Teaching Kids to Be Less Corporate and More Caring
A Mother and Father far more interested in building the family portfolio than spending time and effort on their children should not be surprised when their children want a thousand dollar prom. Of course, not everyone fits into this mold. There are some kids growing up out there with great attitudes and great world views. They are not the ones driving the economy of excess. Sadly, they seem to be in the minority. Consumerism is a self feeding beast that serves no one or nothing but itself.
Education has taken a back seat to accumulation. Who do most kids admire? Not a great historian or scientist, not an educator or a writer. Most would say a celebrity or a athlete who spends to great excess. Who has the “bling.” It has always been a part of society to admire fame, but now it seems to admire what they have over what they do. Take a look at some of the popular youth media. I am a person who remembers when MTV was a great channel to check out music videos on. Now you are hard pressed to find one. In their place, are shows like My Sweet Sixteen or Cribs. The first takes a young girl throw a mind blowing rush of consumerist excess, and the second takes the viewer on a journey of mansions. Then there is The O.C.
which really encompasses so much of what is wrong. The characters are self-obsessed and shallow. Granted, I have only seen part of one episode. It was more than enough.
It has always been a sign of the decline of a country or empire when its Citizenry is more concerned with consuming than producing. Ancient Greece and Rome, Victorian England, and current America. Another factor is when a society is more concerned with farming out its work than doing it itself. We have a huge illegal immigration problem because we think we are better than the work they do. We force globalization on other economies because the multi national corporations need the cheap labor. It is an oversimplification to blame all these ills on consumerism, but it is an important part of all of them.
As I write this article I am watching news about riots in Argentina because our “leader” is down there.
President Bush and his Administration embody the “profits above all else” philosophy that has us so disliked in most of the world. We need to become a society that doesn’t assume it is better than all others just because it has more buying power. It is interesting that once again, those who claim to be the most upright are the worse offenders, but that’s another story.
So what should we do, as parents? First, teach real values. Values that place life, liberty, and happiness over pure profits. Values that say something besides “you are what you earn.” Values that place our environment and human culture over corporate bottom lines. We need to live these values ourselves, and pass them to our children. This holiday season, pass on more “bling” and spend some time doing something worthwhile with your children. Want to give them a gift? How about a book, tickets to a play (with you) or a trip to the mountains. And talk with them about what is really important.
