Fill In the Blank
Status symbols are timeless across cultures and species; contemporary consumerism has just taken the phenomenon to an unprecedented extreme. Our beloved Economy feeds on the religion of self-justification by one-upmanship. Pathological competition gnaws at the core of our identity. We will never have enough or be enough because we don’t know what ‘enough’ is, but we can always find people who make us feel less-than by comparison and others over whom we can lord a little ‘less less-than than thou.’ We make tremendous sacrifices to the god of More.
Steadily devouring anything it can turn to profit (or anything that gets in the way) and writing off its bad debt to the children, the Marketplace justifies itself based on the quack science of ‘economic growth’ in which all instances of money changing hands for ‘new’ objects (newly rearranged raw materials) and payrolled people-hours (which is not the same thing as ‘work’) are added as ‘product’ and presumed positive, and no consequences of the acquisition and consumption process are subtracted. The Marketplace counts every sale as gain regardless of the goodness or usefulness of what was created or destroyed in each transaction and whether something was worth more before it was measured in money.
Fill in the blank in the previous post with status symbols including but not limited to material objects (e.g. American citizenship, a penis, white skin, a six-figure salary, a paycheck, a spouse, a big car, bling, blond hair and blue eyes, a size D bust, a tan, a college degree, an Ivy League alma mater, a weed-free lawn, a snub nose (if you’re Caucasian), a Roman nose (if you’re Asian), above-average height, below-average weight, the latest gadget, this season’s brand name clothes). No matter how many trump cards you hold, chances are you still come up empty.
“But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness is at home.” - 2 Peter 3:13
Welcome to the Kingdom Coming where nothing is earned, only given and received. The good news in the economy of grace is you have nothing to prove; you couldn’t if you tried. The first shall be last and the last shall be first but everyone is invited to the party. Lay down your treasure and come to the table, for all is ready and there is enough to go around!
Steadily devouring anything it can turn to profit (or anything that gets in the way) and writing off its bad debt to the children, the Marketplace justifies itself based on the quack science of ‘economic growth’ in which all instances of money changing hands for ‘new’ objects (newly rearranged raw materials) and payrolled people-hours (which is not the same thing as ‘work’) are added as ‘product’ and presumed positive, and no consequences of the acquisition and consumption process are subtracted. The Marketplace counts every sale as gain regardless of the goodness or usefulness of what was created or destroyed in each transaction and whether something was worth more before it was measured in money.
Fill in the blank in the previous post with status symbols including but not limited to material objects (e.g. American citizenship, a penis, white skin, a six-figure salary, a paycheck, a spouse, a big car, bling, blond hair and blue eyes, a size D bust, a tan, a college degree, an Ivy League alma mater, a weed-free lawn, a snub nose (if you’re Caucasian), a Roman nose (if you’re Asian), above-average height, below-average weight, the latest gadget, this season’s brand name clothes). No matter how many trump cards you hold, chances are you still come up empty.
“But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness is at home.” - 2 Peter 3:13
Welcome to the Kingdom Coming where nothing is earned, only given and received. The good news in the economy of grace is you have nothing to prove; you couldn’t if you tried. The first shall be last and the last shall be first but everyone is invited to the party. Lay down your treasure and come to the table, for all is ready and there is enough to go around!
posted by Ingrid at 5:46 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Ingrid,
Have you read this?
http://tinyurl.com/4ruzc6
Just Enough: Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life
From Amazon:
"Defining success, learning how to achieve it and feeling satisfied with the results—all in a world where nothing ever seems to be enough—are the challenges addressed by the authors of this volume. Nash and Stevens, both of the Harvard Business School, believe that "everyone seems to be struggling with the Tantalus effect. This mythological character was punished with an eternal, raging thirst." As they point out, such constant striving means perpetual stress and no contentment. Per their definition, success isn’t measured by money alone; it involves four pillars of professional and personal life: happiness, achievement, significance and legacy. Illustrating their ideas with real examples (of both celebrities and non-celebrities), as well as with the ponderings of a few ancient philosophers, the authors explain what these pillars mean, how to define them for oneself, why "going for the max" is dangerous and how to calibrate one’s own version of "just enough." Though the prose seems excessively wordy for a book teaching readers how to eliminate excess, the topic is interesting and well researched—and likely to strike a chord with people juggling many demands in a fast-paced, success-hungry society."
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