Współczesne pochłaniacze: o konsumpcjonizmie

Abstract

A human being of the beginning of the 21st century can be proud of various achievements in different aspects of life. Rapid technological development and achievements concerning medicine make our future quite optimistic. However, the same economic development and achievements of human intellect are causing even bigger need for the consumption of goods and services. One could wonder if the future of our earthly society is safe in the face of growing consumption. For an average consumer, huge shopping centres are becoming “temples”. The omnipresent consumption is instilling an idea of “more, faster and easier” – including the upbringing, social pressure and advertising, simultaneously creating some kind of a vicious circle. Consumption, together with other cultural and sociological phenomena, leads to some dangerous crisis – the human crisis. Contemporary people are behaving like small children. They keep on fighting for everything, demanding more and more to possess and conquer (practical materialism and hedonistic consumptionism). Like children who can’t concentrate long enough on one toy, contemporary people aren’t able to stop consuming new goods. What is it heading for? What will our future be like? Will we still subscribe to such a motto: “I am what I possess and what I consume”? There is no doubt that every worried person should ask themselves: To have or to be? Let’s hope that the answer will be: to be. In a biblical imperative from the Book of Genesis, not the earth and ruling it (matter) is the most significant, but a human being.