[MD] An Empty Stomach of Consumerism

[Heather Perella]

Hello All,

     I have been away from sticking to any words or
structure of reality for some time and then I found
myself coming back to the village (society) after this
walkabout (in the metaphoric sense) I had in the Land
of Nowhere in Particular (Use your imagination and
think where this might be - again projecting along a
metaphorically type of thinking, if it is possible for
you, will help you understand where I came from).
     This society is driven on the engine of
Consumerism.  We all know this.  Not to play the game
of politics, but to identify what I see, is to, in
other words, not to fall into the trap of "What is
better than Consumerism?"  We may all have our ideals
on what is best for society.  
     To understand consumerism in a society is to
understand what kinds of behaviors will be found in a
consumer society.  It is an anthropological approach,
as if we are first-hand visiting another country and
learning that their politics, their economy, their
family structure, their power relationships and
values, etc... all transfer into the nervous system
and we not only speak the ways of such a society, but
we also are linked into various set structures of
lifestyle that we would say is the ways of our
culture.  The physical structures of our culture such
as noticing somebody wake up in the morning, driving a
vehicle to a job that pays physical $ that can be
exchanged for a variety of wants and needs (clothing,
gas, food, electricity, etc...).
     To also notice how we must act (our behavior) in
such a society so the participant is able to fit into
the norm of the culture and therefore the culture can
be noticed with a unique identity that makes it a U.S.
culture rather than a Chinese culture.  Each culture
will have established political structure, economic
structures, and family structures, etc...  All of the
structures based on beliefs, values, and established
norms will influence the behaviors of the society. 
The behaviors of the society are active upon this
cultural mind (Pirsig's Giant) that runs the daily
activities.  The Giant does not have to be totally
collective or totally individual.  The Giant finds the
way that best fits its' interest and if the society
has fallen into a pattern of choices and thus,
decisions that characterizes its' interests to be full
of pioneers then so be it.  Yet, where will this
pioneers go to in their common interests that has
their rustic souls depend on others when the time
demands such an outcome?
     A consumer culture is one way of focusing on what
is happening in this U.S. culture.  We could focus on
the education system, the chain of grocery stores as
compared to another society that has hunting and
gathering, and we could focus on the technology of
this culture, etc...  All of these particulars will
provide research areas that would provide results that
describe that particular aspect of the U.S. culture. 
All together these particulars would provide a larger
picture, view of the U.S. culture.  All of this is
basic anthropology.  We are at the consumer end of the
economic system of this culture.  Some may own their
own business, but what we all partake in is the
consumer aspect.  Even the homeless are contrasts
providing how much everybody else consumes or how
little they do.
     Would not a consumer culture influence the
behavior of the people?  I say yes.  People that
depend on a consuming lifestyle such as this culture
needs people to buy things so the basic structure of
this culture stays alive.  Also, a consuming behavior
will influence the extremities of the holistic
persona.  With all the influx of goods necessarily
consumed, a selling end is also apparent, but I am
focusing on the consumer end of the deal.  
     A consumer is impulsed to take, take, take, take,
and take.  Notice the rise of obesity and the TV
channels that have more and more advertisements all
feeding the take, take, take, receive, receive,
mentality of a consumer society.  Desire is the
staple.  Once the stomach is full of food, the
pleasures needing fulfilled after all the work we do
for society need completed.  We have news programs
that offer fun, movies that provide stimulating
impacts filling the senses, refrigerators that once we
are hungry or not are on standby for our empty
stomachs, and fun, how many of our children say they
are bored?!  I hear it quite often.  Drugs and alcohol
are in the wait for all that request.  The lawn needs
cared for and the desire to complete all of this is
either because 'what else is there to do?' or 'It is
important to maintain what is practical?'  
     Notice how many books are in print, how many
people seem to have the answers for those that want
answers, TV has the History Channel, the Discovery
Channel, PBS, etc... all full of ideas that can change
your life, provide insight to long lost intellectual
understandings, and then there's philosophy that can
explain it all for you.  Yet, I think a philosophy
does exist where you live and self-sufficiency doesn't
just mean you kill a deer, gut it, and cook the meat
yourself.  Self-reliance as Ralph Waldo Emerson would
put it is a mind-set, and others would put it, it is a
liberty we all may have.  Enlightenment in the
Oriental cultures is full of this Zen realization that
we can do this on our own and think on our own based
on the experiences and situations that challenge our
minds daily.  Living in the moment is not only looking
up in a book how we will walk or talk, but living in
the moment is creative because we are the only ones
living our individual moments.  
     King Solomon also put it this way, as did Buddha.
 Nothing is new under the sun or in the latters case,
all is Buddha nature.  There is the realization that
we all know this already, but then somebody has to
come along and tell us that.  Always, as individuals
that rely on the rest of society, the borders between
the Empty Stomach that Desires or the Full Stomach
that Desires can blurr.  A person who lives
intellectualizing all the time, trying to reason out
the world can either be trying to fill a stomach that
can never be filled or satisfied and we also have the
middle way of desiring for food or else we die.  This
consumer culture is in a mode of empty stomach
convinced that we have to consume not only goods, but
I argue this culture desires answers to questions that
can not be answered but as Pirsig points out this
culture has been emptied and become hollowed out by a
rational that believes in an objective world that
disregards value.  This culture and the people realize
it, but can't pin-point exactly what it is, that
something is missing - the dharmakaya light has been
darkened by a reasoning that structures the world in
such an uncreative way that our own spirits are full
of words and logic and our gut-feelings and gumption
have been overshadowed by a disregard for the value we
have as human beings in our own quality that, at
times, can't even be explained until after we have
accomplished feats that would, at first, seem
impossible.  Even then, history is still full of
interpretations as to how do human beings do this or
that?  And then you have those that live, think, and
are able to take the time to smell the roses.

Thanks,
SA   
     

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