Aparigraha the Humane Solution

Author(s): Kamla Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 27

CONSUMERISM-ANTI-HUMAN GOAL
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people the more covetous they need to be. 'An achievement-motivated' person may be kept running hard to the last day of his life. There is continuous restlessness to achieve something better and better. To some, this restlessness itself may be a driving force as a weapon against the dullness of life. Even this dullness is a negative characteristic symptomatic of comparative attitude that one develops in a rich society. So organised pursuit of science and technological advancement is very likely to destroy the essentials of man's well-being. Economic growth tends to lead to lack of social welfare and then to social dişintegration.
The principle of competition in economics also needs to be reexamined. How much does it help in economic betterment? How much does it harm social and psychological well-being of people ? The spirit of competition is exalted. But very clearly, it puts the 'individual' prior to 'society'. This spirit enters the psyche of the people, making them more and more selfish and self-centred. The organic unity of society gets blurred when too much competition enters the economic field, where it may take a crude turn. Even in non-economic fields, too much of competitive spirit destroys mental peace. Academic institutions of excellence witness the competitive spirit of their alumni leading to suicidal tendencies and other mental disorders. The main cause of this is that they never accept enough, enough would never suffice for them. In fact, enough would never suffice for production-based economies. Other Areas of Consumerism
Consumerism is not confined to economic goods and objects of luxury such as fashions and automobiles. The advancement of science and technology has made consumerism capture some other fields also. The consumerist psyche in fact is based on the desire for newness, for change or for the different'; excessive competition is therefore an essential part of it. It is, therefore, worth noticing that the areas which in appearance are non-economic are governed by consumeristic attitudes. For example, the field of news and views in the electronic media, television etc. is powerfully governed by speed. The aim is that the news and views should reach us as fast as possible. The speed makes it such an expensive item that lakhs and lakhs of rupees are being spent on