Deep overindulgent navel gazing…
Are we consuming ourselves with all those things?
Some Psychologists say the way we interact with each other and our environment is akin to a form of collective psychosis. In theory we are animals and therefore have two primary subconscious motives: survival and attracting a mate. Now that survival is a gimme we spend far more time thinking about social and sexual issues than any animal in History - gifting us an obsession with ‘prestige’ and our rank in society,or in consumer terms our consumption. "The principal way we now display ourselves is through our purchases. I Pads Calvin Klein Mercedes etc now effect our innermost impulses, capitalist society not only exploits our evolutionary tendencies but it amplifies and distorts them replacing traditional human interaction with Consumption.Meaning we often replace normal mating rituals with simply having a flashy car. But this media driven celebrity circus is not making us happy. Instead we are awash with addictions and depression in a ocean of prescription drugs. Mental health issues which were a stigma a generation ago are now everyday conversation. So what happened to us? Did we destroy our utopian dream on petty jealousies, anxieties and our obsession with prestige and our place in society?
I suppose even if we as a people have gone up ourselves in overindulgences the psychological cost to modern culture is relatively small. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that the kind of growth rates we have been getting around the world in recent years are not sustainable, Measures taken to address its impact, such as recycling, renewable energies and enduring design are only treating the symptoms. Our main hope is that is may be only a temporary illness which we can grow out of enabling us to stop borrowing all that money from all those banks to buy all those things we don’t need to impress all those people we don’t like.