Commoditizing Life - II

The trend of treating people primarily as consumers is now reaching all spheres of our existence. From cradle to grave, we are wrapped in a cocoon of commercialism that affects not only how we view our world, but also how we view ourselves and our relationships. In a sense, this can be considered as a natural outcome of the relentless pursuit of ever increasing profits that is the current economic and societal paradigm. Once the low hanging fruit has been taken, companies are forced to penetrate ever deeper into people's lives and thoughts in order to produce the profit that is expected nay demanded from them.

It can be argued that the current paradigm has vastly increased our living standards. Not only that our knowledge of the world and its interactions is much greater than it ever was. Does it really matter if there is a side effect of commoditizing our lives? I believe it does. When we treat all aspects of our lives as economic transactions, we end up with a distorted view of the world and our place in it. All our actions and our decision become tainted with an economic and ultimately selfish perspective. This thinking has permeated our societies to such an extent that all income groups and all ages are now affected by it.

Consider that parents often bargain with their children to persuade them to study. Why should that be the case? Why should a child be offered a present as a reward for doing something that he/she should be doing regardless? This same child when grown up would expect all actions to have comparable rewards regardless of context. Take another example: our friendships. There is a whole concept of "networking" which is done with a view to obtaining commercial benefits. In a limited context, this is fine. But advocates of networking strongly recommend doing this at all times with everyone. In this view, our friends should be chosen keeping in mind how we can benefit from the relationship. The recommendation is that if we don't see any commercial benefit with a particular friendship, then dump the friend. Even close relationships like marriage is not immune to this warped point of view. To a considerable extent, marriage is now thought of as largely an economic contract. What am I gaining out of this marriage? What reward am I getting? What is the cost? This is an economic and market based thinking. We are so used to being treated as commodities that we do not regard such views in other spheres strange. I think that part of the upsurge in divorces and single parent households can be attributed to this type of thinking.

When life is a commodity, then our self worth becomes strongly tied to this point of view. The mania for branding everything in sight illustrates this. For example, there is a whole move to brand cities and nations. Does this make any sense? Is a city or a country a product to be used and then discarded? What about our personal selves? Is any one of us inferior to say Richard Branson? Is he inherently superior just because he has more money? What kind of thinking is this? Should we dump a friend just because we think he/she is no longer of any use to us? What kind of a person are we if we do that?

A world that is governed on purely commercial considerations will not be a nice place to live in. It does not matter what your status in life or income may be. If you are rich, you will be afraid for your wealth. If you are poor, you will be desperate to acquire it. If you are in the middle, you will be afraid of falling below and scrabbling to get above. We will be living in an unstable environment with rampant competition for resources. Already we are seeing the effects of this even though the process is partially done. Global warming, pollution, crime, anxiety; these are all symptoms of a world where life is becoming a commodity. Such a world is definitely not one to bequeath to future generations.