We walk across aisles, alleyways, roads, malls, shops and now - with the advent of fast moving modern technology - even in our personal spaces, Scrolling…… Through countless number of advertisements from loud hoardings and posters to our mobile phone screens with picture perfect humans flaunting their merchandise. We are constantly being reminded again and again, that WE LACK SOMETHING. We end up comparing ourselves with the handsome hunk wearing the latest LEVIS jeans or with the girl having luscious lips and spotless skin wearing MAYBELLINE, NEW YORK’s latest brand of cosmetics. We are hit with a pang. We envision ourselves as that person. And the solution?… Is right there, in front of our eyes, just two steps away. There is rush within us, I WANT IT. And also, it’s a SALE DAY…
Our eyes light up, we walk into the store with shimmering tiles welcomed by beautiful salesmen/women with a smile in their faces. “Hello Sir/Ma’am. Would you like to try out our latest design.”. While stepping into the trial rooms, or in approaching the product we are filled with an exuberant wave of confidence. It is ours now, we are beautiful, we are powerful, we feel in control.
We step out of the shop rocking our new goodies, feeling like a new person altogether, anticipating what our friends and family members would say. Wanting to show our new selves to the world. Hoping that most of the reviews would be GRATIFYING. Then there are some from whom we have had a history of negative remarks regarding our choices. So we hatch a plan to evade them. Its Sorted.
But we see, that soon enough the flavor fades away, our attempt to continuously Gratify ourselves dissolves. After a couple of repetitions it dissolves further. Now that trick, that solution is no longer working. AND WE ARE BACK TO ZERO, YET AGAIN. Feeling a lack…… again.
But a notification pops up, another advertisement and innumerable options waiting out there, for us to try out. So, we venture out, yet again. What would it be this time… brand new pair of NIKE shoes worn by your favorite actor/sportsperson, or the new high tech APPLE I-Watch, or that Book or Course that will make you SUPER RICH OR SUCCESSFUL IN JUST 1 MONTH. Or a hookup at Tinder, or some spiritual practice that promises you an otherworldly experience.
Credits: Marie Claire
Do we see this happening in our day to day living. Do we ever PAUSE FOR A BIT and OBSERVE our living? I feel nowadays all this happens so fast within a click of a button, that we don’t even see it happening. Our prime concern is BUY MORE, GET MORE, FEEL MORE… MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT WE HAVE. CONSUME. CONSUME. CONSUME. Every moment, the pot is boiling, to do something or the other. DO IT, DO IT, DO SOMETHING. Look at that person, he/she HAS MADE IT!! They look so happy and fulfilled, Wish I had her life. Look at her hair color, It’s bang on !!! Look at his abs, damn he must be working out hard, I must get the gym subscription today itself.
Credits : https://montereypremier.com/what-is-ad-fatigue-and-how-to-manage-it-in-online-and-ppc-ads/
There is always that feeling of being missed out on something or the other, from the latest Netflix Series to What are the ongoing hot controversies, or ways of making it to the top… we continuously feel as if we need to catch up on something. And this TENDENCY TO CONSUME within us, keeps on going, keeps on growing so much so that we are instantaneously bored, restless ending up wanting MORE AND MORE AND MORE…..
**Modern day living essentially is OVER-CONSUMPTION. **This raging tendency within us all that pushes us constantly, here and there. Which the advertisements capitalize on, by saying that you lack a perfect face, the perfect physique, the perfect shoe, the perfect set of teeth, the perfect career, success, power, you name it…. Where you are constantly being told by a company, society, friends, family or an recognized institution regarding THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED?
I feel, in todays world we have stopped observing our daily living. We are in a constant state of slumber awaiting the arrival of something that would absolve us, of hope in the form of dreams sold to us. We have kept on consuming, unbothered about its effect on us and our world as whole. But it has COST US along with OUR EARTH, immensely. Our current consumption rate points out that WE ALREADY ARE CONSUMING 1.7 EARTHS and if things remain the same it will rise to 3 EARTHS by 2050.
General health and fitness has degraded with the advent of rapidly increasing lifestyle diseases. Health care spending has consistently grown faster than GDP for many years.
***Around ***the world, waste generation rates are rising. In 2016, the worlds’ cities generated 2.01 billion tons of solid waste, amounting to a whopping waste footprint of ***0.74 kilograms per person per day with a population size of 746 crores. ***IMAGINE THAT.
With rapid population growth and urbanization, annual waste generation is expected to increase by 70% from 2016 levels to 3.40 billion tons in 2050.
And inwardly, our constant association of who we are with what we own has made us deeply insecure, anxious, depressed. As, there is a constant comparison with others, - who we think own more than us - that keeps on going on and on. Even if our needs are fulfilled, the ever emerging want keeps on popping up with every scroll, with every click of a button.
One has not even gone into the dynamics of Climate Change.
Of course we can blame the people from the past for their ignorance or big corporations, governments but Who are those people? Can any justification fundamentally change or set right what we have right in front of us?
Aren’t the offices of the companies, institutions or governments who fuel overconsumption,** filled by people who function the same as us?** Both of us create the supply and fuel the demand in our own respective manners. There is no us and them if we look at it in totality. We are “the ones who overconsume” totally, as a whole.
And to speak of today, now, we are what is left of the human civilization, we are the past, present and the future of man staring at the world that we, humans have created. Looking at what we have, directly, without any justification… Can we shy away from it? Does shying away resolve it fundamentally? Or is it just postponed, and made worse in the process?
**There is no ideal economic/political system out there, or any Messiah **that can magically bring about REAL CHANGE. **All economic/political system are the result of **what we are from within. Hence, it will only be a superficial change, a change of clothes, a new color but deep down we will be the same, as systems cannot penetrate our living fundamentally, it only gives it a new form. So, we will continue to feel the same, attached with consumption, consuming at ever so increasing rates but now ONLY SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS, SUSTAINABLE FOOTWEAR and CLOTHING LINE, SUSTAINABLLY OVERCONSUMING.
How paradoxical…
The modern day researchers say we have to address our overconsumption through individual actions. Overall consumption needs to be reduced rather than just being ‘greened’ by switching to supposedly sustainable products.
Further Reading : Overconsumption is driving the climate crisis, warn scientists
Also, mere verbal knowledge of some concept, or idea or happenstance won’t bring about **real change in our daily living **either, as knowing something verbally, and feeling something deep down in your bones are two different things. We are driven by how we feel and our knowledge is subservient to our feelings.
Looking at all this, a question emerges “What is one to do?” Is there any radical change possible to our inner and outer catastrophes. Or some new product or service shall be sold in the name of another solution, which would further add to the problem. To this, one would like to draw our attention to an act. An act where no- one feeds our minds, but where we ourselves face it totally and directly. There is an ART OF OBSERVATION. Which I feel most of us, have done automatically, without any effort or a sense of doing, without being taught, especially in our childhood. Have you ever woke up in the morning and begun gazing at the ever so swiftly moving bamboo leaves, or out the window witnessing the majestic sky, filled with a sense of all permeating stillness, a slowing down of our inner movements, where we are able to see ourselves, feel ourselves, in synthesis with the world. There is no sense of rush, no sense of I have to reach somewhere. But soon enough we jump out of it and move into our ever so juggling train of thoughts, our daily occupations.
So, CAN WE OBSERVE, Can we see who we are in our day to day living? Can we DIRECTLY come into contact with what we actually are, our relationship with everything that we are surrounded by in our lives, moment by moment, slowly, facing it wholly, not giving it a form, name, concluding or presuming through our accumulated knowledge, ideas or experiences, but letting it gradually….. flower on its own, slowly letting it reveal its story.
I know the whole thought of it might seem tiring or even haunting for some of us, as both inwardly and outwardly we are constantly occupied by our thoughts, pushed and pulled by our aspirations, told and forced to succumb to society’s and our family’s demands. But can you let it all dissolve for a moment, because all of that is not happening right here, right now.. Right. For now it’s all in our minds, so can we pause, sit quietly without doing anything for a moment. Feel all the rush that is going within us to begin with. It is completely allright if we are unnerved to begin with, let it happen because That is who we are.
And if we don’t, we won’t be able to SEE WHO WE ARE directly, and how it has deeply affected us and the world around us. Without this AWARENESS of our daily living, there can be NO UNDERSTANDING and** no scope of REAL CHANGE**.
Because the inner is the outer. Who we are, is what we make of our world. A violent thought or a system can only manifest out of a violent mind. So, without resolving ourselves there can be no resolution of our world. That is WE ARE THE WORLD, AND THE WORLD IS US. And we shall continue living the way we live, until who we are is truly revealed to us. Only there lies the scope of REAL CHANGE.
So, Is it not us who have created this world? This catastrophe that has bought immense sorrow in man’s inner and outer world. With our life gradually degrading, depression, anxiety and suicide rates plummeting, our environment in ruins, increasing pollution and the extinction of species at abysmal rates, Is it not of utmost importance to look at how our daily living contributes to our inner and outer catastrophe as a whole?
This understanding is the true responsibility of each one of us. To ourselves and to every living being, who collectively inhabit this marvelous planet, THE EARTH, OUR ONLY HOME.
Data Used From :
Resources And Consumption : populationmatters.org