Is Our Worship of Consumerism and Technology Making Us Depressed?

from Chelsea Green, via AlterNet:



Is Our Worship of Consumerism and Technology Making Us Depressed?

By Bruce E. Levine, Chelsea Green Publishing. Posted November 26, 2007.

It would be a lot easier to address the increasing rate of depression among Americans if we weren't so afraid to admit that our consumer society makes us unhappy.




The following is an excerpt from Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy (Chelsea Green, 2007) by Bruce E. Levine, and is reprinted here with permission from the publisher. In this book, Levine delves into the roots of depression and links our increasingly consumer-based culture and standard-practice psychiatric treatments to worsening depression, instead of solving it.

U-Turn from the Wisdom of the Ages

Throughout history many seekers, thinkers, and prophets have taught about overcoming despair. However, it would be difficult to top the greatness of Buddha, Spinoza, and Jesus. All three were rebels and heretics. All three rejected societal norms and religious orthodoxy. Buddha rebelled against both the caste system and religious rituals. Spinoza rebelled against hypocrisy in his community and certain aspects of accepted theology. Jesus rebelled against a materialistic society and religious authorities. Buddha gave up royalty and wealth, Spinoza was excommunicated and nearly assassinated, and Jesus sacrificed his life.

Buddha, Spinoza, and Jesus all came to a similar conclusion about despair -- quite a different one than that reached by the modern mental health establishment. Although each described it differently, Buddha, Spinoza, and Jesus concluded that the source of our misery is avarice, material attachment, and self-absorption. While each used different language, they all provided a path away from torment and toward wellbeing. Buddha taught how to release oneself from narrow self-interest and craving. Spinoza taught how to liberate oneself from greed and other irrational passions. And Jesus taught, very simply, about love.

Modern mental health culture classifies depression as quite a different matter from the despair spoken of by Buddha, Spinoza, and Jesus. However, while modernity has resulted in different sources of pain, human beings and their responses to pain can hardly have changed so dramatically. And so to believe that Buddha, Spinoza, and Jesus would have dealt only with mild and moderate unhappiness and left debilitating depression for future mental health professionals to tackle seems quite unlikely.

Buddha, Spinoza, and Jesus were not alone in their understanding of the importance of moving beyond self-absorption. In more recent times, their message has been echoed by many others, including psychoanalyst and social critic Erich Fromm (1900-1980). Fromm argued that the increase in depression in modern industrial societies is connected to their economic systems. Financial success in modern industrial societies is associated with heightened awareness of financial self-interest, resulting in greater self-absorption, which can increase the likelihood for depression; while a lack of financial self-interest in such an economic system results in deprivation and misery, which increases the likelihood for depression. Thus, escaping depression in such a system means regularly taking actions based on financial self-interest while at the same time not drowning in self-absorption -- no easy balancing act. In Fromm's culminating work, To Have or to Be? (1976), he contrasts the depressing impact of a modern consumer culture built on the having mode (greed, acquisition, possession, aggressiveness, control, deception, and alienation from one's authentic self, others, and the natural world) versus the joyful being mode (the act of loving, sharing, and discovering, and being authentic and connected to one's self, others, and the natural world). ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/68043/

although I'm not really a good consumer, I am a tech-lover. I sort of take a Richard Brautigan approach to technology, though, vis a vis his poem "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a
cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in
mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear
sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic
forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll
peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with
spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic
ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to
nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and
all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

and impoverished me and my community. Get rid of the Cronies, rebuild the America we knew and could count on, and you'll be amazed how that depression lifts!

Consumerism is a crutch for people who can't think straight.

will be a healthier society.

it keeps moving the goalposts. You get Gadget 1.0, but a year later, there's Gadget 2.0, and you just have to have it. You have to have the latest clothes, and last year's "latest look" becomes this year's laughingstock.

In fact, the things that make people happy are satisfying relationships with friends and family, meaningful work, and enriching experiences.