An anonymous ancient adept said that "Deep spirituality, together with contentment, is where true wealth lies." (My own paraphrase.)
Contentment is an attitude antithetical to life in a consumer capitalist society. It swims against the stream. I recall that, only days after the events of September 11, 2001, President Bush addressed the US people (and through the media the rest of the world). He told us not to be deterred by acts of terrorism from that which really matters. What really matters is to shop. Consuming more and more stuff is what makes the world go round. Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, back in the '80s, reminded us that consumer capitalism and Christianity were not compatible systems of thought and practice. Consumer capitalism, he said, is based on the stimulation of unremitting covetousness. And everyone knows being covetous is not a Christian virtue!
In the years before Bishop Newbigin returned from India to the United Kingdom to be appalled at British society, I studied marketing. (I have a degree in business studies and was for a time a member of the Market Research Society in London. Seems like another lifetime ago!) Marketing then, and I doubt that it has changed, was a social science devoted to: a) stimulating unrest with what you have; and b) provoking desire for what you don't have. In contemporary society we have become very good at this. It has been linked with industrial production we know as "built-in obsolescence." Good stuff is designed to last one season, to be replaced by equally good stuff, but slightly different good stuff next season. Seasons differ in length. Larger consumer stuff (refrigerators and washing machines) have a season of about four to five years. TVs nowadays even less. A season for a cell phone is just under the two year contract. Clothes change with spring, summer, winter and fall, and this year's fall colors are just sufficiently different to last year's that we all notice if you are out of sequence.
The stimulation of desire for stuff is psychologically shrewd. Maslow was right. We are a bundle of needs. By nature human beings consume based on needs. We consume air, water, food. We need relationships to survive. We need a certain sense of meaning or we pine away.
Consumer capitalism taps into this human neediness and nudges it along by creating new needs. And there is no end to the new needs that have been and will be created.
It's not so bad if you can keep up with the Joneses. Needs are created and satisfied with new purchases. But, none of us can keep up for very long. However much you have, and whatever your financial position, there is always the more. The system thrives on the human capacity for covetousness. The other side of the coin is that few of us are content with life, because we never have what our piqued desires tell us we need to be happy. As a culture we have more than any other in human history. I doubt that we are more content.
I don't want to be misunderstood. Nor do I want to be a hypocrite. I like my stuff. My gadgets. My clothes. My books. I don't mind shopping for things. But, I suspect that in our culture we are out of balance. Unremitting stimulation of desire for things does not lead to contentment
Recap the ancient wisdom: "Deep spirituality, together with contentment, is where true wealth lies." If this is close to truth, how wealthy are we truly?
Contentment seems to go hand in glove with a deep spirituality. That's where the work needs to be done. Deep spirituality does not come easily. Like a broken record (someone explain the metaphor to the under 30s) I return to practice. Deep spirituality grows in the fertile soil of the practices: meditation, mindfulness, ritual, and the rootedness of tradition.
+Ab. Andy
Contentment is an attitude antithetical to life in a consumer capitalist society. It swims against the stream. I recall that, only days after the events of September 11, 2001, President Bush addressed the US people (and through the media the rest of the world). He told us not to be deterred by acts of terrorism from that which really matters. What really matters is to shop. Consuming more and more stuff is what makes the world go round. Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, back in the '80s, reminded us that consumer capitalism and Christianity were not compatible systems of thought and practice. Consumer capitalism, he said, is based on the stimulation of unremitting covetousness. And everyone knows being covetous is not a Christian virtue!
In the years before Bishop Newbigin returned from India to the United Kingdom to be appalled at British society, I studied marketing. (I have a degree in business studies and was for a time a member of the Market Research Society in London. Seems like another lifetime ago!) Marketing then, and I doubt that it has changed, was a social science devoted to: a) stimulating unrest with what you have; and b) provoking desire for what you don't have. In contemporary society we have become very good at this. It has been linked with industrial production we know as "built-in obsolescence." Good stuff is designed to last one season, to be replaced by equally good stuff, but slightly different good stuff next season. Seasons differ in length. Larger consumer stuff (refrigerators and washing machines) have a season of about four to five years. TVs nowadays even less. A season for a cell phone is just under the two year contract. Clothes change with spring, summer, winter and fall, and this year's fall colors are just sufficiently different to last year's that we all notice if you are out of sequence.The stimulation of desire for stuff is psychologically shrewd. Maslow was right. We are a bundle of needs. By nature human beings consume based on needs. We consume air, water, food. We need relationships to survive. We need a certain sense of meaning or we pine away.
Consumer capitalism taps into this human neediness and nudges it along by creating new needs. And there is no end to the new needs that have been and will be created.
It's not so bad if you can keep up with the Joneses. Needs are created and satisfied with new purchases. But, none of us can keep up for very long. However much you have, and whatever your financial position, there is always the more. The system thrives on the human capacity for covetousness. The other side of the coin is that few of us are content with life, because we never have what our piqued desires tell us we need to be happy. As a culture we have more than any other in human history. I doubt that we are more content.
I don't want to be misunderstood. Nor do I want to be a hypocrite. I like my stuff. My gadgets. My clothes. My books. I don't mind shopping for things. But, I suspect that in our culture we are out of balance. Unremitting stimulation of desire for things does not lead to contentment
Recap the ancient wisdom: "Deep spirituality, together with contentment, is where true wealth lies." If this is close to truth, how wealthy are we truly?
Contentment seems to go hand in glove with a deep spirituality. That's where the work needs to be done. Deep spirituality does not come easily. Like a broken record (someone explain the metaphor to the under 30s) I return to practice. Deep spirituality grows in the fertile soil of the practices: meditation, mindfulness, ritual, and the rootedness of tradition.
+Ab. Andy