Our Desire to Want
I’m not sure if this is ‘too philosophical’ but when I think about the collective desires of our society, I think about our shared concept of ‘wants’. The media would like us to believe that the hero that will save us is our own tendency to acquire more. The characters in television programs we love are wearing clothes we should buy, eating food we should eat and living in houses we should live in. Even when the primary mission is not to sell (like in entertainment programs) there is almost always a secondary level that is playing on our desire to want. How can an individual in a tremulous world find happiness? By buying the biggest television, newest video game system or the fastest car. I don’t mean this to come off as overly cynical but I truly do believe that for better or worse, a universal hero does not exist. Because of this, we are all forced, be it consciously or subconsciously, to buy our way to happiness and a supposed feeling of comfort. Our collective desire to continuously want is part of a vicious self sustaining cycle. We believe that everyone else around us is constantly competing for the greatest collection of material goods, in order to not fall behind we too adopt that collective mindset, unknowingly allowing the cycle to perpetuate. So what will save us from our modern fears? I cannot pretend to have that answer, but what I can pretend to know is that at least superficially, our desire to want can distract us for the time being.
