Instant Happiness

Fie those who don’t change with the times; who will cling to their youthful dreams and precepts, who still worry about the meaning of life, about the disappearance of the decent and civil in human society, about ennui, about……..

For change is upon you, a change begotten, we are told, by the magic of capitalism and materialism. Too long has your soul, your real soul, been starved of experiences that matter, of personal music on an iPOD, of instant access to people and things the world over, of jungle trips in five-star luxury, of the opportunity to travel the world in safety and luxury organized by your travel agency.

So drop your antiquated dreams that served you badly, only generating anxiety and an existential angst, drop those authors like Sartre, Camus, Marx, or Heidegger. They have had their time. They never changed the world. It was capitalism that changed the world. It was capitalism that made jeans – that symbol of counter-culture protest in the 1950s and 1960s – an expensive perk of corporate success. So what if they changed the meaning of the jeans from a counter-culture protest to a more manageable and colorless symbol of something casual to wear with your Nike shoes ?

Let your hair down and enjoy the fruits of the revolution laid out for you by Madison Avenue. You are no longer into buying goods but experiences, and life styles. If your existential concerns still nag you, you could take a shot at instant spirituality. You don’t have to leave your job, or forego your expensive car, and it is exotic. And by the way, your heart need not bleed for the poor, to go to heaven. That was a Marxist hangover, in fact a proof that Marxism never outgrew its Judaic Christian messianic roots.