Who, in their right mind, volunteers to be a slave? If recent history is any indication, scores of folks. Legions are mortgaging their future — and their children’s futures for the baubles and trinkets that are indicative of a level of success they don’t actually have, but aspire to. They are chasing an ideal that is worthless and paying for the privilege with priceless currency — their flesh and health. Make no mistake about it, if you are living your dream life using the bank’s money, not only are you going to pay a heavy penalty financially, that debt will flatten your spirit and render you unrecognizable. All that will be left of you is a stain on the sidewalk.
The pleasure principle is swallowing lives whole every day. We feel the need to assuage feelings of insecurity, doubt, low self-esteem, anger — whatever the pathology, we are prescribing the same medicine: conspicuous consumption. And even though it is readily apparent that the medicine is not working, and not only is it not working, it’s actually killing us; we just keep taking that next dose. Like the next dose will change everything. Like the next dose will make us feel better, make us whole, make us popular, make us rich. In fact, what is happening is that we are pulling ourselves closer to the abyss and we are committing child abuse to boot, because our children are witnessing our suicidal actions.
Remember the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” well, some of us need to take a dose of prevention. It’s not as much fun as living high on the hog. You might not have as many friends. But it beats being enslaved. And freedom certainly trumps being mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially debased.
Peace.
