I've written on this before (here and here), but its worth repeating over and over again: American-style consumerism is a dangerous virus that is dragging the entire world down with them. The current financial crisis is merely the latest manifestation of the sickness. This article sums up the dilemma quite well - the pursuit of happiness has been replaced with the pursuit of comfort, the comfort supplied by gadgets and goods.
It's very interesting how he compares the Hajj stampedes to the recent stampede at Wal-Mart that killed one and injured several others. The religion of consumerism is no different than other religions, even celebrating its very own holidays (Black Friday).
One noteworthy difference is that extremism is much more rampant in the religion of the free market than other traditional religions.
However, the more crucial difference between the two, religion and consumerism, is that the latter simply can never provide true happiness. Goods need to constantly be replenished with newer goods:
"A consumer economy only works if consumption of goods provides only temporary pleasure. That is, if happiness is infinitely deferred, so that buyers continue to buy more and more goods and services. By definition, the consumer can never be satisfied, at rest or happy. Which means she will always feel lacking. The pursuit of this sort of happiness creates a vicious circle of growing anxiety and dissatisfaction."
He concludes by hitting the nail on the head when he describes the sheer shallowness propagated by the preachers of consumerism with the Seinfeld analogy:
"We are like the 30-something characters in Seinfeld, who know they are immature, who know they are avoiding the responsibility of building meaningful relationships and of leading meaningful lives - and who don't really care."
On a related not, I was a bit perturbed by the always entertaining Haleem who recently made a comment on the sad life suffered by villagers back in his home country of Bangladesh:
"Anything happens in the village the whole village will gather to watch. Seriously. They have no life, poor people"
That overly simple life that some may look down upon is no worse than the exciting, happening life we are mired in.
WAW
4 days ago
3 comments:
Really good article and comments from you. More and more as I get older, I am amazed at how wrapped up we are in STUFF here in America. My friends talk about getting new rugs, wood floors, decorations for their houses and not that those are bad at all, but when I compare that mentality with the extreme poverty in some areas of the world, it really sobers me. People here care more about an appliance breaking than starving children in Africa or Gaza. We care more about whether our TVs will get the digital signal than Uganda's children who flee rebel armies desiring to make them soldiers. We really have been blessed in America. So much, in fact, that it seems to have become our curse. How long can we look away or stay unaware of how others are hurting and desperately needful? :-/
"To whom much is given, much will be required."
My pastor challenges us often with this statement:
"How many of you know God doesn't pass us the gravy so we can drown in it."
Since hearing that, I have tried to evaluate my own life. I am blessed by God ... to horde it all and accumulate stuff? Or so that I can bless others?
And it's true also what my preacher says, "Don't you think if fun made you happy, we'd be the happiest people in the world?" In American we have tried about everything and been given nearly whatever we want yet we still are a nation of pill poppers and imbibers trying to drown out the pain of empty lives. Seems our souls are not satisfied with these man-made notions of fun.
It's sad.
Thanks for the post-Christmas reminder, Naeem.
The thing about "American consumerism" is that there's nothing particularly American about it. Susanne mentions people caring about Gaza's starving, for example. I lived about an hour from Gaza, and the people there - their own Arab brethren, including other Palestinians - really did not care beyond a few telethons or when it was useful as an opportunity to blast Israel or the USA. At Ramadan, you do see charity as far as giving to orphans and Palestinians and the poor, but other than that, it is not really something you see. Nor are people content to sit around with a "simple life." It was about the pursuit of something bigger, shinier, better.
The pursuit of material goods, the competition, the "keeping up with the Abdullahs" was astonishing to me, as an American. I may have, initially (many years ago), expected the people to be less dunya or material oriented, as Muslims, but I was quickly disabused of that notion. My brief forays / encounters with the GCC have shown me that conspicuous consumption and the competition to show off (riyaa') is even worse there - and it *definitely* has an Arabic flavor to it.
What I'm trying to say is that I don't see the US as being worse than others in this regard, only that we have far more money and more opportunities to pursue material goods than others. It is easy to place this on the US, esp. if you're prone to seeing it as a moral wasteland or you have no experience with other societies and cultures. But in many other ways, my life here is not permeated with the show off, mean attitude that my life there was, where everyone is literally going through your cabinets and assessing the value of everything you have so that they can assess your value as a human being.
AA-
@Susanne, thank you for your thoughts. Your preacher truly speaks the truth. We all need to find that balance with what we need, not with what we want.
@ex-expat (doesn't that make you a pat? heh),
I didn't mean to imply that this disgraceful trend towards overconsumption is limited to America. In fact, living here in Saudi Arabia, I could make a strong case that its worse here.
I cited America as the source of this plague as they are the pioneers and trailblazers when it comes to finding news ways to titillate the senses. The rest of the world are merely copycats.
"What I'm trying to say is that I don't see the US as being worse than others in this regard, only that we have far more money and more opportunities to pursue material goods than others."
Again, I'm not saying America is worse, just that they are the initiators and I would even say the driving force behind consumerism. After all, they have the largest consumer market in the world.
"But in many other ways, my life here is not permeated with the show off, mean attitude that my life there was, where everyone is literally going through your cabinets and assessing the value of everything you have so that they can assess your value as a human being."
Valid point. Too many consumers in the developing world haven't learned the proper etiquettes of flaunting their wealth while withholding judgment of their fellow man.
I will never accuse my American compatriots of lacking in manners, especially when compared to my religious brethren all over the Muslim world. But that doesn't diminish the severity of the greater sin of overindulgence, as embodied by American society.
Post a Comment