Opiate of the Masses
Content
Daniel Kennish WR 121 Essay #2
Opiate of the Masses
Of all societies in the world, America has undoubtedly marked itself as the number one consumer of the world. A country, full of people who live beyond their means, flippantly throwing money out to buy products they don’t need, and often, don’t use. Exporting jobs to make the ‘good life’ more attainable for the less well off, and throwing themselves deep into debt, for unnecessary commodities. Consumerism has become America’s opiate, and as with most drugs, the side effects can be fatal. From the moment we were born, modern children and young adults have been assaulted by advertisements, the average person sees at least at many as 5,000 advertisements in a single day. That’s three and a half ads every minute, and all these billboards want the same thing; your money. This ‘advironment’ has created a populace consumed with the bottom line, willing to sacrifice almost anything to get a cheaper product. So the business industry adapts, finding cheaper alternatives for production. Building a factory in China takes around 6 months, and taps into a cheap work force. To build a new factory in America, the paper work alone takes 6 months. And this has a compounding affect. For every factory sent overseas instead of built here, that’s 300 fewer engineers required in America, who can run that factory. This creates poor outlooks for engineers, so young adults picking a career no longer look into that path, creating a shortage of engineers in America, which in turn makes it harder to start up a new factory in the United States. And that’s just the engineers. This exporting of factories has another affect. In return for sending our businesses across the Pacific, we now export our money to pay for the items that those factories build. That’s American dollars that we are creating, that are getting taken out of our markets and sent to other countries, all for the sake of a cheaper phone or TV.
Nothing is sacred anymore. Our religion of consumption has fueled corporate America, and in return, they gave us what we wanted, more sales. More reasons to allow ourselves to splurge, to gorge ourselves in ourselves. Don’t believe me? Just turn on your radio, your TV, or your internet browser. You’ll hear Christmas music, see Veterans Day sales, start of winter events. Every weekend is a new excuse to ‘lower’ prices. But hey, that’s great! I’ll take any reason to spend money on myself, and so would anyone else. That’s what we’ve created. That’s what we’ve become; A narcissistic society of self-important consumers. Our world is in a decline. America and Europe both face debt crises. The distance between the rich and the poor grows daily. Countries are constantly locked in wars, while others prepare to start new ones. It becomes more obvious with every passing year that our system is not working. Our belief in money and possessions has failed us. Our government is sinking in it’s debt, while we try to vote away our taxes, because we want it all. We want to be able to afford the new Xbox game, and if big brother is taking less of our check, we might be able to buy it. We don’t think of ourselves as a nation, or a world, but as an individual, and we fight to make ourselves unique, by doing the same thing as everyone else. In a society where you are what you own, we all try to expand our realm of power. We buy big TVs, big Cars, fast computers, date the most beautiful women, or most handsome men. We try to taste the ‘high life’, But who can eat just one potato chip? We reach out to grab objects beyond our reach, less afraid of falling, than losing our self-worth. We prioritize our lives, planning ahead. Go to college to get a good job to make lots of money to buy lots of things. We don’t stop to think what will truly make us happy, but go on what the advertisements tell us will make us happy; what our role models and famous actors and actresses tell us will make us happy. Tell me this though; what makes you happy? Not what satiates the thirst for a day, or a year; but have you found the one thing in the universe that can fill the bottomless pit in your soul?
Some people can answer yes to that question, but I can 100% no doubt in my mind guarantee you that it is not a possession that they bought. We have blinded ourselves to outside thinking, convinced ourselves that we are correct, because who can argue against the world? Some brave women and men have, and they are remembered as heroes, as genii; Galileo, with his preposterous declarations about our galaxy, and our world. Rosa Park’s refusal to give up her seat on a bus. We sit in our cubicles, and our offices, obsessing over material things, too afraid to believe the ranting’s of some lunatic on the corner of the street, saying Jesus is the way to true happiness. One day the truth will come out, through a man sitting on Wall Street, upset by the status quo and holding a sign that says ‘I am the 99%’. Or a woman, holding her newborn child while watching the news, promising her son that by the time he grows up, she’ll have made the world a better place. I am not that genius. I don’t have the answers. I’m not any better than any other person out there. I’m a consumer. I was born as one, raised as one, and I will more than likely die as one. Maybe we need social reform, a change in government, or a leader to bring us to a new age of thinking. But what I believe is if we simply recognize the problem, the answer will show itself. The first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem. My name is Daniel Kennish, and I am a consumerist.
Preface
In writing this essay, I understand that I am at the very edge of the rubric of this assignment. I ask that you give me the benefit of the doubt in this case, as I am trying to attack consumerism more as a religion/substance abuse than an idea. I decided to take this risk, because it is a subject that I feel passionate about, and knew that I could write a powerful essay on. I hope that in reading it, you feel the same. It is a persuasive essay, in which it tries to change a person’s opinion on the subject, or at least give a new point of view on the issue. So again I ask that you allow me some wiggle room as to this assignment, and allow me the space to express my feelings about the product of consumerism, and perhaps convince you to feel the same.
Thank you, Daniel Kennish
Opiate of the Masses
Of all societies in the world, America has undoubtedly marked itself as the number one consumer of the world. A country, full of people who live beyond their means, flippantly throwing money out to buy products they don’t need, and often, don’t use. Exporting jobs to make the ‘good life’ more attainable for the less well off, and throwing themselves deep into debt, for unnecessary commodities. Consumerism has become America’s opiate, and as with most drugs, the side effects can be fatal. From the moment we were born, modern children and young adults have been assaulted by advertisements, the average person sees at least at many as 5,000 advertisements in a single day. That’s three and a half ads every minute, and all these billboards want the same thing; your money. This ‘advironment’ has created a populace consumed with the bottom line, willing to sacrifice almost anything to get a cheaper product. So the business industry adapts, finding cheaper alternatives for production. Building a factory in China takes around 6 months, and taps into a cheap work force. To build a new factory in America, the paper work alone takes 6 months. And this has a compounding affect. For every factory sent overseas instead of built here, that’s 300 fewer engineers required in America, who can run that factory. This creates poor outlooks for engineers, so young adults picking a career no longer look into that path, creating a shortage of engineers in America, which in turn makes it harder to start up a new factory in the United States. And that’s just the engineers. This exporting of factories has another affect. In return for sending our businesses across the Pacific, we now export our money to pay for the items that those factories build. That’s American dollars that we are creating, that are getting taken out of our markets and sent to other countries, all for the sake of a cheaper phone or TV.
Nothing is sacred anymore. Our religion of consumption has fueled corporate America, and in return, they gave us what we wanted, more sales. More reasons to allow ourselves to splurge, to gorge ourselves in ourselves. Don’t believe me? Just turn on your radio, your TV, or your internet browser. You’ll hear Christmas music, see Veterans Day sales, start of winter events. Every weekend is a new excuse to ‘lower’ prices. But hey, that’s great! I’ll take any reason to spend money on myself, and so would anyone else. That’s what we’ve created. That’s what we’ve become; A narcissistic society of self-important consumers. Our world is in a decline. America and Europe both face debt crises. The distance between the rich and the poor grows daily. Countries are constantly locked in wars, while others prepare to start new ones. It becomes more obvious with every passing year that our system is not working. Our belief in money and possessions has failed us. Our government is sinking in it’s debt, while we try to vote away our taxes, because we want it all. We want to be able to afford the new Xbox game, and if big brother is taking less of our check, we might be able to buy it. We don’t think of ourselves as a nation, or a world, but as an individual, and we fight to make ourselves unique, by doing the same thing as everyone else. In a society where you are what you own, we all try to expand our realm of power. We buy big TVs, big Cars, fast computers, date the most beautiful women, or most handsome men. We try to taste the ‘high life’, But who can eat just one potato chip? We reach out to grab objects beyond our reach, less afraid of falling, than losing our self-worth. We prioritize our lives, planning ahead. Go to college to get a good job to make lots of money to buy lots of things. We don’t stop to think what will truly make us happy, but go on what the advertisements tell us will make us happy; what our role models and famous actors and actresses tell us will make us happy. Tell me this though; what makes you happy? Not what satiates the thirst for a day, or a year; but have you found the one thing in the universe that can fill the bottomless pit in your soul?
Some people can answer yes to that question, but I can 100% no doubt in my mind guarantee you that it is not a possession that they bought. We have blinded ourselves to outside thinking, convinced ourselves that we are correct, because who can argue against the world? Some brave women and men have, and they are remembered as heroes, as genii; Galileo, with his preposterous declarations about our galaxy, and our world. Rosa Park’s refusal to give up her seat on a bus. We sit in our cubicles, and our offices, obsessing over material things, too afraid to believe the ranting’s of some lunatic on the corner of the street, saying Jesus is the way to true happiness. One day the truth will come out, through a man sitting on Wall Street, upset by the status quo and holding a sign that says ‘I am the 99%’. Or a woman, holding her newborn child while watching the news, promising her son that by the time he grows up, she’ll have made the world a better place. I am not that genius. I don’t have the answers. I’m not any better than any other person out there. I’m a consumer. I was born as one, raised as one, and I will more than likely die as one. Maybe we need social reform, a change in government, or a leader to bring us to a new age of thinking. But what I believe is if we simply recognize the problem, the answer will show itself. The first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem. My name is Daniel Kennish, and I am a consumerist.
Preface
In writing this essay, I understand that I am at the very edge of the rubric of this assignment. I ask that you give me the benefit of the doubt in this case, as I am trying to attack consumerism more as a religion/substance abuse than an idea. I decided to take this risk, because it is a subject that I feel passionate about, and knew that I could write a powerful essay on. I hope that in reading it, you feel the same. It is a persuasive essay, in which it tries to change a person’s opinion on the subject, or at least give a new point of view on the issue. So again I ask that you allow me some wiggle room as to this assignment, and allow me the space to express my feelings about the product of consumerism, and perhaps convince you to feel the same.
Thank you, Daniel Kennish
