Critical Lense Essay: Possesions and Selfish Desires = NO FREEDOM
There are two tragedies in life. One is having everything you want the other is having nothing. So what will you decide? I would rather have nothing. Because, you are not free until you let go of your possessions and desires. The poor possess less and desire more while the rich posses more and desire even more. Who do you think is freer? The poor person is.
I. The Poor
As we know the people with less money have less material possessions. If you look at that from societies stand point that is not good thing to see. It is considered bad and the meaning of less is more is slowly being let go of. When you look at a poor person having less material possessions in a new perspective you will see that it is not too bad. A poor person needs to only work to keep and maintain a few possessions. So now the poor have a distinct advantage over any class because, they do not have much to lose.
However, society keeps us ignorant to this condition because, we see wherever we look the economic ideology of capitalism and material success are bombarded to us by advertisements these ads are everywhere, magazines, Television, Radio, Buses, Driving By and in Major Cities!
People want what they see but they do not see the true meaning of what they want. “I really like that car I want it because, my cousin has that car and I want it to.” That’s a copy-cat and your simply indulging in that act of being envious. How is that going to help you? People see but do not perceive and in reality it should be what is inside that matters not what is outside.
If a poor person desires more it depends solely on the environment and his morals. A poor man may desire more money to use for his own selfishness but, he can’t get much more money because, he works long hours as he is already! What will he do? “More Money + Desire + Unable to get more legally = Crime!” With crime comes bad decisions and better judgment overcame by desires. Thus the poor person had the desire for more and got the person in an even deeper hole. The desire for more will always do that to you.
However, the desire if met with good intention to have more is better than a selfish desire. For example the poor person is a parent and needs money to support their kid for lunch. Now that right there is a selfless desire because, the parent seeks to help the child who has no money.
II. The Rich
As we know rich people are deemed the successful people in society. They are also the cheapest and greediest people also. The have a lot of money and with that money indulge in a better lifestyle for them. However, since they have more pay more to keep and maintain what they have. They will have less time to enjoy what they have because, in this society time is money and thus need to work more for the money they have, unless they make it out easy by doing an easy job that gives more even if it includes illegal things. This is the downside to being rich.
They have much to lose if they lose the money. Sure, they might donate the money to charity however, it wouldn’t be much of what they had because, they figure its small change and to them it is simply known it will be replaced very quickly! The rich will always need to desire more to have more. There compulsion is to spend and buy. The rich are the driving force in the economy but without the lower class workers there would be nothing to buy and everything would fail this is why everything relies on the working class and why they are sedated with entertainment and the drive “to get to the top!” These are provided by the rich people so that the cycle will continue to follow in an organized and coherent manner in this society.
III. The Middle Class
So what of the Middle Class? Some might wonder. They are stuck in the middle of having everything and nothing. There desires to expand or contract go with them. This is why the middle class is so hard to manipulate. There happy where there are and they will put up a fight. However, they have to work more to get more and cutback to get less. Middle class may seem nice but trust me it’s a deciding point more than anything else.
The poor have many disadvantages but ultimately maybe be more virtuous than the rich, however, in this increasingly selfish and indulging society people care less and less about virtue and more about what you have. So the question remains What Will you choose? Will you spend more time to have more but neglect the things you love? Or will you spend less time to have less but have the time and energy to enjoy the things you love?
