URGE TO CONSUME

However hard we try, society ends up owning us, molding us, constructing us in a way that benefits it - all the while without us knowing ourselves that we are being controlled, manipulated, formed into something we are not inclined so. This seemingly harmless containment we do not perceive nor notice, simply because we consider it the norm - we are used to it, live in it, breathe it in, and so it does not come as a   deviation, but as life itself happening to us.                         

                                                                                              

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                

  There is none more shameless of this control as but seen in the power of consumerism.

                                                                                                                                                                

     It always starts small: trying out something for size, curiosity aroused, no harm done if you'd give it a chance. We buy a new food product out in the market, try on a new set of clothes that's supposedly the fashion of the now, purchase a gadget that swears by its maker is a new necessity in the modern, newfangled age. The high of an adventure of trying something new - it hooks you, lures you in, spins you around. And then, little by little with the subtly of the whisper of the wind, you get addicted - one piece at a time, two at the most, sometimes, frequently, all the time. You hoard, you lust for it, its necessity has long since ended and still you consume. In comes the greed, the simple, insatiable need to buy only because you were accustomed to buying it, and to not do so is to deviate from you own life's norm. You've become a full-pledge consumer or the things you don't even need.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

How did this happen?

Take a look around - and blame everything you see. The billboards, the print ads, the TV and radio commercials, even the people that surround you, promoting products without self-knowledge of it: these things are to blame. We now live in a world that urges you to buy, buy, buy, from the moment you wake up to the minute you fall asleep, again and again, day after day, for the rest of our lives.                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            



Welcome to the age of consumerism. 

 

You know it isn't right. You go to the supermarket, pick up an item, and think to yourself, "Do I need this?" And think of all the possible uses for it, the immediacy of its utility, and you know that you don't need it, maybe not yet now, maybe not at all. But because society has dictated upon you - that lively chime in your ear, dull nagging at the back of your head, neon signs flashing a reminder - to consume, to buy, to spend and purchase without thought, despite all your misgivings, you contradict yourself and drop it into your basket anyway. 

 You tried to control it, tried being the imperative word. You saved and you scrimped and you remind yourself many times over, and yet does it work? You find yourself. But because you were born and bred into a generation that consumes without thought, you cannot break out of the status quo. It has become the norm, what is usual, and to stray from it is to deviate, and to deviate from what is considered by society as the way of living is to cause yourself to be labeled a social pariah, one who does not want nor heed to belong.

 But is this structure of thoughtless purchasing - this practice of consumerism - in any form beneficial? What do we stand to gain from it? What have we gained from it so far? We spend hard-earned money to buy the things we see on TV and ads, hear being marketed on the radio, displayed in stalls and glass cases, prices slashed off once, twice, half-price off, buy one, take one. Do we become better people, wiser, more mature, by involving ourselves in this habit of spending? 

 The simplest course of action is to look away. To remind one's self that consumerism is superficial, ergo not beneficial in its entirety. You stand in the middle and take a look around - see how society slowly erradicate themselves by buying and buying, spending money they worked for, all the while promised by these products hapless thoughts of ease and convenience. But should it not be reminded that the worth of self-fulfillment is based on the effort put upon achieving it? That consumerism is, in a way, cheating oneself of all the effort, and therefore of self-fulfillment. 

You were born in a consumerist society, dictated to buy the things you don't need masked by promised of a better life. What are you doing about it?