Dr John Mohan Razu
Sayings goes in the following ways: “Mamimise pleasure, and minimise pain” and “Maximum happiness for maximum number of people”. What then is happiness? Guidelines for happiness have diverse components within. Nordic countries have taken the top spot pushing those like who are materially advanced such as America, England and other Western European countries way down. India is placed way down in the recent happiness report. Likewise, pleasure has multiple meanings such as desire, expectations, liking and host of others. But to realise that pleasure or desire or liking or expectations we should observe that there are components that should fill the conception of pleasure that the so-called developed and advanced nation-states do not have. Happiness and pleasure are like two-sides of the coin.
In reality, the bottom line in this dynamic of ‘happiness’ is that the tendency of humans’ is to keep loading on and on and the quest tends to on ascendency scale and never stops. As said, “Wants are unlimited”, and so, they keep growing all the time and once you get hooked to it there is no end to it. The root cause is capitalism. Capitalism continues to accelerate the in-built ‘human avarice’ by offering new things and thus triggers human appetite of ‘hunger for abundance’. Let me revert the proposition: ‘many live in hunger’ but ‘there’s growing populace who are hungry for abundance’. The propelling factor is kaleidoscopic capitalism. It is deeply enmeshed in promoting ‘insatiable greed’ thereby leading to ‘unlimited wants’.
For example, take print media or TV channels or social media, the advertisements across the pages and additional supplementary are all filled with eateries, home appliances, garments and many other consumable items. For instance, in India, we are invariably celebrating umpteen number of festivals throughout the year. Festivals that are usually celebrated by the religious communities in gaiety that are primarily couched with food and garments and also gifts. There are festivals that zero down to fertility of harvests, Mother Earth, and those that are connected to nature and also to consumer items. Festive celebrations by and large manifest opulence and what you give as gifts. It all depends how much your gift is worth—’expensive’ and ‘costly’.
If flip back to our past like that of agrarian economies India which was so dependent on agriculture and so suspectable to the vagaries of weather in the past, in which was why the nature was revered so much. Protecting and promoting nature were part of human value which in turn is connected to fertility. Gradually as years and decades passed-by the ethos has totally changed in a world of materialism. In addition, we have so many fertility festivals that punctuate the year like reassurances, combined with prayers and celebrations like Pongal which is being celebrated the harvest with rice boiling and spilling over from the earthen pots. To be precise, the idea of plenty or abundance permeates every aspect of Diwali—special sweets are prepared and given, purchase of new clothes, decorating homes brighter; likewise in Onam festival floral designs exhibiting nature’s generosity.
It is in this context, I would like to put forth what I heard in the social media recently entitled “Empire of Artificial Happiness” should shed more light to it. “In the 21st Century where permissible is costly but truth is censored. Where permissible is extremely costly, but corruption is dead cheap; where pitezzza arrives faster than ambulance and police; losing a phone is more painful than losing clothes defines a person’s worth and filters divine beauty; where loyalty is ancient history, but betrayal is everyday norm honor is ridiculed and shame is worm like a badge of pride; where money is new god and greed is the highest form of worship; where faith is mocked and immorality is entertained.
It goes on “Welcome to the Bleak Era” where lying is seen is cleverness, betrayal is seen as intelligence; poverty is disgrace and nudity is the height of fashion; modest is seen as outdated and arrogance is seen as bold; where virtue is weakness and deception as strategy and loyalty is stupidity; where fake are adored as real are ignored … where truth is offensive but lies are empowering; where right is wrong and wrong is right; where weak are bullied and wicked are praised; where respect is not bought, but earned; where money covers sins; power covers justice; conscience is burden; we have more technology and less wisdom …”
The idea of fertility has drastically changed amongst those who live in abundance. Our celebrations be it fertility or any other seasonal festivities are now being measured in newer ways currently. The dough rises in ovens as cakes realise their full potential. Fruit and sweet vendors display their products in ripe heaps of promise and variety of sweets displayed under colour lights exhibit “extra volume”, “abundant lather”, or “rich creaminess”. Marketing language in promoting products and for advertisements in the media has drastically changed primarily to luring customers to purchase in abundance. The appetite for abundance is trickled by the market forces continuously generating visual imprints and thus influences to go all out for it.
Take for instance, shampoos, toilet soaps, hair oils, cosmetics, perfumes and many other products that offer additional decors with umpteen choices to those with diverse income capacities. Toiletries, facial and body application creams and bottles have pushed cascading waves of luxuriant hair; detergent packaging shows bubbles too many for the frame to contain cereal boxes display bowls filled to impractical heights. This visual language of plenty speaks volumes to deeper needs than mere cleanliness or nutrition. We are lured to buy more that ought to surpasses our capacity displays our nature of craving and acquisitiveness. This has to do with psychological comfort or satisfaction, despite non-affordability and yet going all out for it.
We are inclined to buy more than we consume and accumulate things more than what is essential. We derive psychological comfort from a visible surplus. Usually, hosts’ intense nightmare is running out of food, which is why every party result in the household consuming the leftovers for days. Refrigerators offer reassurance of abundance. When the doors of refrigerator open, not due to hunger, but to gaze briefly for personal satisfaction to plenty, confirming that all remains well in our domestic realms. A barren refrigerator, on the other, evokes a feeling of acute insufficiency. In this, eyes and mind combine extends a psychological satisfaction.
