Unapologetic Face of a Consumerist Society

What does one need to live a good life? Apart from food, air and a roof over your head, a smooth family life, job security and disease-free body are other essentials. In previous times, people led simple lives and were very happy and satisfied. But not anymore. You can consider this as phase-I of mankind's way of existing. Enter phase-II, where consumerism's hegemony and materialism is a way of life. Before, they were just conveniences created to ease the burden of stay-at-home women. Now they have become an indispensable part of our existence. Money can buy riches of the world, agreed. But it can also buy happiness. Quite a revelation, isn't it? Everything sells in existing times. Given this, it isn't difficult to purchase the luxuries of life, provided you have the means for it. Booming economies and big pay packets have given way to improved standards of living. So much so that everyone is wants to make hay while the sun shines. For the urban society it translates into owning extravagances. Saving for a rainy day is something that doesn't cross their mind very often. Materialism has found deep roots in today's society, not to mention, the indulgences. And why not? is their retort. Disposable incomes coupled with the incessant need to outdo the neighbor have made materialism all the more rampant. Just the desire to live life a king's way is reason enough.

Branded clothes, shoes, accessories, good food, big cars, exotic vacations, palatial place to live in, personal attention and easy connectivity. All these and much more, no longer counted as luxuries, rather, the necessities of modern life. Many people use these as means to procure new social contacts, move around in the affluent circle, thereby upping their social status. For them, it is the be all and end all of their lives and do not feel sorry even a tad. After all, it's about "living a good life". Take a look around and try to observe various aspects of living. Can you find even one that is untouched by technology? I would say zilch. For every little thing we are dependent on some gadget or the other. Be it cell phones, televisions, washing machines, dishwashers, cooking ranges, microwaves, there isn't a single space of life where technology hasn't intruded. This is the outcome of increasing attainability of consumer credit and debt, absolute reliance on labor-saving devices and a general preoccupation with possessions. Traditional cultural values have been razed over by commercialization and intemperate upsurge of mass media.

With such a strong hold, consumerism has become a religion of sorts and developed into an alternative belief system. This phenomenon has replaced all the good virtues with its own like patience with instant gratification, selflessness with self-regard, generosity with maximal profits, and restraint with impulse buying. Consumerism subsists as a deficient and incompetent network of ethics supplanted for a weakening cultural heritage. It doesn't provide anything long-term, just interim pleasures. The more you have the more you want to have. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi "There is enough on earth for everybody's need, but not for everyone's greed".