The American Dream is a way of life all over the world. Today, all of us Westerners are, in a sense, Americans, since our culture is heavily influenced by the American Way.
Sad enough, most of the participants focused on the American Dream being something egoistic and materialistic. One young girl said her American Dream was a mansion and 7 cars. Another person was making real estate business, and saw each transaction as a strategic move towards what he considered to be the American Dream - to be able to do what ever he wanted without no one telling him what to do. He was asked if that dream had a price tag on it, and he answered between 50-100 million dollars.
How hollow is that? When you have that kind of money laying around, you are going to be so afraid to lose them that you´ll get all sorts of advisors, telling you what to and not to do with it. The only freedom in that matter would be taking those money and give it all away to charity. Only then would he truly be able to do what he wanted without no one telling him what to do.
What is it with matter, that puts a spell on all of us? A lot of spiritual persons I know are gadget people. They need gadgets, are fascinated by them. So am I. I got a new iPhone the other week. Not that it was my American Dream to own one, but I felt that if I am going to get a new phone, why not get something that I really want. And now I got it. Do I feel content? Nah... I am looking at other things I really need. Like a new pair of Ray Bans.
A book on beer I read recently, called some beer drinkers "label drinkers". They are used to drink a beer cause it´s a label they recognize and a lifestyle that comes with that label. You know the ones - Carlsberg, probably the best lager in the world. Heineken, etc. A friend of mine is more or less obsessed with the idea of becoming The Marlboro Man. Not that he smokes, but the clothes and the lifestyle the commercial for those clothes offers. A man of the wild.
He can afford that though.
Another show on TV, 60 Minutes, approached the debt of the young in Australia. One girl had a debt of 70 000 dollars. She had bought a car (which I reckon was the biggest post), but also she had purchased no less than two (2) flat screen TV´s. Why two? Probably that was the idea of a lifestyle she had in mind. Another girl just kept spending money on her credit card on non sense, such as clothes. Stuff you can´t even try to sell to get some of the money back.
This society has made it extremely difficult for us to see, that the chains that binds us grows stronger. It is so entwined with our lives, we no longer see the difference between wanting and needing. At least for most people. Like children.
2 kommentarer:
great post.
materialism is something which infects us all...whether we like it or not.
The other day I thought I had lost my phone...and so I started screaming at my kids...how pathetic is that?
Thank you kind sir!
At the heart of all spiritual traditions, is the knowledge that you can´t take any of your belongings with you on the journey after this life. That´s what I think anyway.
A friend of mine reached quite a good state of no-care-for-materialism, as in "Go ahead, wreck my car, I don´t care...". Born again spiritualist? Nah, anti depressives, modern mans yoga pills ;)
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