The more I think about it, the more I realize, the problem with society today is: More (the pun is absolutely intentional). The human population of the world is divided into two basic groups: Those who have MORE and those who don’t have ENOUGH.
As living creatures, we have an inherent right to survive and endure. There are a few basic needs that are essential for survival. As humans, we’ve managed to obtain these needs in rather clever ways. We’ve been doing it for a long time now. In fact, we’ve gotten so good at it that a good chunk of the human population has their basic necessities met by sitting in a desk. A lot of us take for granted that we have a box full of food in the kitchen. A stocked refrigerator can provide food for a family for 1- 2 weeks. (Basic need #1: Food, check). If you have a kitchen with a fridge, then you have a house or apartment; a place to live (Basic need #2: Shelter, check). Since we have labour laws and you already have shelter, then Basic need #3: Rest, can be easily achieved.
Bare survival is possible with only these three things. Don’t worry, I don’t think we should go back to the bare necessities, however I do think we should keep in mind some people in the world don’t even have these 3 Basic needs met. Most of us take them for granted. Of course, in order to have those basic needs met in this modern society a person needs a job. To get a job you need an education. Most modern contries have some form of gratuitus education for its citizens (Basic need #4: Education, check).
I notice that the majority of the people in my country have these basic needs met. Their survival is practically guaranteed. Why then, is everybody so upset? Because they want more. Because the other guy has more and they want it. Because society has become focused on more. True, when society lacks, when they don’t have enough, then we NEED more, but when does more become enough? I reckon it is not the place of government to tell the people what is ENOUGH for them. It is up to each individual to determine how much is enough. I’ve met people who open a business and are successfull. A few years later, they open a second one. It does well. The next year comes the 3rd business. At that point the person complains they don’t have ENOUGH time to do what they like. Of course, at the beginning they had enough time for play and enough to live well, but they wanted more…
We wanted more time so we built machines to do some of our jobs for us; now we don’t have jobs. We wanted more time so we built faster cars. Now we have too many cars and less time because of the traffic jam. We wanted more years of life, now we have to take more medicine. Yes! More is what drives the human spirit, but at some point some of us have to realize we have enough; we don’t need any more…
What then, do you do, if you have MORE THAN ENOUGH? Share it.
