How Much Is Enough?

     Someone posted one of those little nuggets of philosophy on my Facebook page the other day. If you are a regular Facebook user, you know the type I mean. They usually have some trite little snippet of philosophy or, worse, appeal to some emotional issue that the person who posts it feels will help their cause. " Repost as your status if you want to end cancer." As if my reposting some little block that someone found on  a web page will cure cancer. My favourites are the ones that deal with family. " Repost if you love your mother, father, son, daughter...fourth cousin once removed..."  I love my family and am fairly certain of their feelings toward me. I stumble through life pretty much taking the bonds of any family structure as a given. If I don't repost, does this mean I have some deep seated unacknowledged hostility toward my family? Bring on the psychoanalysts!  Wait... Don't bother. I can get that online too.

     This one little blurb hit home for me though. It depicted an earth mover pushing garbage at a landfill site. It said "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."  It was attributed to Edward Abbey. It applies to an ideology under which we, as a society, have been operating for far too long.

     What I despair of is a corporate / consumer culture in which, no matter what we have, we can never have enough. It's a relentlessly ongoing symbiotic relationship. The corporations can never have enough profit and to achieve that end they convince the consumer that we can never have enough stuff. 

     How much is enough? What I'd like to address here is greed. Pure, simple, despicable, greed. It's all around us. I am not writing this piece as the whining complaint of a "have not". In the interest of full disclosure, I have more than I need in most respects. As a middle aged man in the twenty-first century, I have more than I could ever have imagined in my youth. I certainly have the options for things of even greater magnitude in the future. For the most part, I am a very fortunate human. I have enough.

     I would suggest that whoever coined the term "retail therapy" is in dire need of therapy of another kind. We place so much emphasis on the acquisition of stuff that our perceived need for such acquisition is rationalized as a form of "therapy". I view it as an addiction and I admit to being a victim of it.

     One would have to be living in a cave to not be aware of the environmental issues that threaten every living organism on this planet. Yet, we blithely continue with our endless exploitation of Earth's limited resources. At some point we have to ask ourselves, " How much is enough?"

     What is worse, we send our armed forces into conflict zones not for any ideology based on truth, justice or equality, but for the preservation, and subsequent growth of an economic ideology which is unsustainable.

   What is required is a new economic paradigm based on the concept of sustainability, not incessant growth.

     Obsessions and addictions are destructive. I know from experience. I am a self admitted alcoholic ( 3 years in recovery) who once spent 30 days in a rehab centre. ( The best month of my life.) Why is it that a drug or alcohol addiction is considered socially unacceptable yet the addiction of the so called " one percent " to obscene amounts of wealth is allowed to go unchecked? If obsessions and addictions are destructive, why do we, as a society, turn a blind eye to an addiction that is destructive on such a massive scale? I think the reason is this. As a society, we cannot curtail the right to accumulate obscene amounts of wealth without accepting the fact that the rule would also apply to ourselves. In effect it is the annilhilation of the so called American Dream. In my opinion, the American Dream has become a nightmare and it's time to wake up and smell the coffee.  I have no problem giving up my right to acquire ridiculous wealth. ( I already consider myself rich.) All I want is a lifestyle that is abundant enough to be sustainable for myself and future generations so that we can live in peace, harmony and explore the vast potential of the human spirit.

     The time for change is now. It's up to all of us. If not us ... Who?  If not now...When?                                               

    
                                                      ...more later