System Living

When he was young, Winston Churchill used to have nightmares about living a mundane life.  He had witnessed his society slowly settle from its own weight, its people more interested in what they acquired than what they did.  The days of stretching the famous British Empire were receding, in their place a self-satisfied and materialistic life that led to decline.  There were injustices to be corrected in that empire, to be sure, but nothing was worse than ... well, nothing. You can see this in our own society, where our addiction to mediocrity is creating false divisions among us.  When a society has little where else to go it augurs in on itself.  One would think mediocrity would produce a “sameness,” and that’s partially true.  Yet it also breeds insecurity, a lack of partnering with others to create something meaningful, and when there are no greater goals we are left with only smaller selves.  Distinctions between us are increasingly based on little issues that are largely irrelevant to where we need to go as a nation.One helpful development is that we are hearing more and more about how lives dedicated to consumerism actually undermine our greater selves.  And now there is more research confirming that troubling trend.  Asking, “does it really matter that we’re all consumers now?” the Journal of Psychological Science cites significant research revealing that treating people as consumers clearly increases their materialistic outlook, lowers their wellbeing, and makes them less cooperative in working and planning with others.  You can read about the report here, but it’s conclusion is telling:  “Consuming is only part – a small part – of what it means to live in a civilized society.  First and foremost, we need to become citizens, once more.”Are we ready for this message?  I think we are.  In a later post I want to talk about why we might actually be turning a corner on this age of consumption and pessimism, but for now it’s important to realize the personal costs.In a very real way most of us have successfully distanced ourselves from the possibility of change – we are disillusioned, jaded, reticent to vote, and increasingly less optimistic.  So we arrange our lives into familiar patterns.  We look for things to be “normal” and have no trouble following the crowd into the store.  We believe it is easier to cast off politics by regarding it as useless than to spend the time re-engaging in something in which we might not prove successful.  We are more comfortable colouring within the lines, yet fail to recognize that they are lines designed by someone else usually a million kilometers away from where we are.Yet as we looked around us in this kind of life we get the sense we have become disconnected from our neighbours and isolated in our communities.  Consequently – and we rarely consider this – our communities become less competent, less able to take on the large tasks confronting all places where people live.  Increasingly, good and qualified people don’t run for office and students reject moving into the civil service – leaving our communities “talent poor".There’s another result that our distance costs us and which we rarely consider: the competence of the community to service our citizenship.  It gets harder and harder to find professional support to help us in creating new things, starting or expanded small-to-medium-sized enterprises, and to keep our kids in their hometowns.  When communities are competent they serve as a supportive and mediating place for our best efforts.  In a consumer society these things are slowly removed from us and we become jaded at the prospects.  The worst thing has happened to us: nothing terrible occurs, but nothing wonderful does either.And so our typically mundane world is characterized by lack of mystery, the absence of opportunities that can prove we are above our circumstances, not merely subject to them.  We are no longer enamoured with our lives, just comfortable with them – a dangerous and deteriorating condition.Just imagine what would happen if we suddenly awoke to the reality that our communities grew or declined on the basis of whether we took the opportunities to be active citizens.  We would be fearful, for failure might bring negative consequences.  What if our efforts didn’t work, or our best instincts weren’t respected?  Well, that is effectively what happens at present.  Yet it would be a wonderful world of possibilities, risks and rewards, cooperation and community adventure.  There would be mystery – the kind that stimulates and draws us forward into the mix.  We would be unsure but excited.  Our skills would finally be put to the test, but the passing mark would involve community success and cooperation, something all of us could accomplish together.  Suddenly we would be in a world suited to our competence and values, and not one dictated by others who don’t have our community’s interest at heart.  That would be strange indeed – and energizing.Let’s not let our current history interfere with our destiny.  Let’s cast off “system living” and restore community vitality and individual growth instead.  Let’s grow organically together instead of organizationally apart.  Let’s consume our ideals rather than just someone else’s products.  That would be a world I’d love to be part of.