Bob Dylan once wrote, "What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do" (Dylan). What exactly is success? Is being successful having a lot of money or looking beautiful or affluence? According to David Brooks, author of the article "A Nation of Grinders," success is defined by assiduity and the jubilation that it entails contrary to the creedence of modern American society. Society holds the creedence that material comfort and success are one in the same to be true and deems anyone who is wealthy or reknowned to have led a successful life. Brooks's assertion that success is comprised of the amassing of happiness through diligence and tenacity is accurate due to the fact that modern Americans who continue to bask in materialism find that they are ultimately unhappy, those that the media and society deem as successful are no happier or content than the average American, and despite the "rags to riches" tales of Horatio Alger and the multitude of self help books in circulation Americans remain discontent. In modern society, and more specifically modern America, consumerism is king. Everyday Americans find themselves ensnared in a perpetual cycle of gluttony and self-indulgence, unable to stop themselves from buying more and more and more. Why has America been consumed by avarice? It is not necessarily the fault of Americans that they are trapped in a culture that values greed over kindness, it is due to the myth perpetuated by the media, it is because of an idea that permeates all aspects of society: the idea that by buying just one more trinket or getting just one more upgrade one will be able to attain the ever elusive success and invariably happiness... ... middle of paper ... ...pe that maybe they will be able to capatilize on an ingenious new idea and make it big. While in rare cases an opportunisitic person is able to rise to fame and fortune the so called success that they achieve will never be as gratifying as that earned through hard work and perseverance. Those who content themselves with their lives are bound to remain ultimately happier and more successful than those who continue to want for more. Those who have not truly tasted the success in earning one's place in the world will entrench themselves in the perpetual cycle of consumerism and never fully realize the joy that they are missing out on. As Emily Dickinson once wrote, "success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed" meaning that those ensnared by the materialistic and gluttonous culture of America will continue to yearn for what they will never be able to attain.
Have you ever felt like you are spending too much money at a time, on pointless items? Statistics show that American’s consumption rate of goods has increased by forty-five percent in the last twenty years (Statistics-Consumption/quality of life pg. 194). Americans are experiencing a thing that is many times known as “Affluenza”, this is when someone buys more items, such as clothes, cars, houses, or any unnecessary items. Many people talk about this so-called “Affluenza”, like it is a medical term. The word Affluenza is pretty much saying that people make money and work hard for their money and they like to buy nice things, because they can and they have the money to. They are fortunate enough to be able to have these nice things for themselves because they work so hard for it. Many Americans are not satisfied with their positions because of false ads, selfishness, and jealousy. Some celebrities, some of the wealthiest people on the planet have committed suicide because they are not happy with what they have and they feel like they need more items, when really they have everything they need to be happy, but they suffer from Affluenza and make these bad decisions.
...at the American culture places economic success at the pinnacle of social desirability, without listing legitimate ways for attaining the desired goal (Merton 672-682). Today, the American Dream no longer reflects the dream Adams had, but instead, the idea that one can only call themselves truly successful if they have become rich, regardless of the way they got there. The American Dream does not guarantee happiness, but rather the pursuit of it, but with the media strongly persuading people that money guarantees happiness, people are encouraged to do whatever it takes, even it means disregarding their morals, so that they achieve ‘success.’ The inability to achieve this goal often leads people to destructive, and ultimately life-threatening criminal behavior as their feelings of anxiety and frustration over this vision of the “American Dream” get the best of them.
What is the definition of true success? Everyone has his or her own definition of success. For me success is to have earned the appreciation of honest critics and tolerate the betrayal of deceptive friends and most importantly being self-reliant. Some great writers have their own special wise thoughts on prosperity, for example, in Self- Reliance and Other Essays “Self-Reliance”, by Waldo Ralph Emerson suggest we all need to be individuals and put ourselves before anyone else. However, in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he gives a different meaning of prosperity. He claims success is never the result of talent alone. Both of the writers Emerson and Gladwell have similar and different thoughts on what makes a content opulence and self-reliant
In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley provides stark warnings for contemporary American society by using the futuristic but relatable setting of the “World State”. When reading such dystopia novels as Brave New World, readers must consider the implications of the author’s warnings and how they are relevant to the world we live in. One such warning that deeply relates to contemporary American society is that of the dangers of consumerism and the materialistic view that results from it. As in the “World State”, we live in a culture where economic stability is favored over the preservation of resources. Moreover, people seem to feel that spending and buying is a way to increase or maintain social status. While climbing up the social hierarchy
America’s current standard of living is going to cause our demise. Consumerism is a problem throughout Americans culture since mass production began in the late nineteenth century. The obsession with consumerism has led to mindless wastes of resources, a diseased society and economic instability. Rick Wolff, a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, states “economics of capitalism spread consumerism—now uncontrolled, ecologically harmful, and fiscally disastrous—throughout the United States”. Wolff’s viewpoint on consumerism aligns with mine. Believing that an economy based on promoting endless consumption is volatile and unsustainable. Consumerism can be analyzed and seen to be embedded by corporations and politicians.
A large part of this problem is that many Americans buy into the ploys of capitalism, sacrificing happiness for material gain. “Americans have voluntarily created, and voluntarily maintained, a society which increasingly frustrates and aggravates” them (8). Society’s uncontrolled development results in an artificial sense of scarcity which ensures “a steady flow of output” (78).
Of all the strange beasts that have come slouching into the 20th century, none has been more misunderstood, more criticized, and more important than materialism. Who but fools, toadies, hacks, and occasional loopy libertarians have ever risen to its defense? Yet the fact remains that while materialism may be the most shallow of the 20th century's various -isms, it has been the one that has ultimately triumphed. The world of commodities appears so antithetical to the world of ideas that it seems almost heresy to point out the obvious: most of the world most of the time spends most of its energy producing and consuming more and more stuff. The really interesting question may be not why we are so materialistic, but why we are so unwilling to acknowledge
It's true that this desire for things is what drives our economy. The free market has given us great blessings, but it has in some ways also put us on the wrong path -- the path to a selfish, unhappy society. Michael Lerner, who worked as a psychotherapist to middle-income Americans notes that
As demonstrated in Henry David Thoreau’s passage from Economy, Wendell Berry’s from Waste, and John Kenneth Galbraith’s passage from The Dependence Effect, America’s overly advancing society thrusts ideas like materialism and the “love of buying” into the interior of every American’s mind. Even the American Dream, a fundamental notion to our nation, now unites all people of all cultures under materialism and greed. The highly capitalist American society distorts values such as the “quest for freedom” into a search for cash and the frontiers no longer exist. America’s increased production yields the increased wants of consumers and as Galbraith states, “One man’s consumption becomes his neighbor’s wish (479).” With this reckoning, the more wants satisfied, the more new ones born. Berry, on the other hand, more out rightly attacks America’s capitalist economy and the wastes it has produced when saying “The truth is that we Americans, all of us, have become a kind of human trash, living our lives in the midst of ubiquitous damned mess of which we are at once the victims and the perpetrators (485).” America’s corporate capitalism and consumerism culture undermines our well-being in that we deplete Earth's limited resources, produce excess waste, and indulge excessively in unnecessary luxuries that ultimately result in our unhappiness and financial downfall, while trapping us in an endless cycle of dependency.
America has been labeled "The land of opportunity," a place where it is possible to accomplish anything and everything. This state of mind is known as "The American Dream." The American Dream provides a sense of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. This dream, however, originates from a desire for spiritual and material improvement. Unfortunately, the acquisition of material has been tied together with happiness in America. Although "The American Dream" can be thought of as a positive motivation, it often causes people to strive for material perfection, rather than a spiritual one. This has been a truth since the beginnings of America, such as the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, which is an example of this set in the 20’s. The characters in this novel are too fixed on material things, losing sight of what is really important.
To be successful is to be respected, loved, admired, and it is to be able to support your family without struggle. Wanting money is doing whatever it takes to achieve that financial goal, even if that means hurting the people you love and care for the most. It means giving up everything you are passionate about, just because you do not think it will bring in enough money. Jay Gatsby is the definition of using money to try to be happy. He is a very wealthy and liked man around his town.
The neediness and demand for more has rapidly grown since the birth of America and Americans have been supporting consumerism for decades. But we must ask the big question to ourselves “Are we truly gaining anything from our unhealthy habits in the way we consume?” It is without question that consumerism has indeed affected and greatly impacted our American culture, lifestyle, and social statuses in America by our desire to want more. James A. Roberts the author of “The Treadmill of Consumption expressed that, “Cars for example, are
The word success takes in different forms. Many people have different interpretations of what success means. I was able to gather different aspects of what success means from interviews. I asked twenty-five people of different sex, ethnicities, and ages for their definition of success. I was actually surprised many did not talk about wealth. I assumed people would associate success with wealth. The information I gathered was surprising because almost everyone associated success with happiness. Anything that would make them happy would help them feel
In many high schools, if you don’t have an iPod or any other cool device, a replacement automotive or lots of cash, then the cool crowd typically doesn’t even notice a person. In nearly every organization, cash and things are the entire foundation, thus it is sensible that Americans would be thus materialistic. Of every last one of ideas inside economic concerns, supply and interest is maybe the most well-known by the overall population. Individuals' assets are constrained, yet everyone's needs and needs are boundless. “We shop to assert our superiority to the material objects that spread themselves before us,” (Rose 482).
The definition of success is ambiguous because every individual may interpret the term differently. However, the English Oxford Dictionary aims to define the word as, “The accomplishment of an aim or purpose; the attainment of popularity or profit; a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity; or the outcome of an undertaking, specified as achieving or failing to achieve its aims”. This definition brings to mind iconic figures, like Bill Gates and Jim Carrey, which many regard as rich and famous. People may believe that accomplishment and financial stability go hand-in-hand. Conversely, these prominent individuals illustrate that hard work and determination, not increased wealth, can lead to happiness. True success is