escalade or five? Would Jesus use the drive-thru to order a dozen Big Macs before throwing his trash everywhere but the trash can? No, I think if Jesus were alive today he would weep for us all, for what we have become and the ways we have twisted his words.
We all are just filling our greed . . . our gluttony, to try and fill a void that is caused by a lack of understanding and love in this world. We are sinning against God and against ourselves every time we say "I wish I had . . .". Are we not told not to covert what thy neighbor has?? What then, is the reason we all buy what the people down the street have? What the television tells us the rich people have and are doing?
As a collective we need to step back and take a look at what we are doing. We are feeding the machine that is grinding us down, it's a vicious cycle. Only you can stop it. Only you can step back and say "I don't want to be part of this". It maybe takes more than one person to make a real difference, but one person can make a small one. And that's better than doing nothing at all.
-BP
