Materialistic Us

Yesterday I have seen a scenario where parents come home from work at 8 pm; being tired, enter the house and the child comes running to its parents telling them to play with him or her or to read him or her a bed-time story and the parent is telling it to sleep and promise to buy him or her an expensive toy or a train set in exchange that the child will not disturb its parent because they are exhausted and extremely tired after doing their job for the whole day. Does it sound ridiculous at all?

Now, the point that parents are missing here is that the parents may buy more expensive toys by working harder and for more time but what they are losing is the relationship with their own child when it needs them most.  Therefore, isn't it true that we are living in a social surrounding where everyone is being materialistic? People are craving for assets, property, money and other earthly materials. And in the process they are sacrificing their values and ignoring their family.

Students are being told that if they do not study well they will not get a good job, if they do not have good grades they will not get a chance to a good grad school. So, students start cramming without understanding. They start to compete with each other because back in their mind they have started to believe that survival is for the fittest. They do not study to learn new things or to explore the world of knowledge; but to get a good job which will give them enormous amount of money with which they will live a comfortable life where they will built a mansion like house, will drive an expensive car and buy anything they want to. Therefore, education has lost its charm; it is being used as a tool of earning money.

During the holidays, people are calling their parents telling them that they cannot come home because they have to work extra hours to earn good reputation in the office or because they have to pay the insurance money. They are becoming workaholic because they want more and more money. If they live in a studio apartment they want to go to a two room house, then a duplex, then a mansion. If they have a Toyota Camry car, they need a BMW or a Porsche or a SUV. And this linkage grows on and on and like a never-ending process people get trapped inside this materialistic loop without even ever thinking of what they are missing along the way.

One can argue and write hundred pages on how these materials have made our life comfortable and that we have been blessed that we are born in this era of technological advancement. But it’s the high time we should think of how much we need actually and how much we are doing in extravagance.

To summarize, we all should remember that we should never derange the priorities of our life which are our family and education. Keeping a balance between the values such as family and education and our materialistic craving is the best way to progress in life.