Issues - 2

Loss and Gain

There should probably be a third section to this subheading which would be “stagnation”, but then this would marry up entirely too neatly with my planned assault on the topic of “Positive, negative and indifference” so for now loss and gain will suffice.

To begin with it is important to note that it can be quite easily proven that we don’t ascribe these phenomenon equal values.  As human beings we are shockingly adverse to loss, we simply cannot bear the thought of not having what we once did and this is often to our extreme detriment.  This normally manifests in the form of choices, we can have something of great value if we choose to sacrifice something which under rational observation would appear to have far less value, yet because it is ours, because it belongs to us and we are now faced with the prospect of losing it, it is almost impossible for us not to over value this possession and forsake the far more beneficial option.  This is a huge realm of discussion and I won’t get into the bowels of it here; such as comparative value and the option paralysis nightmare, but it sets the scene well enough.

Whilst it is loss that we fail to calculate correctly, my ire is most harshly raised by people’s attitudes towards gain.  People are insatiable, they are obsessed with it and it has become a universal barometer of success and happiness.  How much can you get?  And “it” can be anything, money, status, position, possessions, experience you name it and they’ll take it and gobble it down with a sickening lust strewn across their face.

When I have raised this point with true believers of the societal dream I have been met with complete confusion, that “So what?” look burned permanently into their fucking faces.  There they go with their iphone and a new car and clothes bought yesterday to replace the ones bought a week earlier and they go home and sit in the leather sofa they saved up all year for and watch sky on the 60 inch HD TV mounted on the wall while they sink their feet in a foot bath they picked up from Hawkins bizarre as a treat for themselves while they browse the internet for more shit to buy before they go and book another holiday anywhere in the world that’s hot all fucking year and where they won’t have to deal with too many locals!

You may read that and say “Well done, you worked hard for all that shit and you deserve to enjoy it anyway you choose.”  That’s a fair enough position but here’s my question, where does it end?  Seriously, where the fuck does it end? 

Here’s my point, and I hope I make it well.  You cannot own something, without it altering your perspective.  By owning the things that you wanted, you are now completely incapable of appreciating them as much as you intended to before you owned them.  Money is the easiest example to explain this crisis of comparison.  When you have no money and a friend gives you a tenner, you’re elated, you’re grateful and that money has enormous value to you.  When you make 50,000 a year and a relative you’ve never met still sends you ten pound in an envelope for Christmas it means practically nothing to you, you may slip it into your wallet anyway but that hasn’t altered your life in the slightest.

By having what we want we alter what it is that we want.  I’ve known dozens of people who spend huge portions of their lives discussing the things they would do if they had the money to do so, or the amazing things they could do with all of the things that this money would by them.  But what’s really interesting about these people is that this state of mind doesn’t change regardless of how much money is spent in these endeavours or how many expensive items are purchased.

My best example is a friend I went to Uni with.  He always talked about what he could do if he had a small studio set up but it was too expensive for him.  Along comes the uni loans and he splashes out £600 on a small set up.  Round about this time he starts talking about all of the things he could do if he had an 8 channel sound card instead of a 2 channel sound card.  Six months later, and before anything has been done using his original purchase, another £700 spent and now he has his 8 channel sound card.  Now he starts talking about all the brilliant things he could do if he had a Chaos pad...

Seriously this story goes on like that for a long time.  Two years, five thousand pounds and a couple of completed projects which could have been done with his initial spend later and it’s still going on.  “If I could get one of those HD systems....”

People want so much that they have no idea what they have.

Right now at this very moment in your very life you are enjoying the highest standard of living ever experienced by any populous mass anywhere in the world at any point in history.  That’s right, you and I mean YOU! Are the most privileged proletariat there has ever been, you’ve got food, education, entertainment, choice and stuff, loads and loads of stuff...

Are you happy?

Honestly are you happy?

Aside from that brief moment of satisfaction as you swipe your card and that new thing becomes yours do you enjoy your life?  We’ve always been led to believe that our preferences and our desires were what defined us and that our freedom to choose was our highest privilege, but once you realise that the depths are bottomless and the ends eternal, doesn’t it start to look more like bondage than freedom.

“Does it not strike you as odd that in an age of such rampant indulgence, happiness should be so scarce?”

Gain has become our civilizations latest addiction, something to keep you occupied and justify your existence.  No one’s ever going to call you a looser if you spend every day of your life trying to get something, but spend a day in contentment without one thought to what you might one day have and suddenly you’re a waste of space, ambitionless and degenerate.

This raises all kinds of questions.  Why don’t we learn that we’ll only ever want more?  Why do we believe so strongly that acquisition is productive in nature?  Why do we turn so harshly against those who would abstain from this colossal contest?

I don’t have the answers.  The only conclusion that I have come to is that the universe has its own justice and that this is bore out in the fact that you cannot gain anything without yourself being reduced in some respect.  Be it money or success or some luxury item, by having it we adapt to it; by adapting to it we no longer value it and then we only want more than it.

And now...