Merryn and I joined the ranks of the wise, studious, lofty-minded and turtle-neck-sweatered folks at the Sydney Writers’ Festival yesterday. I got to one of Thomas Keneally’s sessions, and got to hear a bit of popular philosopher Alain deBotton. Fascinating stuff, even if both men left me feeling somewhat ignorant!
There was one address yesterday that I must particularly mention. I couldn’t help think that as this author spoke, God was nodding His head in agreement. The lecture was by Clive Hamilton, author of the book Affluenza. In 50-odd minutes, Hamilton summed up one of the great viruses of our culture—consumerism.
From the women’s magazine that describes its ideal reader as, I quote, ‘a 24 year old shopaholic’, to the fact that for some children the first word they utter is not ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ but a brand name, the consumer binge is infecting our society faster than an outbreak of rubella, rabies and bird flu combined.
The average person or household spends at least $1250 a year on stuff they know they will not use. It seems we’re medicating ourselves on spending sprees—bolstering self-esteem by buying luxuries—rewarding ourselves with new toys and trinkets—be they CDs, clothes, gadgets or cars. In fact, one university now even offers a Masters degree in ‘Luxury Goods Management’. A year of tuition will cost you $120,000!
Clive Hamilton went on to point out that this medication of buying things to make us feel good isn’t working. Western societies are seeing great surges in mental afflictions like depression. Hamilton quoted ABS figures that suggest 18% of Australians are now taking medication to help their wellbeing. And the self-help books may be doing more harm than good. With their emphasis on ‘trust yourself’ and ‘happiness is your choice’, they push us more and more into our individualistic cocoons. The answer to all our problems, such titles preach, is us.
The problem is, Affluenza is affecting our relationships, leaving us to be the island of which John Donne said no person can be. We’ve adopted a consumer approach to sexuality, as seen in our heightened accessibility to pornography and the rise of raunch culture. We’ve adopted a consumer approach to parenthood, with children often viewed as lifestyle choices and some couples even doing a cost/benefit analysis before deciding to have them. In fact, products can even dictate fertility decisions, as evidenced by the sports car advertisement whose headline read ‘Porches new baby—an excellent reason to delay yours’.
So, when an academic like Clive Hamilton says we’re becoming too self-focussed, individualistic and narcissistic, my ears prick up. When he suggests we should be teaching people humility rather than self-esteem, I’m with him. In fact, Hamilton concluded his address with this thought: humans have a desire, despite secularity, to search for meaning and purpose. ‘This is essentially a religious urge,’ Hamilton said, ‘one that will always be with us.’ And that urge can’t be satisfied by getting another manicure.
Hamilton spoke to a packed out audience yesterday. In fact, along with dozens of others, Merryn and I had to listen to him outside via a PA system. Why? Maybe its because more and more of us are realising fulfilment can’t be found in things, as much as the marketers want us to believe it. Of course, the Bible has said this for two millennia. But now we’re feeling it.
At one point Hamilton quoted the words of Jesus: ‘What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul?’ Perhaps the truest answer to the virus of Affluenza, and to the great religious search for purpose, is found just a sentence before this quote in the Gospel of Matthew. ‘[Whoever] wants to save his life will lose it,’ Jesus says there, ‘but whoever loses his life for me will find it.’
Something to ponder.
