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The Pixel Punk Diaries |
The Endless Misery of Materialism
I don't know if it’s worth buying an iPod. Because once you buy it, you only have a couple months of being cool before your white jukebox will be replaced by a better-looking iPod with twice the computing power. I was digging through some old boxes and found my first MP3 Player from the year 2000. It was the size of a brick, and almost as heavy; the circuitry was wrapped in translucent plastic. The whole chunk cost $300 and held twenty songs. Pitiful.
Think about all the pimped out cars that you see in music videos and on the streets. Five years ago, twenty-inch rims were the coolest of the cool. Now people are stuffing twenty-eight-inch rims under the fenders of big SUVs. I've even seen people lift their cars a foot higher to make room for their super-sized rims. It's an odd cross between bling bling and a monster truck. You can see the same dilemma with mouth jewelry. One gold tooth was not enough. Soon people had to have a full grill of gold. Then came platinum teeth adorned with diamonds. What's next? Gold tonsils? This mindless consumerism is everywhere.
I traveled to New York City several times before I finally packed up and moved there for good. I loved the busyness and excitement of each day in the Big Apple, and I wanted it all the time. Apparently I was not the only one--there were eight million people stacked on 300 square miles. The richest people purchased the apartments with better views on the top floors in the tallest skyscrapers. If you worked hard enough, you could afford to move up a level or two in your building. With enough ambition, you could be the king of your own tower.
Pope John Paul II has said that the greatest threat to Christianity in America is materialism. On the bottom floor of most buildings are retail shops. I sunk into a chair at a super-cool furniture store and studied the showroom floor. It was arranged like an actual apartment, complete with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and dining room. For some people, their only ambition is to make enough money to purchase that furniture so they can move it up ten floors into their own apartment. And for one season, their apartment will be equipped beyond any other space in the building. That is until the store downstairs is restocked with the next generation of cool. The race begins again.
Pope John Paul II has said that the greatest threat to Christianity in America is materialism. We get into the habits of a consumer society, and judge our self-worth by what we have, and what we continue to buy. It's an endless misery we created all by ourselves. Even worse, we do no see others as having dignity as a child of God. We see them as another material good to be consumed. In the end, isn't lust the same thing as materialism?
My heart breaks when I watch the news. It seems as though some political groups are out to remove God from all parts of our society. Under the banner of "Separation of Church and State", Christians are continually silenced and discriminated against. Students are afraid to wear a cross around their neck at school, for fear of getting expelled. Whatever happened to Freedom of Speech?
Maybe all of this isn't that bad. It's hardly truthful to describe ourselves as one nation under God. Most in our society have left the almighty God so we can purchase smaller gods--and we are suffering because of it.
I don't know if buying an iPod will draw me closer to God, or push me further away. Nor do I know if buying a new car will solve any problems in my life, or only create more. Maybe I am wasting time debating with myself. I live in a material society and I cannot change that. I just have to keep my eyes on Jesus. Only God can fill the deepest desires of my heart.
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Matt Smith is the Director of Internet Ministries for Life Teen, an international Catholic youth ministry based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the creative force behind Life Teen's cluster of websites that receive nearly 2 million visits a year. Since staring on MTV's "Real World" and MTV's "Road Rules Challenge", Matt has traveled the country speaking at colleges, universities, schools, and Catholic parishes.
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