The cost of materialism

It seems, in this country, that the strive for substance has fallen by the way-side in place of monetary gain. We have more pride in our bank account than we do the work that we do as human beings, or does anyone remember working for humanity? That was the ‘60s. Making the world a better place for the next generation. Our children will inherit the mess we’ve created or the the investments we make. It’s our choice.
But the media ie., music, television, and movies rarely carry a message of hope or help. Instead they focus on re-hashed concepts from past successes. Ideas have NOT dried up. The nepotism in media is killing creativity. Promoting a singer into acting or an actor into a painter. The cult of celebrity is this nepotism. We can’t get enough of a certain celebrity and sacrifice new artists whom are probably better than the celebrity at the new fame that they’ve been given. Fresh faces don’t seem to be welcome anymore. Imagine passing up an Andy Warhol or a Jimi Hendix, it’s inconceivable.
The best artists, these days, reside underground. Disenfranchised with the politics of mainstream, and big money, enterprises. Recording contracts that dictate what you say in your lyrics, publishing contracts that include a heavy-handed editor. There does not seem to be a venue for true art anymore. Hard core political hip hop artists cannot, and does not even want, the big deals more impotent artist get. What happened to change? If you don’t promote the status quo you cannot find someone to help you get your art made, so there is no other choice than to go underground and sell your art out of the back of a car.
Monetary drive is a sickness that is bringing down the soul of this country. It’s almost if we have no soul already. We will be playing catch-up if we care to change our ways. If we don’t then we’re on the right path to a substance-less existence. And our children will learn to despise us for GOOD reasons. We sold them out almost from the womb. We teach dollar-worship to kids without even thinking about it. Actions speak louder than words and when you come home from work and don’t want to do anything that enriches your life, that shows kids that all that matters is the quest for cash.
How many diamonds do you need before you look into how you really got them. It’s not a pretty picture but unfortunately, it’s the way of this country. Find resources that are marketable, go to the country with these resources and offer them products that we make in return for mineral rights. We come out on top on both sides, and the country that we use, is left with nothing. It’s happened more than once and diamonds are acquired this way. Gold is raped from South America and we have the nerve to make a TV show out of it. It’s disgusting the way we behave, no wonder so many other countries hate us. Our allies must secretly resent us for being top dog and never sharing the bone. This country has no conscience, no care for others and no thought to what making money has turned us into. You don’t want to immigrate to this country for religious freedom as it was founded on. Immigrants come to this country for the opportunity to make more money to support their families. At least immigrants come with spirituality from their home. Because they won’t find any here.
Mink coats, fast cars, Mansions. These are the goals taught to us. Acceptable goals. Celebrated goals. But where does there exist room for persona growth? Becoming a better human being, treating your fellows the way that you’d treat yourself. This country can take a lesson form the Buddhists in China. Learning to be happy material-less, finding peace inside themselves. Even ridding themselves of materialism in every way, yet accepting those who are. The US has nothing to do with ‘us’. It is all a play ground for those at the top, manipulating those below them to provide for a luxurious lifestyle for them and their family. They're plastic people, on the inside, and have too much power that they dont' even know, to them it's just a job, to us, it's just life. A stroke of a pen can change the day-to-day lives of hundreds of thousands of people. A stroke of the pen done at closing time as an afterthought. This must change. Getting to the point we're at was an inside job and I'm afraid that right now the room is crowded.