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The Hunger That Drives Consumerism
What do you hunger for? What are you lacking? What do you need to feel fulfilled? Imagine a magic fairy flying into your room right now. She will grant you one wish but it must be specific. No intangibles like world peace.
What did you ask for? If you said money, a better job, fancy car, beautiful house or ideal partner, I have news for you: that’s not what you really want.You want the feelings you think those things will generate… Love, freedom, power, recognition, happiness, peace.
Advertisers know how to appeal to our emotions. They make us believe, subconsciously if not consciously, that certain products will give us feelings we yearn for. Thus we associate things and people with desirable emotions. We hope they will complete us, fulfill us. Because we all feel we are lacking in some way.
People are hardwired to consume. And we consume far more than we need. We overdo eating, drinking, smoking, sex, shopping, working, achieving, fill our homes with things and our lives with people and activities and drama. We are constantly searching, desperately searching, for something or someone to fill up the empty spots.
“Consumerism is the faith that meaning, identity, and significance can be found in material, commodity consumption, which in turn requires money.” James Gustave Speth
People Hunger for Love
No matter how much we acquire, the needle keeps flopping back to empty. Then we start all over by changing jobs, partners, houses. We seek new adventures. But no matter how busy we are or how much we have, an inner emptiness that haunts us.
We all yearn for a sense of wholeness, completion. People hunger for love. Yearnings may be felt in the body, and physical pleasure may give temporary respite. But it is the heart that yearns, the soul that hungers. The spirit of our being that craves for something we cannot adequately describe. And yet, we know there is something missing.
“All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.” Andre Breton
There is within us a memory of perfect peace and love and happiness or we would not and could not crave it.
It is impossible to desire something of which we have no awareness. Deep within us is the memory of perfect love or we would not long for it. Love is the essence of our nature.
An internal hunger cannot be fed with external things. When we look outside for what can only be found inside, we separate from our true nature. A sense of sadness, suffering and alienation arises. We feel it as physical and emotional hunger. We experience loneliness and fear. Anger. In some people, the anger causes them to lash out, hurt or kill those they perceive as having or taking love and happiness away from them.
As Within, So Without
When we fail to fill the emptiness within, we project it outward. Feelings of lack take form in our lives. The world then appears to be the cause of our misery instead of the reflection of it. We become obsessed with filling ourselves up to stop the pain but the problem is that we try to stop the symptom without treating the cause.
We seek outer riches to compensate for inner poverty. We hope achievements will make us important, people will give us the love we lack. But it is never enough. The greater the sense of lack, the greater the feelings of inadequacy, unworthiness. Then, unconsciously, we reject what we crave because we think we do not deserve it. We shut down parts of our hearts and minds creating dark spots within us that get projected out as dark, empty spots in our lives.
Love Comes From Inside Out
People may love and admire us but we do not feel love unless we are loving. Love flows to us to the degree it flows through us. To withhold love is to deprive yourself of it. This is what causes loneliness and pain.
It is not what we acquire or achieve that fulfills us. It’s what we give. We feel love by being loving. The more we express love and happiness, the more we have. People hunger for love. The more we give, the more we get.
So give love away and you will be able to echo the words of Scarlett O’Hara… “I’ll never go hungry again.”
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