Because You’re Worth (sh)It.

We build the world in our own image. See it as a scary place and it will be, see it as a gentle giving place and it will be. See it as a place where you need to grab as much money as you can to survive, and it will be. Rich or poor, this is where we are. We want more money because we want more stuff, and we want more stuff because 3 minutes in every 15 we’re being told we do. TV ads are for specific products most of which we’ll never buy but the general message is there’s stuff out there we all want to buy. It’s not always been like this. Go back seventy years and it was very different. There were picture ads in newspapers for tumble dryers and lawn mowers with a splash price from the local hardware shop along with all sorts of everyday things. They simply acted as a reminder of where to go when your old one was wearing out. You glanced and moved on in a fraction of a second. There were no glossy magazines and BBC radio and TV were ad-less. The level of wanting was centred on replacing broken stuff with a little new extravagance now and then. With no TV we had the time to learn to make and mend things with pride. Wages weren’t great. My first job in 1964 paid £20 a week, which was fine. Now on average we watch over half an hour solid ads a day plus magazines and radio and our level of wanting stuff is massively higher. Not scratchy black and white line drawing ads, full on audio/visual masterpieces of desire. We drool for a new smart phone, an iPad, a bigger TV, a laptop that all absorb our time like a giant sponge. Our level of wanting knows no bounds; even the rich want more. Wanting has become a veil of unhappy distraction punctured only by the brief moments of a new purchase. And we have precious little time for rewarding activities that build self worth; we’re either earning it or spending it and wishing we had more. It seems from abundance we have created a misery of not having enough and shackled ourselves to profiteering and time wasting. This is the world we have created in our own image. But on the bright side Comet’s selling a Sony Viao 15” laptop for £100 pounds off in the post Christmas sale.