Its an observable fact that, like Dr Frankenstein, we can often end up serving what we have created.
Allow me to explain by example. We start a new business venture based on a brilliant idea, we create something from a mere thought and we work hard to make the initial reality a success. And the next step is to work harder. Then even harder again. Who or what controls the outcome at this stage? Perhaps the adage that states that we end up working in our business rather than on it applies. Do we then work for our business? The creator serves what has been created.
When this happens we have lost sight of our sense of creation, of our excitement at the idea, and we become swamped in meeting the needs of what we have created. Sometimes at the expense of our sanity and at a minimum, our sense of reality.
And this happens on many fronts and on many scales of operation.
Consider a western government and its administration. Yes, a lovable red-tape-ridden, pointless-policy-policed organisation that spends more time on self-preservation and personal maintenance than delivering the solutions that a country really needs (please allow me the creative privilege of painting the very worst picture). Every secretary has a private secretary, an under-secretary and a team of advisors and administrators even before anything can be done. And don’t forget that the secretary has a shadow secretary to contradict the secretary and debate each point in the first place.
Yet society appears to need the structure and the predictability that administrations bring if only to protect law and order, Somalia is perhaps a case in point.
But I do have a question.
How far should the created be allowed to control the creator?
In a business setting surely its not as far as to cause the business to fail? In a government administration perhaps its not as far as to prevent freedom of expression (if not choice) or so as to strangle creative and responsive policies in our rapidly evolving world. Judge for yourself on these issues.
But I have another, more important question.
How blind are we to serving our own creations?
I believe we have become too blind.
Today, in the developed world, we live in a materialistic environment; supported by materialistic measures and frameworks. Wealth is judged on monetary value rather than the richness of our life experiences – though we are encouraged to buy them! Our joyful ability to be part of a consumer-led society requires that the creators of the consumed control the level we consume. To grow and continue consuming (ie. to be successful) we need to consume more. We are encouraged to see that the measures we live by, the way we judge our success, are based on patterns that cause us to consume more. If, for example, I get a promotion at work I also get a raise so I can buy more.
Can we see how far our society has gone in becoming a largely self-serving entity? Do we as creators of our society now serve our frameworks so much that we no longer see how much they control us?
How many of us would poison another human being? How many of us would encourage our children to steal food from another so that they could enjoy more than they need? How many of us would lie and cheat and steal and kill to be able to wear the latest branded items?
Of course we wouldn’t.
So what of the “essential pesticides” that poison the cotton workers? What of the manipulative pricing and poor wages that leave families under-fed? What of the sweatshops and the international loans, the tied aid and the bankrupting of our own world’s resources? We contribute to all of that by our “consumer behaviour”. Do we accept it along with the rhetoric of consumerism and free-market thought that both excuses the behaviour and eases our conscience or do we not think about it at all?
My youngest son tells me that if the whole world consumed at the same rate as the USA we would need four planets in order to meet the resource need. Perhaps I should research that statistic before I discredit my own argument. He heard it or read it somewhere. But perhaps the possibility that it could be true exists. It certainly feels like it could be true. And we aspire to have a similar great economy.
Is it so important to consume that we have lost the creativity to be compassionate humans? Are we so controlled by what we have created that we no longer see the harm that what we have created has done. Is it not time to look and think again?
If you do think and want to act in a positive manner try some of these ideas.
- Give more than loose change to charity – perhaps aid and development rather than the cat protection league.
- Buy fair-trade and boycott abusive suppliers
- Buy organic products and materials
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
And most importantly, continue to think and act. If nothing else you’ll be happier for it.
If you choose to avoid my questions, or do think and come up with your own different conclusions please continue to read my blog and share your own opinions, after all I could be wrong.
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