When enough is not enough

There used to be a time when buying new clothes needed an occasion like a birthday or a festival or New Year, when the connection of the first landline telephone at home would send a thrill down our spines, when in a family of two or three kids getting your own study desk seemed like a privilege. Yes, I am talking about a bygone era when enough was really more than enough. Things are different now. We are living in an age when enough is never enough.

Take for example the current craze for gadgets for communication like cell phones or tablets, etc. Consumers are looking for more and more feature-laden gizmos, service providers are promising enhanced connectivity, bandwidth, and what not. It is a common sight to see youngsters with one or more of these in their hands, typing away feverishly, apparently ‘communicating’ with ‘friends’. It makes me wonder whether the same people would be  as communicative with each other if they met  face to face. Since the present generation of parents of these youngsters also insist that that their ward must have one of these for the sake of safety, it makes me wonder whether our parents were less protective of us when we were kids

Consumerism, which was once a phenomenon in the West, has invaded the Asian spaces as well. Manufacturing is going on unabated, media & advertising are spreading the word around about what’s on the shelves and there is plenty of money chasing these goods, even from the middle class segment. People buy clothes, shoes, bags and other accessories not for looking good in them but because possessing brands gives them an identity. So nothing short of designer labels is worth even looking at. Is this adding to our self-worth or eroding from it, one often wonders.

We are living in times of excess, of yearning beyond the basics. By basic definition, a car is supposed to be a vehicle that can carry you safely and comfortably from point A to B. That would be just enough. But enough is no longer enough; so if it is not a fancy piece of equipment, promising you a pick up speed of 0-180 km/h in 8 seconds or less (in cities where traffic moves at snail’s pace), it is not worth possessing. Your house or apartment is inadequate if you are not part of a conglomerate with club-houses and gyms and swimming pools! A wedding ceremony is no longer the celebration of the coming together in love of two beautiful souls. It must have all the jazz and glitter that money can buy.  The locale has to be at least five star to be worth a mention, with exotic menus and designer jewelry and clothes. Even information is available in excess, thanks to the internet. So nobody really bothers painstakingly acquiring it, as we once used to do, by waiting in long queues and spending hours at libraries.

By the laws of economics, anything that is available in excess undergoes erosion of value.

Nobody, and yes, I repeat, nobody finds all this nauseating! We are slowly but inevitably getting socialized to accept this as our way of life. I know the ultimate wisdom is in accepting things the way they are, but cannot avoid feeling the agony of losing my sense of proportions, the angst for a time when value and worth were not commodities on sale in the marketplace.