SEEMS LIKE WE NEED A RADICAL CHANGE OF CULTURE

While thinking about why the world we live in, while beautiful, is as ugly as it is, I identified one root of the problems as our yearning for luxury.

While in school, I was taught that there are three levels in the chase of satisfaction. We chase;

• Needs: These are the most basic things that we use in living a our lives.
• Comfort: These are not the most essential but they make things better for our lives.
• Luxury: After one is comfortable, they begin to chase items/services that do not make things that much better, especially in comparison to their costs.

In my opinion, the chase of luxuries makes the world as ugly as it is. Luxuries and our attraction to them make a very large chunk of us fantastically corrupt and willing to hurt the next person. Almost everyone yearns for luxuries (and the accumulation of wealth) to a degree and THAT’S THE PROBLEM. Luxuries are unnecessary but cause desperation in many, push many to be immoral and a number to commit crimes.

If crimes must be excused, I will excuse stealing food to eat. I would not excuse selling drugs to fund a playboy lifestyle.

The chase for luxuries is part of our material culture globally. So I suggest a different culture.

Culture of needs, efficiency and precision.

I don’t have it all worked out but I have ideas. I’ll dish them in list form.

• The aim and target of (almost) every production process should be OPTIMUM satisfaction.
• Function over form, every time.
• There should be no intentional efforts to improve aesthetics. Instead efforts should be directed at improving efficiency.
• Chasing efficiency should be done efficiently. The cost of improvement must never compete with gains of improvement.
• Clothing should be made for protection only, according to environmental demands. ‘Style’, ‘flair’ and the sorts are excesses.
• Automobiles should be built and bought to answer daily realistic needs according to environment and tasks used for. Our celebrities do not need the cars in their collections. You don’t need a sports car if you’re not a stuntman.

This should give you a picture of what I think is the culture we should adopt.

I have a feeling I will come to back to this topic.