As the blatant commercialization of every
known entity in the universe continues, emotions too have fallen in the
cauldron of modernity.
If not then why do people now go out to
seek happiness as if it was a commodity to be bought? Perhaps such a mentality
has indeed developed.
Today we might be able to neatly package, gift
wrap and adorn every other thing known to mankind. Would emotions also fall prey
to our zeal for marketing? The story of a patient who was depressed for a very
long time comes to the mind. In spite of the treatments when she wasn't able to
recover, what she finally did was to go for an operation that implanted an
electrical simulator in her brain. A device that made her ‘feel’ happy
whenever she turned it on.
That might be, perhaps the only thing that
we want… when we go out to shops aimlessly for purchasing something that could
solve our insatiable desire for stimulation, something that would rouse us from
the boredom of our existence.
It isn’t strange then that millions of us
line outside apple stores as some sell their kidneys and buy happiness contained
in that small screen. Perhaps we like purchasing luxury items for the purpose
of showing to our fellow humans that we too have an intrinsic value comparable
to the item that we are carrying around. More importantly, perhaps we want
others to know that we have the resources to be able to afford the items on our
hands. External validation vs internal insecurity?
I don't think that man searched for happiness
so intensely ever before. Singled out of the bouquet of emotions that attack
our senses every living second, we want only happiness to last. In the past years
when money appeared and we could buy amazing things form a piece of paper and
not barter and exchange that the tendency to hoard begin. Can we thus hoard
happiness…..? Well we have the means to get the basic human requirements
fulfilled and yes we have the means to get things that add to the clutter.. do
they give us happiness?
Thoreau had once remarked that it’s not we
who possess, rather our possessions possess us. They bind us to them and strip
the humans of their carefree, giving, happy nature. We become zealous guardians
of our hoards, which each one of us keeps hidden in the most secret part of the
world so that no one… no one, not even we ourselves can get to it.
Keeping up with Johnsons, or the
Kardashians lately has been the sole purpose of many a lives. We want faster pc’s,
cars, better accessories, bigger homes. These very desires take over our psyche
and as we slavishly follow the glitter of the brightest screen available in the
markets. A donkey might tire of chasing the carrot around, but keep on
replacing the carrot with a cucumber and you’ll get a perpetual motion donkey.
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