Mesmerizing Materialism
When I thought of writing about the game of materialism that plays in our lives, I was immediately drawn to one of the English stories I read, 'The umbrella man' by Roald Dhal. For all who have forgotten this story, I will give a quick recap. This story talks about a girl and her mother who visited a dentist. While they were returning, it was raining, and they were waiting for a cab when they were approached by an old man. This man asked for a favor by requesting $20 as a taxi fare in lieu of the silk umbrella he had. The mother was usually suspicious of strangers. So she used her first golden rule: "The nicer the man seems to be, the more suspicious you must become." This old man was really nice because he was polite, well-spoken, and well-dressed. He was really a gentle man. She knew this because her mother used her second golden rule to access it: "You can always spot a gentleman by the shoes he wears." (This is the reason I picked this story.) The story proceeded by describing the old man wearing beautiful brown shoes.
Didn't we have such standards for ourselves? Look inside and answer.
We all judge people based on their materialistic standards. I was once discussing this with a couple of our friends, and the topic was, "I don't need beds and mattresses and a lot of furniture in my house. I can sleep on the floor also." But the thing is that when a family comes for an alliance, they want to see all the things that are in our houses. It is not bad to access it this way, but to make this the prime element of judgment is the hiding place. We can go wrong based on this. May be today the person is not so well to do, but if he is creative and hardworking, he might gain wealth. As I have emphasized character in my previous post, I still hold it higher. You will learn about it in a while.
Continuing the story, this old man who wanted a $20 favor for a cab ride was tired, but as soon as he got the money, he crossed the street and was walking very fast. This made the mother-daughter duo suspect a fishy move, so they followed him. Ah! To their utter surprise, this man rushed to a pub, ordered a triple drink, and was satisfied. Then he dons his cap and hat, picks up one umbrella for the bin, and moves out.
I am sure we all must have met one such figure in our lives. At times, we also do the same. I heard a loud noise saying no. Okay. So it was a party evening, and you were invited. Your daughter chooses to wear a plain cotton frock; what is your reaction? Oh! Darling, what are you doing? It is a marriage party; we need to dress well, or else others will say otherwise. Let us consider our usual tradition when a boy comes to see a girl. Do we allow her to be in her comfortable clothes? No. We make sure that she dresses in a good sari and then puts on a couple of good ornaments and makeup. Why? This shows our standards and our way of living to attract people. We all use the same principle when we are in the process of dating. Isn't it.
So in materialism, we hide our real selves. We paint ourselves as the world demands. This is well captured in the poem of William Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much with Us." I will pick up one segment of it to show how much we are stuck up in materialism, running away from ourselves.
"Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;-"
If you have closely observed girls talk, they will say you know she bought this jewelry and this sari last night and is showing off so much. I bought this sari; it is much more expensive than hers. My friend got that dress; I will also go and get a better one. My friends wardrobes are full of clothes, slippers, and sneakers; even my sisters, and even then, they always say, 'I have no dress to wear to the party.' This is what materialism looks like. Talk about boys; they display it even more. They will show off their watches, cars, and bikes.
See, materialism is not wrong; the madness of being materialistic makes us unreal.
I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and hyperlink https://www.theblogchatter.com
Find my blogchatter A2Z 2024 series:
C- Cunning complacency and craving certaininty
D- Daring dreams(ambition)
H-
I- Infringes of information technology
K-
M- Mesmerizing Materialism
N- Nostalgia-the niche to ditch the inner self
O-
P-
R-
S-
U-
V-
W-
Y-
Z- Zest O! Zest! why do you fade in discovering you inner self
true.. in the lure of materialism we are forgetting ourselves
ReplyDeleteVery true.
DeleteValuation and materialism are cousins!
ReplyDeleteYes valuation matters that can only check our materialism.
Delete