Saturday, 17 December 2011
Spend, spend, spend
So apparently today was the last big shopping day before Christmas and Brits were set to spend £1.5million a minute.
It's easy to say this, and move on to the next fun Christmas story. But hang on - £1.5m PER MINUTE!!!!! That's obscene!
We're a nation in financial turmoil, we have a massive deficit, public services are being cut, people are struggling . Yet all this goes out the window when it come to good old Christmas! Sod it, let's just spend hey!
I have had it pointed out to me that spending is good for the economy, that we need to spend for growth to happen etc etc etc. and that may well be.
But my point isn't economical or financial - it's social. What on earth is going on where Christmas has become about nothing other than a crazed spending spree, an excuse to spend and hang the consequences. To borrow with no idea of how to pay it back? It's no wonder we're in the state we're in.
A rather wise person once told me my generation was a generation of "shopping and f***ing". His point was not necessarily literal, but more a modern day take on the idea of"fiddling while Rome burns", I think. That we can be surrounded by problems, whether they be financial, social, moral, the list goes on..yet what is far easier is not to worry about that, to just go shopping!
I think it probably is a fair thing to say - especially as a metaphor. Then again, maybe it's becoming the literal.
Apparently we have our £1.5m per minute today, and in the same week figures have shown children are having sex earlier and earlier. Some might draw the conclusion that we really are building a nation that spends its time "shopping and f***ing".
How sad.
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I knew a beautiful man once. Perhaps the most beautiful man. His beauty came from within, from his soul. His beauty pierced me when he looked at me with his sky blue eyes that are hazy with a glass-like translucent gloss. His warmth burned me with a touch from large, gentle hands. His voice once soothed my distressed state and his vision made me sit up and listen. The agony of this world has penetrated his soul and he cannot hide it. He wants you to see the agony too, but not so that you will be distressed and show him sympathy, it is not for him he wants you to see. He wants you to see so that you can free yourself from the manacles and constraints that you put upon yourself. So he will ask you a question, and when you have lied, he will ask you another. He will not accuse you of being willfully deceitful, but he will make you see the pitfalls within your arguments, your contradictions, and illustrate that your beliefs are based upon your ignorance, your fears and lack of courage to overcome them.
ReplyDeleteOf course all this will be a lot to take and it will be a very slow and painful process if you manage to address any of the issues in your life. The issues he is talking about are in connection with your own soul and what it is to be human. You will have to address what it is you want from your life and how you want to live an ‘authentic’ life; a life with meaning. These issues are about truth and conduct, and about recognising and breaking down the destructive elements of instrumental reason. Or at the very least admit to yourself that you adhere to instrumental reason when it suits you to get what you want because your desire to have, to own, is all consuming. Don’t pretend to do good deeds if it is just merely to raise your profile; don’t pretend to love if you just like the money, safety and comfort of a lifestyle. DON’T PRETEND TO LOVE IF IT IS JUST ABOUT LUST. Don’t pretend to eat out of hunger if you are full. Don’t pretend to have a full belly when you are in agony from hunger pains. Get my drift?
If we think long enough and more importantly, ask the right questions or enough questions until we eventually get to the right one, we have the opportunity to be honest with ourselves. Then we have to use a little and sometimes a lot of courage to act upon that honesty. But let me warn you: it is going to hurt; you are going to hurt and you are going to hurt other people, believe me you cannot escape it. But then you know that right? That is why you live the way you do – pretending life is great when actually it is crap: you are unhappy, lonely, fat, thin, scared, bitter, greedy, unloved, unloving; PRETENDING. But be aware: the wheels of capitalism will feed and support your pretence; it is the epitome of instrumental reason. Work all the hours God sends to buy the stuff that makes you happy, then work some more for bigger and better stuff and you will be even happier – not. Have a new hair do and expensive fashionable clothes that you cannot really afford, create ‘the look’ and ‘own it’, ‘work it’ and you will be even happier – not. Buy the latest four by four or sports car, mortgage to the hilt for that bigger better house behind the magnificent security gates, flip the latest diamond studded mobile phone – and you will be happier – not. Why? Because you will still be with your pretending self.
Socrates died not for his beliefs but because he couldn’t help being true to himself. He drank from the poisoned chalice with the calmness of his honesty.
I think his wife and children lost out though – they lost the man they loved, and he could not pretend even for their sake, or for his love of them. Still, plenty of people lose their loved ones without their wits about them. At least he asked the right question and addressed his answer truthfully and then acted accordingly; the epitome of the human soul; Socrates – what it means to be human; living in search of a good life and dying honestly. Sadly, Socrates is dead and capitalism is alive and kicking.
Hmmm.."capitalism is alive"...So is liberal individualism, shopping and f******, and even those who profess to be above it are lying, just look at their actions! The truth lies before our very eyes, and in our hearts. Problem is though, it is much easier to lie than tell the truth, and not even fancy words can hide the truth really.
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