Thoughts - Materialism & Individualism

Thanks to Mark Latham, I now have a reason to rant about these two topics.

Individualism has been growing rampant since the late '80s, but I think particularly so in the '90s when the ALP rolled out the public selloff bandwagon and folks jumped onto Telstra, et al (or was that the Libs?). Which concerns me because isn't this reflective of Latham's "Ladder of Opportunity"?

Anyhow, you see it in so many ways these days:

• Disregard for others (particularly Aboriginal people, boat people, immigrants, etc)
• Lack of empathy - I can remember a time when, if a company said it was going to lay-off a thousand people, there would be a general outcry. Today, people say "well, that should help their share price" and think nothing of it.
• A general unwillingness to engage in the community (volunteering, participation, etc)
• Favouring private schooling funding ahead of public schools.
• Expecting Uni Students to fund their educations "because they're going to earn all this money" - what rot.
• The apparent lack of concern shown about the sell off of Telstra!!!

And surely materialism is driving all of this. Our greed for more and more - a pandemic of affluenza - is driving us into American ideals at a rapid pace. It's all about me and what's in it for me and bugger anyone else who happens to get in my way.

I've mentioned it before (elsewhere), but look at kids today - they're wealthy. How do I know? Well, go into any shopping centre and tell me who the majority of shops are targeting? You, me? Not likely - its teenagers. And they're only doing it because they're cashed up.

So, why is this relevant? Well, because we're starting this cycle of greed at such an early stage in life - and that's a concern for the future because this trend is only going to get worse because these little suck ants are going to be so up themselves and so self-centred it beggars belief. Can you imagine what they are going to be like when they start buying shares? Actually, what am I saying, the probably have them already...

Question is, if we're suffering an affluenza pandemic, what's the cure?

To be honest, I don't think we're likely to see an anti-viral agent - no, I think we're going to see something big drag us all back to earth, like...

• Peak Oil?
• Dual Income Blowout (what happens when 2 earners isn't enough)?
• Property Crash?

History tells us that #3 will happen one day. I really worry about #2 because I think people will kill themselves in work (i.e. >1 jobs, etc) before they realise they're actually killing themselves. And besides, if you want that greed, you need to work harder and harder (don't you?).

But #1 worries me the most because as obvious as it is (to any fool with half a brain), we're so blissfully ignorant of it. Why is this a problem? Well, surely our government's WILL know about it and consider it has some merits (for goodness sakes, just look at Iraq). Only a fool would think we have a bottomless (oil) well so it has to peak someday. And when it does (and maybe it has already), the consequences are too scary for thought:

• Increasing oil wars?
• Living in denial about sustainability?
• Ignoring viable alternatives in favour of evil ones (e.g. Nuclear)?
• A changed society completely?

The only thing in its favour is the comment I heard recently (and I can't remember who) that said "our generation will witness the end of the motor vehicle". That great bastion of individualism, the personal car(s), is about to come to an end. And when that happens, we are going to be forced to communal transport systems (e.g. buses, trains, boats, etc) - any form of mass transit.

Problem is, at what cost? How many wars? How many will die? How much will our societies collapse? Yet, we all know its coming and (like all good pollies) they've buried OUR heads in the sand with OUR arses in the air waiting to be screwed...