I clicked on a link to my old high school/college blog yesterday and found it missing. Five years worth of writing...gone. Of course I didn't have any of this saved anywhere...the only place it existed is the geocities server...because I'm just that responsible. So I freaked out a little bit and did some investigating (more than I really had time for) and eventually ended up in a dark and dusty HTML index loaded with the rough versions of all my entries, and an announcement in teeny, tiny little letters that read, "All Geocities websites will be disabled and deleted as of October 26, 2009. Your web site will no longer be accessible after this date." ??? Thanks for the MEMO! Anyhow, I copied and pasted it in 8 point font to 144 pages of word document. Dodge impending disaster...check.
All that to say...that while copying and pasting all those entries, I got a little caught up in reading more than a few of them. And discovered that, if I were to categorize my entries, the largest topic would be "Materialism: in my life and otherwise". I've written on it more than I realized. And think about it exponentially more than I write about it. It's a recurring theme in my life...wondering how Jesus feels about my finances and my use of them.
I recently returned from a trip to Swaziland, where 69% of the rural population lives below the poverty line of E57 (Emalangeni - the national currency) a month. That translates to $7.12. A month.
Needless to say...I could write a little more on the topic of the epidemic of materialism following that trip.
So I guess what I'm wondering now...is that if this is a constant issue on my mind...something the Lord keeps laying on my heart...over and over and over again...what am I supposed to do about it?
Maybe I'm missing the ball...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sociology Rant #3,767...
I went and saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic" this weekend. As romantic comedies go, it was a cute little feel-good film. Comical and clean with a quirky-but-lovable heroine and a beautiful, flawless (in terms of both character and physique) boy for her to fall for. The dialogue is cliche but not sickeningly so, and all the loose ends are neatly tied by the end of the movie. There are even a few morsels of truth scattered throughout the script, so I really don't have any reason to complain.
But I'm going to anyway.
Not about the movie, actually. It was a decent movie. It's what the movie reveals about our culture that I'm taking issue with.
Let's just take for instance, the title. "Confessions of a Shopaholic."; obviously, it's a story about people who are addicted to shopping. Addicted to shopping. Yes.
I know that this is a legitimate addiction. I mean, I don't think it's been classified in the DSM-IV yet, but I know that it is something that people really struggle with. I can relate to that feeling that somehow, when you are blue, all you need is a little iTunes spree, or a new pair of shoes (the shoes get me almost every time) or even just a new piece of...tupperware...and somehow you will forget your troubles - because you have something - anything - new and shiny and in colorful packaging to take home. (Of course, it's never as attractive once in my cluttered cupboard or closet as it was on that neatly stacked store shelf.)
Whether or not you would consider yourself a full-fledged shopaholic, or just occasionally guilty of consumption-for-the-sake-of-a-seratonin-boost, most of us Americans have an issue - to some degree - with unneccesary spending.
It's humorous when you are watching the movie (which I paid nearly $10 to see, I might add) and not-so-humorous if you are one of the average American households with over $9,800 in credit card debt. But its simply absurd when you take a step back and view it from a global perspective.
Globally, we live in a world where nearly 30,000 children die daily from malnutrition. The poorest 10% of the worlds population account for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% account for 59% of all consumption. (www.globalissues.org)
However, nationally, we live in a world where, for many of us, our biggest issues stem from spending more than we have to buy things we don't need. We've even labeled our compulsive tendencies to acquire piles of crap with victim-mentality terminology and formed support groups to talk us through our addiction and walk us through the purging of those piles of crap.
Economically, this living-above-our-means has finally sent us into a national financial tailspin. The solution? Let's spend more money we don't have to create jobs producing more things we don't need so we can make more money and start all over consuming these things...and on and on and on.
It's embarrassing.
It's not just our issue of obscene spending habits that is disconcerting. As a nation, we are depressed and lonely and empty. Our young men are killing themselves (The Rosebud Indian Reservation has the highest per-capita suicide rate in the world). Our young women are starving themselves (75% of American women have eating issues of some kind). And our socially approved genocide wipes out over 1.6 million unborn babies, by choice of their mothers, annually.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, young men are ordered - by their own governments - to kill their friends and brothers. In Mauritania, young girls worry about having enough to eat, not about eating too much. And in Sierra Leone, 26% of children do not live past their fifth birthday.
Like I said, from that perspective, things get kind of embarrassing.
Please don't misunderstand me. I am not trying to make light of our country's social problems. They are very real and very devastating. I am also not trying to induce hopelessness or anti-patriotism. I just want us (me) to have a better perspective. I want to better understand that the answers to our problems and emptiness (whether they are impulsive purchases, or distorted body images, or making next months car payment - all things I worry about) are not going to come from a new president, a new bail out plan, a new diet, or a new set of tupperware. Nor will these things save children's lives in Sierra Leone.
The only thing that will solve any of these issues is recognizing the redeeming love and sufficiency of Our Maker for all of humanity, and consequently turning our gaze outside of ourselves to relieve, if even in the tiniest way, the suffering of those whose problems we can with the resources we have.
But I'm going to anyway.
Not about the movie, actually. It was a decent movie. It's what the movie reveals about our culture that I'm taking issue with.
Let's just take for instance, the title. "Confessions of a Shopaholic."; obviously, it's a story about people who are addicted to shopping. Addicted to shopping. Yes.
I know that this is a legitimate addiction. I mean, I don't think it's been classified in the DSM-IV yet, but I know that it is something that people really struggle with. I can relate to that feeling that somehow, when you are blue, all you need is a little iTunes spree, or a new pair of shoes (the shoes get me almost every time) or even just a new piece of...tupperware...and somehow you will forget your troubles - because you have something - anything - new and shiny and in colorful packaging to take home. (Of course, it's never as attractive once in my cluttered cupboard or closet as it was on that neatly stacked store shelf.)
Whether or not you would consider yourself a full-fledged shopaholic, or just occasionally guilty of consumption-for-the-sake-of-a-seratonin-boost, most of us Americans have an issue - to some degree - with unneccesary spending.
It's humorous when you are watching the movie (which I paid nearly $10 to see, I might add) and not-so-humorous if you are one of the average American households with over $9,800 in credit card debt. But its simply absurd when you take a step back and view it from a global perspective.
Globally, we live in a world where nearly 30,000 children die daily from malnutrition. The poorest 10% of the worlds population account for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% account for 59% of all consumption. (www.globalissues.org)
However, nationally, we live in a world where, for many of us, our biggest issues stem from spending more than we have to buy things we don't need. We've even labeled our compulsive tendencies to acquire piles of crap with victim-mentality terminology and formed support groups to talk us through our addiction and walk us through the purging of those piles of crap.
Economically, this living-above-our-means has finally sent us into a national financial tailspin. The solution? Let's spend more money we don't have to create jobs producing more things we don't need so we can make more money and start all over consuming these things...and on and on and on.
It's embarrassing.
It's not just our issue of obscene spending habits that is disconcerting. As a nation, we are depressed and lonely and empty. Our young men are killing themselves (The Rosebud Indian Reservation has the highest per-capita suicide rate in the world). Our young women are starving themselves (75% of American women have eating issues of some kind). And our socially approved genocide wipes out over 1.6 million unborn babies, by choice of their mothers, annually.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, young men are ordered - by their own governments - to kill their friends and brothers. In Mauritania, young girls worry about having enough to eat, not about eating too much. And in Sierra Leone, 26% of children do not live past their fifth birthday.
Like I said, from that perspective, things get kind of embarrassing.
Please don't misunderstand me. I am not trying to make light of our country's social problems. They are very real and very devastating. I am also not trying to induce hopelessness or anti-patriotism. I just want us (me) to have a better perspective. I want to better understand that the answers to our problems and emptiness (whether they are impulsive purchases, or distorted body images, or making next months car payment - all things I worry about) are not going to come from a new president, a new bail out plan, a new diet, or a new set of tupperware. Nor will these things save children's lives in Sierra Leone.
The only thing that will solve any of these issues is recognizing the redeeming love and sufficiency of Our Maker for all of humanity, and consequently turning our gaze outside of ourselves to relieve, if even in the tiniest way, the suffering of those whose problems we can with the resources we have.
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