Consumerism

(6-minute read) – It was another Christmas morning and another display of consumerism about to unfold. Children sat on the floor in front of the Christmas tree. They had just been given the go-ahead to start opening their presents. So the wild rush to tear open wrapping paper began. They gave brief screams of delight as they got sight of each present, then brushed them aside to tear open the next one.

Within a few days or a few weeks after Christmas, depending on the quality of the presents, most of them were on the rubbish heap. There they remained, ugly reminders of the human species’ wastage of Earth’s resources.

Christmas in the average middle and upper class Christian family has nothing to do with the spirit of Christmas. Instead it epitomises consumerism – consumerism in the sense of a preoccupation with buying consumer goods.

The difference today

Some of the fondest memories I have of childhood are Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Those memories of family and late night excitement and early morning rising have stayed with me to this day. But my presents were meagre. We grew up on few luxuries, and those that we had were treasured and appreciated. We never wasted.

These days, I fear I’m teaching my children consumerism through Christmas. Or at least not stopping them learning it from society.

Believing the hype

The media has us believing in the value of consumer goods in and of themselves. They target our children – nice fertile ground for life. And my generation of parents don’t put a stop to it because we’re not so sure there’s a problem. We have bought the marketing hype.

In the process we create memories that revolve around things rather than around family, giving and a spirit of appreciation. We show our obedience to the consumer mentality. And this blight stays with our children for life, as our memories of Christmas stay with us.

I’m guilty as a parent. It makes me sad to say, but it’s true: consumerism is a blight on my family that we propagate throughout the year, but especially at birthdays and Christmas.

It’s a blight in the sense that our appreciation for the majesty of mother Earth is crushed. It’s a blight because we seek meaning and fulfilment in the habit of buying. And we are left spiritually bereft as a result.

Appreciation for Earth

When we are conscious of where the goods we buy come from and the limited nature of these resources we appreciate the Earth and our place in it. But when we consume and waste with gay abandon, we lose our connection to the earth, its majestic place in our cosmos and by extension our origin in the universe. We become lost to the deeper meaning of ourselves.

We become violent and patriarchal to mother Earth. This includes a hardness of heart regarding all aspects on the world, from wastage of mineral and plant resources, to cruelty to animals, to disregard for human relations.

This is because we are connected to the Earth. We are made of the same stuff – the stuff of the stars. We become hateful and violent when we deny this or neglect this. And the cycle spirals with more consumerism, more wastage and disconnection from our source.

We will suffer in the long run. Not the Earth. The Earth will recover from the pestilence of humankind. We are the ones who will run out of its resources, or die due to climate change, or wipe each other out fighting for water, or whatever. And long after we are gone, the Earth will still be here. New ecosystems will emerge. Stocks of resources will replenish and new species – products of the stars – will evolve.

It is a cold reality. Our consumerism will destroy our species, or at the very least, result in a mass extinction that will balance our species’ impact on the Earth back down to a sustainable level. That is the nature of ecosystems. That is the wisdom of Mother Earth.

Misplaced search for meaning

People want meaning, growth, happy lives… more. We are conscious of where we are and we are conscious of possibility and potential beyond where we are. By our very human natures we move forward with a sense of time, a sense of a journey to a future. We seek understanding of our condition, sometimes with great angst.

If we seek answers in the wrong places we get short term illusions of being satisfied. These short term illusions are addictive because when we stop there’s a hole that needs to be filled, so we go back to the illusion. Every time we go back the satisfying affect is less because it’s not novel. So to feel satisfaction again we must get more of the illusory answer.

These short term illusions are addictions. They may be addictions to substances, relationships, thoughts or feelings… or buying consumer goods. Our addictions, or attachments are the things that make us feel happy while we’re getting more of them, but leave us depressed as soon as we cannot have them. They don’t give us lasting meaning.

Bernard Levin describes the common scenario well in this famous quote:

“Countries like ours are full of people who have all the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it . . . it aches!”

The solution

The solution for consumerism is the same as the solution for any addiction or attachment.

Let go!

And the ability to let go grows from the regular practice of meditation. Meditation is a letting go of thoughts and emotions in order to become happy in the emptiness, in order to revel in the quiet that is nothingness and that is the source of all. The source of the stars and the source of Earth.

Meditation brings us to a life of detachment from the things we hoped would make us happy and give us meaning. It is the solution to the blight of seeking meaning in buying consumer goods. And it is the only hope for our sustainability as a species on Earth.