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For those of us living in a "modern society" with a "free trade market" advertisers have all of our lives used our basic human desires to manipulate us. They brand their products so that the products themselves will try to meet our basic phsychological needs. This practice, originally called propoganda, was first institutionalized by Edward Bernays. Bernays was Sigmeund Freud's nephew who drew heavily on his uncle's ideas about the human race being naturally driven by sex and violence, and decided to exploit these desires to cause mass amounts of people to chase after ideas, products, and even politicians. In the BBC documentary "Century of the Self" you can see a sharp contrast in how modern societies once advertised compared to now, where subtle techniques are used by every major corporation that touches our lives in order that we will become relient on their products for our own self identity. The result of this rather than enhancing the actual lives of people enslaves society through their desires. When I look at this I can see no wonder as to why Prince Siddartha aka Buddah decided that desires were the roots of all suffering and that if one could eliminate all selfish desires that one could achieve enlightenment. Now I am no buddah, and I respect the man greatly as one of my heroes for the simplistic life he sought, but I came to a conclusion closer to Ayn Rand's. (Ayn Rand was the founder of objectivism which is the belief that man is at his best when he is in full pursuit of his desires)
All throughout buddah's life of soul searching you can see a common theme in the belief that understanding will bring freedom. I would like to apply this same method to desires. I think that desires themselves are not evil, in fact that they are crafted by the almighty (call it God, Tao, a quantum frequency, the only reality, they all work for me) Having said this, it would follow that their is a purpose behind all such desires. Most of the time however we tend to misunderstand our own desires. This misunderstanding is further perpetuated and manipulated by modern marketing, and controlled media, so that the masses of people in these countries will act in such a way as to benefit the few elite that have the funding available to spread this propoganda on a mass scale. By perpetuating misunderstanding our society also perpetuates what I think is the root of most suffering; self deception. We buy unnecesarily big houses and cars to satisfy a craving for the social status that such things represent, but why do we kill ourselves to please society? Do we really want our society to hold us higher, or do we do this so that we can hold ourselves higher? Are these the things we really desired, or have we been bamboozled by the supposed american dream into thinking that this is what it means to have it made? Why should we buy into the idea that happiness can only come from total reliance on the publics every thought and a life style which forces us to become relient on consumerism, and the oil industry? Who does this benefit? Are you really happy sacrificing money that represents time of your life spent at a job you don't like while whatever is left of your life rots away out of existence?
Please! Ask yourself what really makes you happy, and on what you really need. Do not count on tomorrow, even the rest of today is not guaranteed to you. Analyze each desire to the fullest, and try to identify what you really want, and what you really need to be happy. So far my own list includes food, water, shelter, something soft to lay on, security, community (not to be confused with people who only value you because of your rolex or hummer), and oppurtunity. We have made ourselves relient on others by giving all these things to corporations that benefit more if we spend more. I'm aware that spending more is the current recomendation for keeping the economy alive, but again; ask yourself? How do we measure a succesful economy? Is it based on how much we spend, or is it based on how well our needs for health and hapiness are actually met?
In conclusion, I plee to you, to seek out that which will make you happy over that which will make others approve. If your happiness is relient on anyone elses opinion, than you are chained to that person. I would not say go to the extremes of libertine in which there is no wrong deed, heed your own concience and don't mess around with something that sincerely bugs you, but find your own voice. I hope you will learn to identify the reasons behind your desires, so that you can come to see what your desires really are. It has been my experience that most of the time, desires really are much more simple than we make them up to be. Live life purposefully, and do not be afraid to follow your own desires, just make sure you know what those really are first.
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Wow. That's some really good insight. It's really funny that I can appreciate all of that considering how I write commercials and do marketing for a living. But I do appreciate what you wrote and agree with it. I've recently been coming to similar conclusions about the way we derive our identity. In fact, there's a book I'm reading that you might enjoy by Donald Miller entitled "Searching for God Knows What." He has some interesting thoughts about this too.
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Posted by JMlessons
on 2008-05-22 15:11:09
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So cool and so meaningful words!
Thank you. Take care
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Posted by Sober
on 2008-05-25 13:16:25
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| Views: 332
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