Most of the issues in the world can be traced back to one root cause – discontentment. This is the cause of almost all of the evil things happening around us. Any global issues, say, depletion of the natural resources, corruption, injustice, misuse and abuse of power, wealth and position, exploitation of the lower classes of humankind, and many others, are caused by the extreme discontentment deep down in the hearts of the humanity. At the end of the day we – you and me – are accountable for most of these issues, in one or the other way. That is, we are often unaware that most of the crises in the world are linked to us.
One of the foundational aspects that are guiding the narrative of the present world order is consumerism. The consumerist culture is built upon the economic condition that believes in excessive acquisition and consumption of goods and services. Consumerism is the praxis of capitalism. Capitalism is an ideology that believes that humanity will never cease to have desires and demands. It facilitates the corporates to do everything with the effective and efficient utilization of the available resources to increase productivity and maximize profitability.
Let us understand it more simply. It is often believed that the consumer is king/god in trade/business because every business activity is ultimately focused on the desires and demands of the consumers. Corporates/traders always attend to the demands of the consumers. We live in a culture where people are defined by the commodities they use. Suppose, you need a mobile phone and you also have a great amount of money with you. When you go to the store, you probably would choose an iPhone, even if you need a mobile just for basic purposes. In our society, people with a branded iPhone are regarded higher than a person who owns a basic mobile. Consider another example, suppose you went to a city for a professional reason and have money with you. Suppose you are starving too. You would probably choose a grand hotel over a small-scale-poor-looking food spot even if both of them serve the same food you need. This is what we call a consumerist culture. People have the need and the capitalists create a space of a lot of options where the needy persons turn into demanding consumers and start to satisfy their desires beyond their need. Finally, humans turn into consuming beings. At the end of the day, everyone gets defined by the goods and services consumed.
We also live in a culture where most people try to increase their standard of living when they start to get wealthier. As soon as people get wealthy, they become even more wanting – discontent with the current style of life. They start to acquire more goods and services beyond their need. Finally, people become consuming beings rather than social beings. It is more likely an individualistic lifestyle than a social lifestyle. By social lifestyle, I mean the way of life where people are related to one another and respect neighbourly connections. When there is a social lifestyle, individuals find their welfare in the wellbeing of the society and everyone will work forward for the common good of the community. But the consumerist culture evades such neighbourly life. People tend to find joy in their own pleasure. People become self-centred and self-satisfied.
Following are some of the characteristics of consumerism:
Focus is on what is scarce.
Every demand must be satisfied here and now. Desires are plenty and demands are urgent.
Humans become resources and commodities who tire themselves working under the corporates whose focus is to meet the demands of the consumers urgently at the earliest.
Rigid economic policies play a vital role than the neighbourly concern for fellow humans.
Focus is on what is wanted rather than what is essential/needed.
If one resource is unavailable, go for another resource. Try any means to get the demand satisfied. Depletion of natural resources is not a restriction to satisfy desires.
At the end of the day, we all are accountable for our selfish desires and demands. Everything is caused because of our selfish greed and discontentment. Yet the present culture seems to have become the normalcy of the civilization. You know what? We all are responsible for not rendering justice. Yet, we aren’t guilty of it because everything for us seems normal. If God holds us – all human beings – accountable for the issues happening around us, we are answerless for we are unaware of our own sin! Injustice in biblical terms is not only about the mistreatment of the vulnerable ones. It is also about satisfying our own wants disrespecting the needs of our neighbours.
The creation account in the Bible defines God's sovereignty and draws a boundary to our space. We are not created as consuming beings. We are created as human beings, social beings, in the image of God. We are not to be defined by the commodities and services we consume but we are to be defined by the standards of God. Yet, from the beginning, we are discontent with what we have. We always focus on overreaching the space of God. We forget that we are mere creatures, living an unpredictable life. We deny that we are vulnerable to uncertainties. This is the sin of Christianity too. All we want is to acquire more than what is sufficient. We want to prosper than any others. We forget our creatureliness. All of us – humankind – are exchanging our creatureliness for consumerism. We exchange our glory – bearing the image of our Creator – to the glory of materialism. This is not right!
This is where we need to pray the prayer that Jesus taught us: Give us this day our daily bread! It is okay to not have all our demands satisfied. Enough is enough. We are called to live a revolutionary life – a life that is defined by the economics of creation. We need to revitalize our priorities. We are called to be generous not to be prosperous. Prosperity per se is not evil but prosperity without generosity is sin. We are not here to serve our desires and demands. We are here to serve one another. God is not against meeting our needs – necessities. But He is against consumeristic ideology. This is not a matter of wealthiness or poverty. This is the matter of our view of ourselves. Consumers are not gods. We are not to constitute the kingdom of consumers but the Kingdom of God. Justice is the label for the economic values in the Kingdom of God. We need a life that is not defined by the things we consume but by the way we relate ourselves to God and our neighbours. It is okay to cancel some debts of our debtors when they cannot pay. It is okay to purchase cheaper yet good things that serve our needs. Let us learn to be generous. Let us together build ourselves and our neighbours for the Kingdom of God.
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