El Desperado

A certain desperation has creeped into our society. The need for a little bit more. Each one is busy chasing a little bit more without a pause. The idea of contentment is lost. As active members of society we have become consumers of everything. We need a little bit extra of everything. More value for our buck. More buck for our value. 

The constant bargaining and maximisation of value is growing tiresome. If one were to examine this phenomenon, it is obvious where it stems from. 

The deep uncertainty of the future, the widening inequality and the absolute lack of a safety net. The haves and the have nots - both have become desperate to maintain the status quo. And the only way to achieve this is by doing more and acquiring more. So when it all comes crashing, you have something remaining. 

Add to it rising costs of living, deteriorating environmental conditions and an unstable geo-political climate - and you have a recipe for desperation. 

The other day a friend mentioned contentment and I felt a sense of nostalgia. Life is here and now, I learnt during the ten days of Vipassana last year. But I soon forgot and started planning for the future, letting the present pass in vain. There are actions that one must take which result into future outcomes but all life is not yet to come. Right now as you read this, life is happening and you make it what you will of it. 

Oftentimes I have chased the idea of an ideal future, an ideal scenario and even worked towards it. But when I finally did achieve it, I didn’t savour it, I didn’t preserve it, I didn’t nurture it. I let it pass, because my gaze shifted to the future immediately. In the end what seemed like a permanent achievement became reduced to a figment of my dreams. 

The desperation for a little bit more in the society has made us all famished. Absolutely ravenous. This also means that one may not ponder over decisions much to consider second order effects on people and things. One may simply pursue a short term view of the future. Whatever happened to long term thinking. The time horizon has been truncated. Now long term means three years and short term is as of yesterday. 

I don’t know a way out of this. I wish I did. But maybe knowing that tomorrow is unknown and today is all that I have is a good philosophy. Then again, someone may blame me for not having a long term vision. Oh well.