So much of life now is based on hyperreality. The combination of technology and the ever increasing intrusion of advertising have dramatically altered how we experience life. Not only this, we are bombarded endlessly with the glamourous lives of celebrities, sports stars, and the latest reality television personalities through endless tabloid newspapers and gossip magazines.
There’s a serious problem with all this. None of it is real.
Those celebrities and models that look so good on the front of the magazine? Airbrushed. Those products that we simply MUST have? They don’t live up to expectations; owning that car doesn’t ‘complete you’.
Our culture has created a context where we are never satisfied, never content. We are sucked into a life of ever increasing consumption. More, more, more.
A strange thing happens as we get caught up in the endless consumption of more. We end up not only desiring more but also becoming increasing dissatisfied. The more we have the less content we are. And yet, despite this, we continue to think that by having more we will find the contentment we’re looking for.
What’s the solution to all this?
I am convinced that we need to relearn how to enjoy reality. We’ve been hoodwinked into thinking that we can only find contentment in hyperrealities. Kids can only be entertained by going to Disneyworld or having endless new computer games. We can only be satisfied by forever adding to our list of must have items. We’ll only feel good about ourselves when we look like our current favourite – airbrushed – celebrity.
What if we were to start celebrating and expressing gratitude for the simple realities of life? It’s easy to forget that what most of us in the western world take for granted, the vast majority of the world are often struggling to get at all. Food, water, shelter, clothing. How grateful are we for these things?
Perhaps if we had some more perspective of all that we do have, we might find ourselves freed from the dissatisfaction that often hovers over so many of our lives. If we learnt to truly enjoy and savour the basic elements of life again, maybe, just maybe, we might find ourselves enjoying life again.
Whatever we take for granted we fail to appreciate. And what we fail to appreciate we fail to enjoy.
Instead of pursing a life based on hyperreality and endlessly consuming more goods, services, and – dare I say it – people, what if we made a decision to start appreciating all that we already have?
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When I’m feeling especially pitiful about something I try to bring myself to reality that I have an amazingly wonderful life. I am not a millionaire or drive a fancy car, or live in a mansion. But to the majority of the world I have all of those things.
When we went to India, we got to talking with so many people that would ask us, how big is your house? how much does it cost? how much money do you make? They weren’t being nosy or rude, they saw us as millionaires, Hollywood Americans. From that point I realized that my bottom of reality was sometimes the top of someone’s dreams.
Good thoughts Radford.