Bad economy leads to more fulfilled lives

Editor,

With the drawn-out, false-hope-ified economic downturn comes a lot of panic and morose speculation on the future of our quality of life. But you know what? The fact that people aren’t buying things every single day is not a bad thing. And if you’re not selling stuff to people every day, that’s OK too.

There are alternatives to living your life for the purpose of buying things. Our culture is held together by how our tastes and aspirations correspond with certain brand names and the prestige or anti-prestige that goes with it.

People will have to learn to do without frills, but they might also discover a more fulfilling kind of happiness after becoming less focused on material hoarding.

And when people have less, they are more likely to help each other and share resources. That means more friends and a better chance to connect with others in a way that is lacking these days because people are more tuned into texting and Facebook than establishing relationships in the immediate physical world.

This is not to say materialism and Facebook is bad; I like stuff as much as anyone. Shopping is fun, and getting a text feels good. But these things are not the ruler by which we should measure our happiness. The fun part of our crashing economy is discovering the life-fulfilling potentialities that wait below our superficial ambitions. It sounds hokey, but it’s true.

Also, for how-the-f*** long did we think we could keep taking out loans?

It’s like living in denial. It works for a short time, and then it doesn’t work anymore, and we have to come to terms with the residual build-up from neglecting obvious principles and living in la-la land. It teaches us to take our risks more seriously, laying a groundwork for a more reality-based national management system.

We’re waking up from the American Dream, and most don’t think it’s pretty, but I say it’s beautiful. It makes me happy to see people every day dressing sharp, looking for jobs after having been turned down for 85 of them across the country, back living with their parents, bumming cigarettes off of their friends, scheming up ways to make it through the next week. They must feel so much more alive, having to focus on their immediate situation instead of resting on the their laurels because America will always be golden.

It’s funny to see everyone falling apart over it like they’re fighting the great fight. Seriously, if you detach from it a little, you’ll see how silly it all is. There are other options for shaping your life, even in a less-than-stellar economy.

The greatest damage I’ve seen is that it just makes people whine and complain more, but that can be likened to spiritual growing pains. Maybe America is on a path to maturing. It’s like when someone breaks your heart: you just grow stronger.

Eva Avenue
Editor of the Nightly Noodle Monthly