Personal Discipline Anyone?
[voice from the other side: Sha'Tara]
Should we indeed, as the commercials insist, give in to every passion; every desire; every thought on the basis of "if it feels good do it"? Must we "obey our thirst" as the ad claim? Must we really buy everything the corporations, charge card companies and banks proclaim our credit is good for?
The question is, do we really deserve all that the global hypermarket manufactures and merchandises to titillate and sate our physical senses?
This society has mortgaged itself and the future of its children to satisfy its baser lusts of the moment. Where's our dignity gone, assuming we ever had any? Where's the sense of common decency? Anyone can go on shopping sprees knowing all the "stuff" can be charged to some credit scam and only a minimum "payment" need be maintained to keep the credit flowing. Anyone can stuff himself at a smorgasbord paid for by others. Anyone can play when others do the dirty work, whatever that entails. But what are the costs?
I've quoted this before but it bears repeating: "Life is pain princess. Anyone who says different is selling something." (Princess Bride - the movie) I don't watch TV but I am still surrounded by a sea of dis-and mis-information euphemistically labeled advertising. I know what the brain-dead are absorbing from their loud-mouth electronic baby-sitter even while they are fixing their snacks during the commercials: the snacks are composed of previous commercials. I know that the vast quantity of junk that passes for commodities and necessities sells only because it is backed by billions of dollars in advertising. The ads cost much more than the amenities they aim at their target consumer group. After baiting the physical appetites, advertisers, promoters and "marketeers" follow-through with ever-expanding lines of credit in every imaginable format. "We sell credit" says a tire store. "0" percent - no payment until (spring or fall depending on the date) says another. "Bad credit? No problem. Talk to Janet" states a car dealer billboard.
I don't want to buy credit. I don't want more payments. And I don't particularly want to talk to Janet. So I guess I don't buy. That means I don't have to rent a space for $200 per month at a storage facility to store my "stuff" I'll use twice in a lifetime or probably will only pull out of storage when I've decided I'll never use it. Or I got a phone call from some collection agency asking for money and I have to start selling. Or I just survived a triple-bypass surgery. Life's not fair, is it. How did Forrest Gump put it? "Stupid is as stupid does."
Meanwhile, while the hot tub is still hot, the swimming pool still circulating and the barbecue still burning, who's holding my credit? The banks? The credit card companies? The Great Corporations? Not likely. It's all the people of the world who work for the last and only Great Manufacturing Corporation called MWM. Who? you will perhaps wonder. No, not "who" -- "what." It's that horrible travesty of business called "Minimum Wage Manufacturing." That hellish monstrosity that makes its profits by squeezing sweat, tears and blood from those who work its mines, lands, sweat shops, pits, armies, prison camps, cubicles and jails. Oh, and lest we forget: those thousands who die each day because after they have slaved in the fields, the mines, the shops and whatever other places there be, must lay down and die because they don't qualify for credit and their meager earnings, if they get any, cannot supply the minimum of food and other basic necessities required to keep them alive.
Flip your credit coin now for the good news?!?! On the side of the opulent who has access to "endless" credit you find mindless distraction, stress and confusion. You find addictions galore - to legal and illegal substances. You find lives in total disarray devoid of even an ounce of redeemable value. You find rampant diseases like cancer and heart attack and mental imbalances called something or other deficit disorders. You find the double curse of obesity: the deformed bodies of the slaves to the junk food suppliers. You find selfishness honed to an art form. You find despair, fear, hate and anger -- but sadly you do not find these in any passionate sort of way. No revolutionary zeal here. "The best lack all conviction..."
None of that is without cure. It's all redeemable with a simple change of attitude to life. Choosing to honor what we can still encounter of life, not only in other human beings but in all the "things" we come in contact with. To think even before swatting a mosquito or a fly. To ponder the effects of all our acts towards those others and wonder at our feelings to it all. To re-learn (or probably for most to learn for the first time) to think for ourselves by shutting down televisions, radios and internet and refusing to read papers, whether local or dailies. Boycott the liars and their lies. Guaranteed appetites will change and fears abate.
Now for some really dirty and politically incorrect words: Self-denial. Self-sacrifice. Self-discipline. Compassion.
Heb 12:11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Heb 12:13 Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
The above quotes sum it up. Discipline is harsh but produces righteousness (self-empowerment!) and brings peace (relieves stress!). As a bonus, it heals the lame, i.e., those who currently must slave and die so we can sample Wal-Mart's wares and fill our bulging storage areas (be they stomachs or rooms).
By the way, I don't quote the Bible because I'm a believer - I don't even have a soul and I don't believe in God. I quote it selectively for its quotability and because many of the people who read these posts have studied it and will recognize the passages. It may even make them wonder why their own teachers and leaders did not insist they live this way.
Love tinka
A mind opener!
Enjoyed reading this very much!
Love Peace and Joy and many Hugss Morning Star
Anyone yet don't know that consumers are the less important item on the altar of the Gods Shareholders?
Anyone yet still believing in politicians, priest, anything?
Georg
thanks for this.
Hugs Angela
I got interested in A couple of shows last year and found I wasn't getting anything down around our house. TV is really a waste of good brain cells. I do call it the idiot box.
I can discipline myself and have for long periods. I can get caught up in other people's junk, or stuff they like.
I get more satisfaction out of doing something with my hands or constructive instead of viewing the idiot box.
I have a rent house, the people were behind on their rent. They were actually more worried about getting their cable turned off than paying me the rent.
I said, the cable company might hook you up with your tv on the side of the street. They kinda looked at me real funny.
They did finally pay their rent.
People don't have values anymore much less discipline.
Thanks for this article Regis. A great one!
By the Reg. I think maybe you do not believe in God because so many of us who do have wittled him down to a size we can comprehend. That made him into a fairtale creature. I believe in God I simply cannot explain him.
God Bless,
Lew
Blessings,
Joyce B.
Thanks for sharing, Regis.
Evelyn.
The stock market guru's are already predicting a time when the banks/credit card companies are going to make a "Margin Call."
Oh Oh...gonna be yard sales a'plenty
Walt
Consumers are going overboard, buying toys that are not needed, eating huge amounts of food at the restaurant because the cards allow them to go click click... it's sad to see obese children.. obese adults.. drug addictions.. gampbling addiction.. all in the name of "credit!"
Although I have to admit. at times I would love credit just to be able to travel.. ahh well maybe I'll save for it instead..
Have a great day and thanks for the reminder.. sometimes I feel like I'm not really living in this society.. but now maybe I think that I am living very well.. without stress..:-)
Lise:-)