Materialism vs.(or is?) Happiness

Are you always plotting towards your next item to buy?  Or are you trying to make do and be happy with what you have?  We as Americans are able to embark on the pursuit of happiness and make our way to wherever we please in life thanks to our fantastic democratic government; however, our society unfortunately is one where having the most stuff is deemed being the most successful.  Materialism is being more attached to material items than to spiritual or intellectual things.  It's all around us, I'll admit it takes ahold of me a lot too.  When I see someone cruising down the street in their new Ferrari California T, I think "wow, I'd sure be a lot happier with one of those in the garage".  But it's not just me, I'm not the only head that turns when the engine roars as it zooms by.  America is a materialistic country, it's put into plain and simple terms here in the first paragraph of the article, although it seems to be a little biased the first paragraph is a nice summary of America's materialism.  We see it everywhere from TV shows, to ads, to movies, to music videos, to social media, etc.  Being shown "things" and making us want them is an entire business sector, there are countless companies devoted to successfully advertising things they want you to buy.  The American theme in jeopardy here is working for success.   Capitalism means harder work, more success, because success these days is measured in material items.  Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy fast cars.  They may give you a kick for a few weeks, but if it's not what you love, buying it won't make you happy.  What kind of things can we do to detach from out material possessions and start finding what we really care about?  Share a thought or two.

Plastic=Perfection?

I'm sure everyone was excited to see the half time, to get a break from the boring Super Bowl it was.  I for one, was very disappointed with the fact my favorite band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, only performed for around a minute or two.  I was even more disappointed to find out besides the vocals, everything had been pre recorded.  It seems more and more these days, plastic is perfect.  While it was reasonable why the track was pre recorded, it still saddened me to notice the guitar and bass were unplugged during the concert.  On the RHCP website, bassist "Flea" posted a letter to their fans you can read here which states how the NFL told them it had to be pre-recorded so that the show wasn't ruined by bad sound or technical difficulties.  The band thought it would be better not to pretend and play with unplugged instruments anyway.  We as Americans are willing to throw away the #1 aspect of performing (the performing part), in order for it to look good when people look back at it.

Perfection is something valued a lot in our society.  Musicians practice all day for it, sports teams run drills over and over again to achieve it, chefs try the recipe until they taste it, in short, it's something almost all will certainly try to attain.  To achieve perfection; however, it's necessary to make mistakes.  This is why it is sickening to me that the half time show was pre-recorded.  Our culture accept perfection over reality, with fabulous Facebook profile pictures, photoshopping, and pre-recorded half time shows, we are able to see how America has traded all of its wood and nails for a perfect, seamless, plastic mold to take its place.                                

The Social Necknoose

Everybody loves logging on to their favorite social media and seeing they'd been tagged in pictures from last weekend, getting new friend requests, and catching up with what their friends have been up to.  But what about the people that don't get tagged?  Don't receive messages?  Don't have friends to catch up with?  Every time a person such as this logs on to social media, they see a life that seems better than theirs, and it just digs the hole deeper.  Social media is a great way to connect with friends, but friends now a days might just be someone in your class who friended you that you've never actually talked to, another person you see on Facebook who looks like they are having more fun than you.  We as Americans believe that being connected is a good thing, we see it all around us.  Participation in class is key for success, social media has been created to be together when we're not near each other, bands perform together for shows, etc.  In many recent studies however, it has been unraveled that for many people social media is a medium for loneliness.  In this article, it is explained how loneliness is caused by the widening gap between people as a result of Facebook and other sites.  It also explains the negative health effects associated with depression and loneliness.  The most interesting part of the article I believe is the parallel between American culture and loneliness.  The author talks about the iconic American hero the astronaut and says, "Who is more heroic, or more alone?"  The truly American theme of independence is everywhere in society, but because of this is the byproduct of loneliness.  Facebook certainly isn't the cause of this problem, but it definitely adds to it.  So try and not over share your life so that others don't feel the need to compare themselves to you.  Facebook is for connecting with friends, so lets stop comparing and start sharing.           

Obama: Prom King

New Trier doesn't do homecoming kings or queens, but I think it's evident America does.  We still have two more years, but coming up in 2016 is the next presidential election.  Remember back in 2008 when Obama won the election?  History in the making.  Back then, his approval rating was 10% above the average president's, at an all time high of 69% in January of 2009.  Now; however, Obama's approval rating has fallen to below George W. Bush's after his reelection- at a whopping 41% approval rating, less than half the pollers.  How does something like this happen?  Evidence points to this being more of a popularity contest than a presidential election.  We all know America is a very competitive place, capitalism in itself is built on competition.  Being the "most (blank)" of anything requires some competition to get there so just like Obama all presidents (in most cases) won by being, obviously, the more popular of all the candidates.  Obama won by appealing to the masses, something obviously very important in the election, but how and why?  He made a lot of promises, many of which he has fulfilled, but there are still a lot of things forever spiraling downhill that need attention.  We don't know if John Mccain, Mitt Romney, or even Hillary Clinton would make better presidents, but what we do know is at this point not nearly as many people are agreeing with Obama as used to.  Presidents can make a lot of promises before election, but the ones that keep them are the ones that go down in history as the great ones.  We are currently still fighting in the war on terror, the war on drugs, and whatever other wars the U.S. deems worthy to step in and help out with.  In 2013, $37 billion dollars were spent on foreign aid, $750 billion were spent on the war on terror, and the war on drugs more than $20 billion.  If you ask me, that's a lot of billions being spent on things other than the well being of the American people who seriously need it.  While it is indeed important to fight the terrorists and help other countries, there are still people on our streets who need the president they voted for to help them out, so that they are able to give back later instead of being a burden for others.  While I don't necessarily think Obama has been going about things wrong, I do feel like he should be trying to help the people out first who vote for him rather than spending large chunks of the U.S's money on foreign affairs.  In all fairness, he was left with a lot of problems and in that middle east it seems wars and violence keep springing up everywhere- definitely keeping him occupied.  On the other hand, when your popularity drops by a third over the course of three years, it may be time to rethink the strategy.  Take yourself back to the fifth grade, did you think about both opposing candidates?  Or did you want him to win to be the first black president?  I sure thought the ladder, but then again it was only the 5th grade.

(Sources: Approval polls, foreign spending, war on terror)

Practice Still Makes Perfect

Today, everyone is an expert on everything it seems.  Don't know how to play guitar but want to?  Pick up a copy of rocksmith and learn in a month.  Want to learn to be a chef?  Get on the cooking channel on your own kitchen TV and get chopping.  But is it the same to learn by having someone tell you than to go through all the ups and downs yourself?  I sure don't think so.  Take the Beatles for example, by the time they started performing their own songs, they had more than 5 years experience playing with each other doing covers of popular songs.  Not only that, but they'd been in a band since the age 16 for some members like Ringo Starr and John Lennon.  A true American belief is that of practice makes perfect, not just an American belief, but indeed American.  According to Warren Buffet, "knowing isn't enough."  There's a short clip of a longer interview with Warren here, with the link to the full video in the description.  What he gets at is that you may know a lot about your field in life, but until you've experienced, seen it, or interacted with others about it, you won't really know all there is to know.  And not just that, but you have to be passionate about what you're doing.  Warren says in this clip that if you could pick 10% of the future earnings of someone you know just by guessing where they'd end up now, he would choose the person most passionate about what they do.  Because when you're passionate you practice, and as they say practice makes perfect.  Today it seems a lot of people get the impression they're experts because they've "figured out" all the angles or something, or maybe because they read a book or two.  Practice still makes perfect, google it.  Even this article that states practice doesn't make perfect admits practice does have to do with becoming an expert on your field.  So don't think cause you read it on reddit (see what I did there?) that all the sudden you know more than the field op.  As Indiana Jones says, the key to being a good archeologist is you got to get out of the library.  

Hooked on Life

When most people think addiction, they think drugs, alcohol, maybe even shopping; however, there are a lot more things than substances our bodies can become addicted to, which is a problem considering us Americans tend to do the same things every day, we run on a schedule and it generally entails the same thing as the day before that, and even the day before that. The good thing is that "the fundamental difference between excessive enthusiasm and addiction is that healthy enthusiasms add to life whereas addiction takes away from it."- which is according to an article you can read here. What that means is, you become more dependent the more you do these addictive activities. Obviously, we aren't going to get addicted to going to school and doing homework; however when it becomes our daily routine it becomes our life. According to themastermindproject.com, "society teaches children what to fear and what to loathe. Children grow and become occupied with what seems 'cool' or 'accepted.' Words like 'practical' and 'reasonable' creep into their vocabulary." I believe that today, America is less of the land of opportunity, and more of the land of fitting in and doing what is as the website says, "reasonable".  Now people are told they can be anything they want, but are also told the statistical chances of them reaching the goal that seems unreachable- which is usually low.  One of America's most valued values is that of hard work for high reward.  The problem is that hard work doesn't seem like a good idea when you're told you have a low chance of getting where you want in life.  Why would you go above and beyond if you're told nothing will change?  In today's world it seems more and more like America's   idea of working your way to the top is changing to staying where you started.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, but I bet there are some opposing viewpoints.  What do you think?  Comment some ideas.                    

Competition: The World's Oldest Pastime

Everyone loves to show their might against someone that claims better then they are, who doesn't?  Competition has been around for longer than anyone or anything can remember, literally.  Prehistoric animals competed for territory, survivors after their extinction competed for food, and even now with humans, competition for everything, even more than what may be apparent.  Think about yourself in school, you may be trying to get grades that satisfy you in order to get into a good college and find a job and all that, or you might be trying to be the best in your class.  Competing against the other students to prove your worth and gain recognition.  Maybe you're in a band, trying to rise up from the rest and be the best.  Football practice after school, need to keep drilling all day in the hot sun to beat Maine South and look really cool.  Enough with the rhymes, there's more competition in America now than meets the eye.  American is a capitalist country, and capitalism means you can have a private business and have the right to make money.  But not everyone is successful, and in a world of marketing, politics, and and ever changing economy, nobody knows what will happen next.  It's survival of the fittest, baby.  Survival of the fittest is the oldest competition in the history of anything, and it's still very prevalent in our society.  In a matter of fact, capitalism and competition are listed as synonyms.  If capitalism is a core American value isn't it fare to say that competition is as well?    Companies are trying to one-up each other, making the best product, finding the cheapest materials, earning the most money.  But is competition the answer?  Wouldn't it be better to all come together and pool some collective knowledge, sharing ideas instead of keeping them from one another?  In an experiment done by Dr. John Tauer in 2009 at a basketball camp, he discovered that after having the kids shoot free throws against each other, and then in place having them reach a collective group goal of free throws, after being surveyed at the end of both these activities, the kids enjoyed going for a collective goal rather than competing against each other.  In this case we see that in a simple sense, cooperation can be better than competition.  While it has its perks, the right to private property gives those who don't want to share their ideas the right to keep them to themselves, this being another core American value.  Unfortunately, we have built our country on competition, making cooperation a hard goal to achieve.  Americans like their space, if it annoys us we have the right not to cooperate with one another (usually).  How could we go about things to bring ourselves together instead of slowly drifting farther apart?  Leave some thoughts.