Socrates’ habit of going frequently to the market in Athens, where he never bought anything, became famous. When someone asked him why he went there, he always replied: “I come to see all those things I don’t need and can do without in my life”. This is precisely what we call “superfluous”, what can be discarded, and yet this is what much of today’s advertising is based on.
In the social imaginary of current values, the aspiration of a large part of the population is to reach a state of abundance in which there is plenty of everything. Seen in this way, and although it is not so easy to distinguish what is superfluous and what is necessary, the superfluous would represent well-being, personal or family development; in short, the aspiration of life.
That’s right, we accumulate a lot of gossip, most of it useless, just for the fun of it. Just think, for example, of the waste of medicines; or the amount of clothes and shoes that fill our wardrobes and chests of drawers to the brim. Every customer who sets foot on the threshold of one of the big department stores – the busiest “temples” of our cities – will be entertained, besieged and cajoled until he convinces himself that he will be happier if he buys yet another gadget. Erich Fromm wrote in The Art of Loving that “modern happiness consists in window-shopping and buying everything one can afford, in cash or in instalments”.
The confinement of the population to limit the spread of the pandemic has maintained the same tendency to consume, but in a different way. Surveys confirm that the unprecedented accelerator has been the use of digital platforms. Consumers are buying, buying services and interacting with markets digitally more than ever in recent months. They conclude: “It’s another trend that is here to stay”.
But let’s look at the “other side” of the issue. Because, much of that consumption is often taken away from those who have the pure, simple and real need to survive. Think of the large amount of bread that is thrown away every day and the waste of natural products that would allow many people not to die of starvation. This leads to a terrible fact: We allocate the necessities of the poor to the greed of our own unnecessary consumption. This is perverse. To combat it, our Pope Francis insistently calls for austerity, to make our lives more pleasant without the unnecessary and to show more solidarity with the disadvantaged, who have multiplied.
Juan Carlos cmf
(FOTO: Mathieu Stern)
