It's fascinating,I think, to examine the relationship between pleasure and consumption. Thinking of the things we, speaking generally of the wider population, enjoy doing are temporary fixes. We enjoy indulging in food regardless of whether or not it's healthy or of necessary nutritional value. We enjoy the temporary high we get from alcohol, before it wears off or we over indulge. For the younger generations it's about action figures, dolls, trading cards and the other latest trends. For the teens and young adults it's video games, DVD players, sports equipment and finally it becomes all this plus clothes and cars and houses. It seems that although one's happiness may not actually correlate with their consumption we generally believe that it does. Look no further for an example of this then people who consider shopping a past time. I don't mean to cast judgement on this method of seeking pleasure. It just seems to me that this form of pleasure, primarily material, always consumptive, is incredibly temporary.From a socio - political/economic stand point this is arguably a result of the system we live in. A liberal capitalist society, with what is essentially a free market. We gain money, we spend it for a temporary kick, we go make more. A constant cycle of producing so we can consume.
I guess I've always been thinking about possible alternatives to this, although I may never have expressed that in a such a specific framework. When we feel the need to consume, we are acting on desires or cravings we believe we have. They may be our own, they may have been subtly pushed into us through various of cohesion. When we seek pleasure we seek to stimulate our mind, his is done through satisfying our desires or by altering, challenging, changing our perceptions. The latter of these would serve as reasoning why alcohol is so popular. The question then, is how do we pursue these results without relying on the consumption of things we fundamentally don't need or that do us no long term good.
The idea to which I'm drawn I struggle to articulate in an all encompassing manner. If the following doesn't come across as understandable then I apologise and hope that the examples that follow will aid the reading of this idea. I think the key to an excitement and enjoyment lies in two inter related things, information and perception. Our perception is how we see the world, how we understand this consequently effects our relationship to it. When I say information I mean to encompass all ideas, theories, beliefs, history and all of the seemingly endless ocean of knowledge we have access to. Information is what moulds our perceptions and is therefore what changes them.
I must stress that when I refer to information I don't mean just scholarly knowledge and ideas of the published intellectual. I mean all that which communicates ideas whether this be in the form of reference or art, religion, culture, tradition.
The problem we have is that we are stuck in the idea that majority of western society, "The American Dream" being the easiest way to qualify this. When we seek to expand our perceptions, through the examination of information we have taken a path that is undeniably exhilarating. To be be able to continually surprise our self and reach beyond what we know. I find within myself (it may be exclusive to me but what am I to base my thoughts on if not my own experience?) a constant desire to seek what is true. Even though I'm consciously aware that the very notion of anything being "true" is essentially impossible. What certainly is impossible is me ever being able to say for sure what is true. I find this whole process of seeking truth in itself thoroughly enjoyable, for it excites my mind and constantly changes my perceptions.
It's all very well speaking of this idea of information being an alternate route to pleasure by exciting the mind through constant development, but how does it come about in practice? For me personally, generally learning and educating myself on that which I am drawn to is an answer, through various means of reading, listening to lectures, watching documentaries etc. But I think it is present on a wider scale and on a far more subtle level. Conversation, just talking to each other and sharing ideas and opinions, whether debating, arguing or just shooting the shit, all of this I think evolves our perceptions and excites us intellectually. We have the phrase "The art of conversation" for a reason. Through music, listening and interpreting and generally experiencing we can also lean so much, likewise with film. Through any forms of art which show us something different from the view perpetuated by the main stream.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is how I live my life, hell I enjoy sitting down with my little brother watching professional wrestling and playing a bit of xbox.
The above is just some theorising on consumption and materialism which popped into my head today.
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