Everything is commodified. The idea that happiness is just around the corner is so deeply embedded in our capitalist society and psyche, we seek the next thing and commodify not just stuff, but also ways of being. It’s so embedded that even the idea of living simply has been commodified. For me I often think if I could just shed this stuff, get rid of the clutter, live more simply then I would have the time do x or y. So in the end we commodify x or y and even time itself.
How do we break this circle, can we defend ourselves against idea that happiness is just around the corner? For many faith is the answer, it helps us debunk the societital myths around us. Yet for many faith itself is rooted in this commodification process, (at one level it’s what Nitchze was saying), we think we have replaced the capitialist system with a faith system, but we have not replaced the desire and myth that happiness is just around the corner, if we just pray more, if we just get deeper into the bible, or even at a more basic level; it will be okay in the end in heaven. That sort faith is rooted in capitalist desire and with a transaction at its core.
So now I’m stuck, as I’m thinking, is even the desire to break the notion of desire a problem….
I tell a version of this story…. http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/more.html one of my favourites. Whilst I am in the market for an iMac because of the business (and indeed have convinced myself ‘then I will be truly happy…), i have found that not worrying about tomorrow, and really embracing today has reduced my drive for ‘if only…then’. I have discovered too that whilst I might make plans for the future, it is today’s decisions that make the difference. So if I have God’s desires at my heart, then my plans will line up with his; and whilst he determines my steps the decisions I make, if my desire today is my decisions are one’s he wants me to make, then I don’t need to worry about the if only…thens. Its not perfect, but it really does help.