DAY 216 - LIVING IN A MATERIALISTIC WORLD

Day 216

What are the symbols of success in our society? No matter how hard we try to deny it and how spiritual we aim at being, in our subconscious minds, many of us associate success to financial wealth.  Throughout our lives, we have been bombarded by images of successful people happily living in mansions and driving in expensive convertible cars.

So, although success can be defined by many standards other than money and luxury objects, the media tells us otherwise, so it is rather hard to completely get rid of those beliefs.  We live in a materialistic world and there aren't many ways of escaping it.

When I was a teenager, I rebelled against materialism, as did many of my friends.  The funny thing is, I attended a private school, and some of my rebellious friends were actually sons and daughters of diplomats.  Is it easier to renounce to materialism when you are part of the wealthier portion of society and you can already afford everything you want?

In 2007, a study conducted with three groups of children aged 8-9, 11-12 and 15-16, by Lan Nguyen Chaplin (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Deborah Roedder John (University of Minnesota) showed a causal effect of low self-esteem and materialism,  The more materialistic the children were, the lower their self- esteem and vice versa.

The authors explain that in fact "by the time children reach early adolescence, and experience a decline in self-esteem, the stage is set for the use of material possessions as a coping strategy for feelings of low self-worth".  The study concluded that an increase in materialism was actually linked to a decrease in happiness.

Although that study was conducted with children, I believe that, probably to a lesser degree, it could apply to adults as well.   In people's minds, material possessions are so closely linked to success that self-worth could very well be associated to the financial ability to show the world, through material acquisitions, that you have succeeded.

If I think of the people in history I admire most, not many of them lived lavishly.   Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama truly symbolize success and yet they had very little possessions.  Maybe our society will one day transform to the point where the definition of success will no longer be determined by financial wealth.

It is a known fact that material possession do not increase overall happiness.  And it is probably when our society starts understanding that fact that more and more of us will find the way to true happiness!