Drop it

Zen Buddhists hold that the path to nirvana entails a giving up of all wants and desires (even for enlightenment). Jesus says a similar thing when he says "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." We are people with needs, some invented by our eyes, some which are real in our hearts. The need for material things and wealth happens to be of our eyes.

Once we understand and can appreciate all that we do have now, we suddenly notice those around us. When we no longer want, we can be satisfied. The American dream includes the pursuit of happiness because under that model you will never actually get it. You are always going for the next bigger and better thing. Our society runs on and promotes the natural human error of greed. We don’t think in terms of the betterment of America and of our neighbors in society anymore, but we think about what is best for ourselves. The Chinese mentality is what can I do to advance China? The Indian mentality is what can I do for India? Many cultures in the world follow collectivistic thinking. We are just now starting to see the power of that kind of thinking. JFK said a long time ago. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

In light of the government bailing out major corporations, perhaps an economy based on intrinsic human flaws was not the best idea. If we were really to follow laissez-faire philosophy and let the market correct itself, we’d just watch it crash. Perhaps we’ve come full circle to watch the great Depression happen again. Perhaps what we see now is a pre-emptive version of FDR’s new deal. I don’t see why people get pissed off about it, it’s the only thing keeping people from giving up hope to spend. I think we’ve been so ingrained with the mentality of fairness (Why do they deserve handouts when I’ve been working hard my whole life and never went into debt? Where is mine!), we think we deserve fairness without sacrifice. You gave up certain rights by agreeing to live in America for the safety and benefit of the whole. Does there need to be an immediate reward, and instant gratification, for satiation? If we take what we can get now, our future does not hold any promise, but sacrifice and hard work now pays off in the future. We’ve been enjoying the hard work and sacrifice of the past generation a little too long now. It’s time to do a little ourselves.