11 September 1997 Edition
Your soul is not for sale
Robert Allen takes heart from a pop singer and explains how to hit back against a consumerist culture gone mad
Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morrisette, without the kind of hype that has surrounded the latest Oasis release, has managed to sell about 15 million copies of her 1995 album of intimate, philosophical laments, anthems and ballads.
By word of mouth alone during its first year of release Morrisette's album was bought by seven million people who, it seemed, identified strongly with her when she sang ``... all I really want is some patience, a way to calm the angry voice'' and after telling us that she wanted ``deliverance'' went on to lament that she really wanted ``a soulmate, someone to catch this drift'' and ``a kindred''.
Her wants are simple and echo the cries of millions who feel they cannot make sense of the modern world and those around them who appear immune to the ills of the planet and apathetic about life in general.
Morrisette wants ``intellectual intercourse'', ``peace'', ``common ground'', ``a wavelength'', ``some comfort, a way to get my hands untied'' and ``some justice''.
Perhaps without realising it she has captured the mood of an angry planet or at least of those of the human race who are now beginning to question their reason for existence and their role in life.
In answering Morrisette's personal lament ``what I really want'' a growing number of people are asking themselves if they are truly happy in the materialist bubble they live in, whether they really believe the ``lie'' that they live in economic prosperity, that their lives are better because they can have anything they want.
People are asking, if this consumerist heaven is true, why is life so hard for most people?
It is hard because people no longer share their lives in communally-orientated neighbourhoods. Everything they do now is ordered by the work treadmill and the consumerist culture. Some do their best to improve the quality of our lives and to improve the lives of those who are disempowered, disadvantaged and dispossessed but it's not enough. Modern Ireland has become as atomised as every other place and culture in the world, with few exceptions.
Do we want to live with a culture where people have to fight external forces to live, some dependent on a miserly cheque from a recalcitrant state; where people struggle in abject poverty; where environmental illnesses reduce entire communities to unwilling guinea pigs in uncontrolled drug experiments; where some people wallow in material splendour while others totter above the abyss; where those who control the means of production enjoy what they genuinely believe is a high standard of living to the detriment of the rest of us; where those same people tell us that the benefits of material society outweigh the risks?
But whose society is this? Is it a society created by the individual needs of everyone or is it a society created by the ruling hierarchies to allow them to control and dominate each individual? The answer depends on your vantage point, your politics and your honesty.
We must consider whether the answer will make life any better. It will only do so if we take control of our lives in the only way we can, by questioning every aspect of the production and consumerism that dominates our lives. What we must begin to question, if we as individuals are going to continue to allow ourselves to be duped into consuming a vast variety of useless and potentially harmful goods, is whether we actually need these products.
Of course we need to buy food because food production has been taken out of our control and only a few of us have the space and time to grow our own. But we are not, as it may seem, helpless victims.
What we musn't underestimate is the power in the hands of the individual - we don't have to buy what the advertisers tell us we need. It may seem an uphill struggle, but life without so many modern conveniences is not really so bad. Certainly doing without many of the products we don't need makes life easier on the pocket and eases the burden on our health. Virtually anything which is designed to be thrown away has to be a goldmine for the producers and a liability for the consumers, the strain on a low income family is magnified by the feeling of deprivation at the convenience they claim to offer. Some may argue that we should have the freedom to decide how to spend money, but should that freedom include the right to pollute the earth, alter our diet to one diluted with poison, reduce our air and water quality and condemn many people and a vast range of species to a variety of ill-health and extinction?
Only as individuals can each of us make that decision as we pause for thought on our shopping trips. Because, until we do, we will remain victims of a world that is slowly going out of control.
Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morrisette, without the kind of hype that has surrounded the latest Oasis release, has managed to sell about 15 million copies of her 1995 album of intimate, philosophical laments, anthems and ballads.
By word of mouth alone during its first year of release Morrisette's album was bought by seven million people who, it seemed, identified strongly with her when she sang ``... all I really want is some patience, a way to calm the angry voice'' and after telling us that she wanted ``deliverance'' went on to lament that she really wanted ``a soulmate, someone to catch this drift'' and ``a kindred''.
Her wants are simple and echo the cries of millions who feel they cannot make sense of the modern world and those around them who appear immune to the ills of the planet and apathetic about life in general.
Morrisette wants ``intellectual intercourse'', ``peace'', ``common ground'', ``a wavelength'', ``some comfort, a way to get my hands untied'' and ``some justice''.
Perhaps without realising it she has captured the mood of an angry planet or at least of those of the human race who are now beginning to question their reason for existence and their role in life.
In answering Morrisette's personal lament ``what I really want'' a growing number of people are asking themselves if they are truly happy in the materialist bubble they live in, whether they really believe the ``lie'' that they live in economic prosperity, that their lives are better because they can have anything they want.
People are asking, if this consumerist heaven is true, why is life so hard for most people?
It is hard because people no longer share their lives in communally-orientated neighbourhoods. Everything they do now is ordered by the work treadmill and the consumerist culture. Some do their best to improve the quality of our lives and to improve the lives of those who are disempowered, disadvantaged and dispossessed but it's not enough. Modern Ireland has become as atomised as every other place and culture in the world, with few exceptions.
Do we want to live with a culture where people have to fight external forces to live, some dependent on a miserly cheque from a recalcitrant state; where people struggle in abject poverty; where environmental illnesses reduce entire communities to unwilling guinea pigs in uncontrolled drug experiments; where some people wallow in material splendour while others totter above the abyss; where those who control the means of production enjoy what they genuinely believe is a high standard of living to the detriment of the rest of us; where those same people tell us that the benefits of material society outweigh the risks?
But whose society is this? Is it a society created by the individual needs of everyone or is it a society created by the ruling hierarchies to allow them to control and dominate each individual? The answer depends on your vantage point, your politics and your honesty.
We must consider whether the answer will make life any better. It will only do so if we take control of our lives in the only way we can, by questioning every aspect of the production and consumerism that dominates our lives. What we must begin to question, if we as individuals are going to continue to allow ourselves to be duped into consuming a vast variety of useless and potentially harmful goods, is whether we actually need these products.
Of course we need to buy food because food production has been taken out of our control and only a few of us have the space and time to grow our own. But we are not, as it may seem, helpless victims.
What we musn't underestimate is the power in the hands of the individual - we don't have to buy what the advertisers tell us we need. It may seem an uphill struggle, but life without so many modern conveniences is not really so bad. Certainly doing without many of the products we don't need makes life easier on the pocket and eases the burden on our health. Virtually anything which is designed to be thrown away has to be a goldmine for the producers and a liability for the consumers, the strain on a low income family is magnified by the feeling of deprivation at the convenience they claim to offer. Some may argue that we should have the freedom to decide how to spend money, but should that freedom include the right to pollute the earth, alter our diet to one diluted with poison, reduce our air and water quality and condemn many people and a vast range of species to a variety of ill-health and extinction?
Only as individuals can each of us make that decision as we pause for thought on our shopping trips. Because, until we do, we will remain victims of a world that is slowly going out of control.