It’s ok not to want anything
Globalization has homogenized many aspects of culture. Many distinct, and organic approaches to economic thought have been coopted and in many cases out right replaced by the “Borg” of Ideas known as the constant growth model (No, I’m not above using Star Trek metaphors). Under this conception of reality, contentment is the antithesis of what the cultural engineers desire for you. If you are content, then you won’t buy their stuff. If you are content, then you won’t be willing to slave away for them. Somehow we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that endangering our own health is the key to success. http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full Success is now defined as having a lot of stuff, and/or being know by lots of people, but there’s never enough stuff or enough twitter followers to satiate the craving for more. I once read of a billionaire who lost most of his net worth during the market crash of 08’ Even though he was still worth millions of dollars he fell into a suicidal depression because of the immensity of what he perceived as a loss. He took his own life, with millions of unspent dollars in the bank because he couldn’t bear the shame of having less than he once had. What a strange inversion of values which led this man to sacrifice himself at the altar of excess. To fall into complete despair because some digital zeros on an LCD display told a different story than the day before. If economic growth is God, then contentment must be the devil.
There is a better way, a way to have true satisfaction, right now. Not five years in the future, but this very moment. It’s called gratitude. Unlike material wealth, the more you have of it, the more contentment you will feel. If you just take a moment to truly appreciate what you already have, you will find yourself wanting less. Wanting less is the key to satisfaction, the infinite growth models problem is that its infinite. There is no end to it, like a perceptual black hole, even light can’t escape its event horizon, thus preventing you from seeing a way out of its grasp. Wanting less however, does have an absolute zero. You can actually inhabit a state in which you want nothing. At the moment you want nothing you instantly have everything. No longer motivated by desire, your hunger for more is replaced by a sense of playfulness and curiosity. The need to hustle and bustle and compete with each other assumes a backdrop of scarcity. The realization that scarcity is an illusion, that abundance is actually the prevailing reality brings true contentment. Let our only remaining desire be the desire to reduce the suffering in this world, the suffering of others and most importantly of ourselves.