In a society with an economic environment that accepts
“head hunters” (somewhat unpleasant connotations attach to this term), that
accepts “down-sizing” or restructuring as normal in the pursuit of the all
important monetary “bottom-line”; a society where government’s, of all persuasions,
are dictated to by big business; a society which encourages its citizens to
sell themselves to the highest bidder in the job market in pursuit of ever more
desirable material possessions, diminishes its citizens to the point where many
are left confused with no real notion of their self worth. In short they have become
commodities. This has its ramifications in emotional and psychological outcomes.
The result is that many people today live and think only in
terms of limited self-interest. They believe that they are acting on behalf of
their best interests when actually their main efforts are directed to money and
what is termed “success” (however this is defined). In the process of seeking
what they are told is best for them, they deceive themselves about the fact
that their fundamental human potentialities remain unfulfilled and by accepting
such a deception they lose sight of their core values, which remain unchangeable.
This, in many instances, leads to lack of life harmony, to stress and anxiety –
conditions very prevalent in today’s work place.
Now and here is the rub, under the influence of the
market, the concept of who “I think I am”, has shifted to meaning “I am as you
desire me” – in other words a commodity. So divorced are many people from their
core values as human beings, that as sellers of a commodity (what they believe
the job market wants) they feel separated from what they want to sell. To be
sure, they are interested in what they believe themselves to be; immensely
interested in their success in the “market”, but they are the managers, the
employers, the sellers – and the commodity. Such people are now divorced from themselves
and their value as human beings.
Nowadays it is difficult for many people to draw a line
between what they call “me” and what is called “mine”. People feel and act about
certain things that they consider to be theirs (or what they believe makes them
who they are) very much as they feel and act about themselves. Their fame,
their children, the work they do, may be as dear to them as are their bodies,
and arouse the same emotions and feelings and the same defences if attacked. In
its widest possible sense, however, a person’s real identity or core values
(what makes them a human being), is more than the sum total of all they may
call “theirs”, more than their body, and their skills and abilities, their clothes
and their house, their partner or spouse and children, their ancestors and friends,
their reputation and accomplishments, their land and motor cars and yacht,
their investment portfolio and bank account. These things give them the same
emotions of pride and success. If these grow and prosper, people feel “successful”,
if they dwindle or are lost, people feel unhappy and diminished – not necessarily
to the same degree for each thing, but in much the same way for all.
The increasing worship of “success” (again, however this is
defined) has generally failed to satisfy the primal urge for individuals to be
who they really are. There are an increasing number of people to whom everything
they are doing seems to lack fulfilment. They are still under the spell of the
slogans which preach faith in the secular paradise of success and glamour. But
doubt, that necessary condition for all progress, has begun to work on them and
has made them ready to ask what their real self-interest as human beings really
is. They have become dissatisfied with being a commodity.
This is now considered “normal” – which is the real
tragedy.
Anyone in this situation needs to come to terms with who
they really are. There is a difference between a person’s REAL interests and
those imposed on them by any given society. Some people may find it difficult
to experience life in terms of their own emotions, thoughts and sense of
proportion, rather than in terms of the experiences that they are supposed to
have, as dictated by the expectations of the “market” and society. In other
words they are required to fit in with what the market wants or what the “competition”
is providing. They are squeezed into a “shape” that would not be of their own
choosing, just to comply with market expectations.
