Day 483: All-ConsuMEng

If you're reading this, chances are that you were taught by some part of your environment to do whatever you must to make yourself happy and fulfill your potential. We are taught to protect our lives and those of our family members and loved ones, although a large part of this is also instinctual (which is just a different form of learning - one that happens in our DNA).

As the global society has been becoming more "westernized" (this could also be considered as Europeanized) so have individuals become more self-consumed (ironically this leads us to consume all of the world). Acts for the good of the many have become fewer in number, whilst acts for the good of 'me and my interests' have become the norm.

The selfish actions are born from thoughts centered around oneself, we actually find it more and more difficult as time goes by to consider the needs and positions of others. It's like we are each becoming little planets, thinking that we are alone, self sufficient, independent and that everything around us is here to serve or enhance us. This self-consumed cognitive tendency is not limited to "bad" people, like criminals who steal things from other people for whatever reasons, or movie stars who think of themselves as demi-gods. We all have moments in which our very first and last concern is for ourselves - sadly, these moments are happening so frequently now that we are almost always only thinking of ourselves.

The time of instant gratification is here

We have no more patience.

We want what we want and we want it now.

Technology, advertising, movies and the glitz and glam we are so enthralled by has made us forget the time and effort that goes into creating something.

the magic in movies of people reaching for their dreams and being special have made us forget how difficult it can be to uplift oneself from a bad situation - and that only one in a million ever do.

We live for the fantasies we are fed from birth about how we are special and more important than anything else, or anyone else. Our fantasies become more real than the world and people around us. We get so caught up in our own inner lives that we do not stop to think.

Isn't it ironic that our self-consumed behaviour and attitudes will be our ultimate downfall? Fantasy and reality must inevitably come face to face, and if we so choose to believe the Photoshopped version in our minds to what's actually going on then we will certainly be in for an unpleasant event in which we will be forced to see what the world is really like and face the consequences of our self indulgent actions.