Are we Nature's Backstop?

Plastic said:

So why do they treat us so badly?

I've heard it said before that our whole system and way of life is based on feeding the ego.

If you look at the social stratification in the Western world today ' success ' is usually defined by having more. More money, more power, more social status, more material possessions, more houses, more cars or even having more friends. We are teaching kids from an early age that having more is essentially the ultimate goal in life and to be better than the next person is the road to a happy life. A better education, better grades, better exam results, better school, better Uni and so on.

Advertising, social media, reality tv, gaming etc are saying to people you need this product, this type of partner, these kind of lips, this kind of house and so on to be happy. Basically, that happiness is to be found somewhere out there. Not within. Somewhere outside yourself. Only when you have accumulated all these things, then you will be happy, then you will have arrived. The problem is, you never have enough and you never arrive anywhere real under these pretenses. It is all superficial and your life is spent chasing external things.

Is it any wonder then that we often find psychopaths or those displaying these tendencies who rise to the top of our society based on this system and we actually hold these people up as models of ' success ' ? Why then are we surprised to find division, fighting, war, egotism, stress, mental illness, greed, ignorance, anger, selfishness etc etc etc either encouraged or considered perfectly normal in our every day lives ? 

There are even those who have been so conditioned to this way of life that you will often hear them say ' It's just human nature '.

Plastic said:

So why do they treat us so badly?

Plastic said:

So why do they treat us so badly?

I've heard it said before that our whole system and way of life is based on feeding the ego.

If you look at the social stratification in the Western world today ' success ' is usually defined by having more. More money, more power, more social status, more material possessions, more houses, more cars or even having more friends. We are teaching kids from an early age that having more is essentially the ultimate goal in life and to be better than the next person is the road to a happy life. A better education, better grades, better exam results, better school, better Uni and so on.

Advertising, social media, reality tv, gaming etc are saying to people you need this product, this type of partner, these kind of lips, this kind of house and so on to be happy. Basically, that happiness is to be found somewhere out there. Not within. Somewhere outside yourself. Only when you have accumulated all these things, then you will be happy, then you will have arrived. The problem is, you never have enough and you never arrive anywhere real under these pretenses. It is all superficial and your life is spent chasing external things.

Is it any wonder then that we often find psychopaths or those displaying these tendencies who rise to the top of our society based on this system and we actually hold these people up as models of ' success ' ? Why then are we surprised to find division, fighting, war, egotism, stress, mental illness, greed, ignorance, anger, selfishness etc etc etc either encouraged or considered perfectly normal in our every day lives ? 

There are even those who have been so conditioned to this way of life that you will often hear them say ' It's just human nature '.

Plastic said:

So why do they treat us so badly?

Exactly - enough is never enough.    The 'Me, Me, Me' focus of life.