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Mindless consumerism subverts the good life
By Greg Cusack |
June 15, 2011, Wednesday
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DEAR Wang Yong,
I was quietly reading the Shanghai Daily on my Kindle on the evening of June 4 when I came across your opinion piece, "There must be more to the good life than a Ferrari."
I was not just shocked at the arguments contained in the book you were commenting upon -- "Ferraris for All: In Defense of Economic Progress" - I was angered. I can imagine such a work being published in, say, 1950, but in our time?!
It does make one wonder in just what universe some people appear to live, for it is certainly not in the world I inhabit.
Your article in response was appropriately forcefully written. I affirm it.
Even more to the point than the impact of mindless consumerism is your question about what, in fact, is the so-called "good life"?
The wise persons I have read and studied, including great Chinese ethical teachers, always talk about the development of the person and his/her relationship both to others and to our world, including other beings about us.
The pursuit of wisdom and harmony, we have been taught, is the way to personal happiness, not the futile and empty pursuit of "filling up" our narcissistic desires.
If it is "things" (including money) that are important to us, we can never have enough. Such a lifestyle is a pursuit down an endless vortex of self-satisfaction and ever-greater harm to others and to our environment.
Our world, whether from the American or Chinese perspective, just cannot long survive "more of the same."
Where are the game-changers? Who will dare to lead the way? Answers must not only include a more sane "lifestyle," but a return to the pursuit of wisdom and honor.
Sometimes, when this world as we know it is "too much with me," I take a brief respite by listening to some classical music (even guqin often) and imagining that I am with good friends in a saner place.
I frequently imagine, for instance, that I am sitting listening to you play your zither, or that I have accompanied you to a monastery where we are sitting quietly listening to the performance of a master.
I can almost hear the gurgling waters and the tinkling of bells! Such a mental respite does bring both relief and refreshment.
I invite you to do the same on occasion.
Please imagine that you are sitting quietly with me in (my wife) Karen's south garden, sipping some tea, listening to the wind chimes and the fluttering and singing of birds, and watching the great Mississippi flow by on its journey to the sea.
Many times when I sit there and focus on the river, and on the forested hillsides of western Illinois, I can imagine that it is relatively unchanged for thousands of years, and that I might actually "be" somewhere else in time, at least for a moment.
One of the psalms from the Bible contains the line, "Your young will dream dreams and your old ones will have visions."
May we all do our best so that our young will again dare to dream of impossible things, like peace, harmony, justice, and stability.
And that we older ones do our best to be open to visions of what a more just and peace-filled future could look like, in order to impart that hope to our children.
(The author was a member of the Iowa state House of Representatives. He also served in the Iowan executive branch. He retired in 2004. His e-mail: gloster@iwoatelecom.net)
I was quietly reading the Shanghai Daily on my Kindle on the evening of June 4 when I came across your opinion piece, "There must be more to the good life than a Ferrari."
I was not just shocked at the arguments contained in the book you were commenting upon -- "Ferraris for All: In Defense of Economic Progress" - I was angered. I can imagine such a work being published in, say, 1950, but in our time?!
It does make one wonder in just what universe some people appear to live, for it is certainly not in the world I inhabit.
Your article in response was appropriately forcefully written. I affirm it.
Even more to the point than the impact of mindless consumerism is your question about what, in fact, is the so-called "good life"?
The wise persons I have read and studied, including great Chinese ethical teachers, always talk about the development of the person and his/her relationship both to others and to our world, including other beings about us.
The pursuit of wisdom and harmony, we have been taught, is the way to personal happiness, not the futile and empty pursuit of "filling up" our narcissistic desires.
If it is "things" (including money) that are important to us, we can never have enough. Such a lifestyle is a pursuit down an endless vortex of self-satisfaction and ever-greater harm to others and to our environment.
Our world, whether from the American or Chinese perspective, just cannot long survive "more of the same."
Where are the game-changers? Who will dare to lead the way? Answers must not only include a more sane "lifestyle," but a return to the pursuit of wisdom and honor.
Sometimes, when this world as we know it is "too much with me," I take a brief respite by listening to some classical music (even guqin often) and imagining that I am with good friends in a saner place.
I frequently imagine, for instance, that I am sitting listening to you play your zither, or that I have accompanied you to a monastery where we are sitting quietly listening to the performance of a master.
I can almost hear the gurgling waters and the tinkling of bells! Such a mental respite does bring both relief and refreshment.
I invite you to do the same on occasion.
Please imagine that you are sitting quietly with me in (my wife) Karen's south garden, sipping some tea, listening to the wind chimes and the fluttering and singing of birds, and watching the great Mississippi flow by on its journey to the sea.
Many times when I sit there and focus on the river, and on the forested hillsides of western Illinois, I can imagine that it is relatively unchanged for thousands of years, and that I might actually "be" somewhere else in time, at least for a moment.
One of the psalms from the Bible contains the line, "Your young will dream dreams and your old ones will have visions."
May we all do our best so that our young will again dare to dream of impossible things, like peace, harmony, justice, and stability.
And that we older ones do our best to be open to visions of what a more just and peace-filled future could look like, in order to impart that hope to our children.
(The author was a member of the Iowa state House of Representatives. He also served in the Iowan executive branch. He retired in 2004. His e-mail: gloster@iwoatelecom.net)
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