How does a daily communion with the Gods in the pooja room affect one’s spending patterns? Vidhyashankar combines logical reasoning with a small leap of faith to arrive at an interesting conclusion on this topic.
It is an undisputed fact that our reality is determined by information, particularly visual images that dominate our senses. The proliferation of a Net society does make the TV era seem regressive (couch potatoes save your souls!). The success of the internet is also a reflection of the success of true democracy where the role of governance and the idea of a government is often at question – the recent revolts in the Middle East are just the tip of the iceberg. The government of India’s “emergency option” to use the ‘kill’ switch to shut down the internet is an example of how even democratic governments perceive it as a threat to their existence.
Some say it is the reality of a ‘Nation-State’ policy that almost all governments are in conflict with advancement – of views and opinions! The irony is that in the most connected state of the world, the importance of privacy and the risk of isolation are the highest… and so one could also argue against being connected. Where’s THE point of balance? I’m excited to be around in these times and will hopefully find some answers soon.
But I digress here…let’s go back to the idea of visual images impacting our lives and state of mind, conditioning us to receive more information and spend more, thus turning us into ‘consumerist beings’.
This begets an important question: are Indians more prone to consumerism than other cultures? I pose this question simply because with our expansive pantheon of gods, we are very familiar with polytheism and idolatry. In his popular book on mythic cosmology, ‘The Greatness of Saturn’, author Robert Svoboda suggests that the idea of polytheism is not entirely unscientific, given that what we see visually on an everyday basis is what we tend to manifest in our lives. Therefore, worshipping different gods in visual forms brings about ‘a certain reality’.
That might be enough to conclude that a majority of people who practice polytheism, or are otherwise prone to idolatry, if subjected to commensurate amounts of TV and internet information, could perhaps also have the highest proclivity to spending.
This is not to exclude or exaggerate the power of any culture or religion, but is only intended to draw a mountain of meaning out of a molehill of interesting evidence. At least you will agree that news and information does spark the imagination.
Tags: conclusion, connected, consumerism, government, idolatry, information, internet, Middle East revolts, news and information, polytheism, privacy, spending, TV era
