Thursday, November 25, 2010

Meme meme

When was the last time you did something in your life ENTIRELY and PURELY for the sake of someone else, some cause, anything other than yourself? When was the last time you did something so utterly unselfish in nature that would have earned a pat on the back from Mother Theresa herself?

Enter our generation, the consumer generation.

Consumerism is broadly defined as the order now based on the ever-increasing desire to purchase more goods and services in increasingly greater amounts. Now, the desire to purchase stuff is fine. Everyone needs stuff. Stuff is good. The keyword here is 'ever-increasing' - in short, more, more, more and more! We don't only need stuff - we need more, more, more and more stuff! We have a never ending list of things we need (or should I say want? The line between the two is thin in today's context).

Consume, and may all your dreams come true

This, in itself, isn't THAT bad. What's worse is the fact that what we need (want) is for me, me, me and me only! It's not like we want more food for the starving - 'Sure, we'll do community service, but what's in it for me?' 'Sure, I'll donate to charity, but will I make the newspaper headlines if I do make a huge donation?'

What happened to causes, for the sake of causes? What happened to romaticism? Even love is a transaction in these days - I love you because you make ME happy, I love you because you buy ME stuff. Meme, meme.

We need to start looking outside our narrow perspectives, outside our self-absorbed circle of thoughts.

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