Surviving Consumption Mindset To Find Peace In The Modern World

PRACTICAL ENLIGHTENMENT

In the first world West we are consumers. We are taught to consume food, music, media, to eat and devour for profit and pleasure. 

I see the cult of consumption very clearly because I have three children. Not only are they caught up in it but, as I watch them grow I’m reminded of my own childhood indoctrination into the need to possess, to collect, to consume. It’s not unnatural to want to possess things, I guess it must be tied to a survival instinct that starts with claiming territory to safely raise a family and then becomes tied to tribal status, just like birds have an order in terms of who roosts in the high and low branches. Hierarchy is part of nature and animal consciousness, but as humans we have a self-reflecting consciousness (we can talk ourselves into an unnatural course of action) that allows us to override the limitations of nature and common sense. This is the instinct that is coopted by corporations looking to sell us things. It’s so pervasive now that it’s become its own culture and when you’re raised within pervasive consumerism, surrounded by it, it’s difficult to see clearly or measure the negative effects it has upon us. Ageing is one way nature reminds us of the negative effects of modern life.