The 3 "C's"

These are the three "C" words that I feel sum up the aspirations of people in our society today: cash, comfort, and convenience. We seem to be very centered on earning money so that we can afford items/services that meet our needs for comfort and that make our lives more convenient. We invent more technology and try to find new ways to reduce the amount of work we have to do. Instead of using a mug or bottle to drink from, which we can then wash and reuse, we use plastic cups and bottles. Instead of walking or biking a few blocks to school or to the grocery store, we drive carbon-fueled cars that release harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Instead of reading the news online, we waste tons of paper to print newspapers.

I feel that our society is becoming more and more lazy, trying to find and invent more ways to reduce the work we have to do and add to our comfort and convenience. We are coming up with all these ways that are suppose to make life easier and reduce the amount of time we have to work so that we have more time for leisure and to enjoy life; however, what is actually happening is that, now, with all the new technology advancements, it's a constant race to see who can be the most efficient, who can become the most advanced, get the most work done, the fastest. Why can't we just settle for what we have? What's wrong with that? It seems that with every step we take in advancement, we take three steps back towards failure. We create things intended to improve our lifestyles, but they come with detrimental consequences. Overpopulation. Overpollution. Waste. Hate. War. Violence. Life could go on without humans; humans could not exist without nature. We must preserve nature, out environment. We need to take action, be proactive, become educated, concious, aware citizens and live sustainable lifestyles.

However, we can't just settle for what we already have; we always want more and have to have more. A burning appetite that can never be suppressed. It's like what they say in economics, the "desire" for resources is always greater than the availabilty of them. See, technological advancement really isn't making our lives easier, but more stressful, because now we are expected to get more done in the same amount of time because now we can accomplish more than before. We can travel faster, get to places faster, prepare meals faster, everything is ready and available at the tips of our fingers. Cars, trains, ships, subways, airplanes; elevators, escalators; telephones, cellphones, email, computers, printers; microwaves, refrigerators, toasters, coffeemakers; washers, driers, dish washers, vacuum cleaners. Instead being able to complete the same amount of work in a shorter amount of time, with our new technology we have to work just as long and harder to accomplish more than before.

Survival of the fittest, it's about outdoing the other person next to you. It's all about being successful, achieving a higher status in society, which many people these days correlate with the amount of money you have. Our society is so caught up with money, but really, who needs money? Sometimes I wish I could live in the wild away from society where eveything our society is based and dependent on now has no value. However, I don't think I'd be able to survive ; I don't have the necessary survival skills or smarts to last living in the natural world after being pampered by the material items and technology in our society. And I bet it would require a lot of hard manual work...