Do we need more materialism?
Isn’t it strange how these fancy words are popping out in our society as trends and cultures? Back in the day, people would not even recognize the existence of such terms, but with the change in times, we feel the need to converse about them. Materialism simply means the desire for the possession of materialistic stuff for comfort, which leads to the ignorance of spirituality and simplicity in people’s lives.
Materialism has marked an evident change in humans’ lives, which is observable in various aspects. There are quite a few reasons behind the acceleration of materialism:
Unseen social pressure: I’ll not be wrong if I refer to humans as social animals. And these social animals use elbow grease to stay relevant in society. When you look around and notice everyone retains equipment, gadgets, devices, and facilities that have helped them perform their day-to-day tasks easily, you experience social pressure to uphold a certain standard of living and social prestige.
Economic growth: A change in socio-political policies set up by the government has established the practice of income distribution (we cannot say that all wealth in the nation is equally distributed because there are riches and so there are rags). There cannot be full income distribution, but still, efforts are being made in this regard. The culture of startups and digitalization has expanded the horizons for work, which has granted employment in society, and so has purchasing power, which ultimately aims for materialism.
Comfort: Why do we work? Why grind ourselves mentally and physically? One of the answers to these questions can be: The pursuit of comfort. We all crave to attain peace, happiness, relaxation, and comfort. Materialism has been in some sort of capacity of providing us with these.
Well, the prime mover of the materialism movement could be any of these or anything else. However, the ramifications of it could be noticed in each and every event of today’s times.
Remember the times when people ‘ACTUALLY’ connected with each other with a thread of emotions and love and not just on Instagram? India is a great example if you really want to catch a glimpse of materialism. Over the past 70 years, India has shown tremendous growth in the fields of technology and digitalization, and so has materialism. Older people used to wake up at 4 in the morning, go to farms, and work there all day and night. A cock would make a sound that worked as an alarm in the morning. The irrigation of water, soil preparation, weeding, and sowing require immense energy and could be taken as a high-intensity workout that eventually maintains their health and metabolism. Whatever they sow, they consume, which we call in our language ‘Organic’. They didn’t need any extra scoops of protein in their diet because of their on-point sleep cycle and top-notch diet. But now everything has been replaced with modern-aged equipment. For the workout, we hit the gym while sipping on a protein shake. For entertainment, we have movie theaters and television. Rather than waking up early in the morning and going to work, ‘Work from home’ is in vogue. The more materialism, the more comfort and less physical activity. We might think materialism has given us comfort in every possible way, but it has also spoiled our habits, making us lazy and hampering our health as well. Laziness is the devil.
I’ll share another example with you is: Today, in the morning, I saw my grandmother listening to bhajans (religious songs) on the phone. I think this incident has two faces:
Pro: Technology, digitalization, and materialism have provided her with the luxury of sitting at home and enjoying her bhajans.
Con: Had there not been any mobile phones, she would have stepped out for Satsang (the gathering of people performing devotional activities) and would have connected with people in person and ditched her loneliness for real.
Concluding this article: I am saying materialism is bad. because it has its own set of advantages and limitations as well. But as humans, we should be mindful of the magnitude of its usage.
And lastly, the answer to the question: Do we need more materialism? The answer is no; we already have enough of it.
