Everybody Wants It All

Have you noticed that everybody wants it all?

It doesn't really matter what 'it' is, people want it all.  Today, there is no such thing as 'enough', nor is there any such thing as 'too much'.

For a start, we can talk food.  All-You-Can-Eat restaurants/buffets are enormously popular, at least in North America.  You can find them for almost any kind of food.  Chinese food, Indian food, sushi, Italian food, breakfast/brunch fare, you name it!  As a whole, we're already fat.  Why do we need all-you-can-eat meals?  It appeals to our sense of getting good 'value', but we fail to account for the adverse affect it has on our health when calculating that 'value'.  We aren't satisfied being full, we want to be stuffed.  It's the same as OD-ing on drugs.  The blood rushes from our brain to our stomach and we enter a mild altered state.

Retail/wholesale shopping has an equivalent to all-you-can-eat.  It's called all-you-can-carry.  For a flat price, fill your tote bag or cart.  It's nowhere near as common as all-you-can-eat, probably because there's too much variation in value for items people can cram into their bags.  Also, the profit margins are probably thinner for these other goods.  Finally, food is an absolute need for everyone, while there are few if any consumer products that are absolute essentials and can be applied to the 'you can never have too much' philosophy.  People also run out of space to keep 'stuff'.

People want it all in love, too.  Good luck finding someone who doesn't want to find someone who is intelligent, funny, beautiful, sexy, empathetic, personable, rich, has a heart of gold and, of course, is healthy...and fertile.  This is even true for people who themselves embody none of these characteristics.  No matter what kind of person we happen to be, we think we deserve all these qualities in a mate.  Is this related to the general sense of universal entitlement that is so prevalent today?  At least in love people do in fact settle for less, but then they are seldom happy.  Also, settling or not, they aim for the stars!  I wonder if this is why relationships are treated with such disrespect, replete with cheating and/or divorce/break-ups the moment someone perceived as 'better' comes along.  What is this 'committment' thing you speak of?  Never heard of it.  Can you get it at an all-you-can-eat?

I could go on, but it's all pretty much the same.

Once upon a time, we were satisfied with 'enough'.  Now, many of us are never satisfied.  This is behind the drive to accumulate wealth to obscene degrees.  Sure, it is nice to be 'comfortable', a step up from 'satisfied', but we don't stop there.  We never stop.  More, more, more!  (Cue scene from "Oliver!".)  Somewhere along the journey we lose sight of our needs and even our wants, and the pursuit of wealth becomes an end in and of itself.  Since there is always more available, unattained and unrealized, the urge is never satisfied.  I wonder if the urge would be satisfied if someone actually managed to obtain everything.  The entire world in the possession of one person.  Actually, I guess it would have to be the entire Universe or there would still be something that they hadn't yet obtained.  Would they be satisfied?  Would they be happy?  Would they lose their mind because there is nothing more for which to strive/compete?  If you ask me, we all lose our minds long before this stage.  Would nearly everybody life live so deeply in debt if this weren't the case?

It can't just be plain old consumerism, can it?  I mean, it's impossible to actually consume that much.  A person only has so much time with which to consume.  How many cruises can one person take?  How many Monet's does one person need?  How about cars?  Houses?  I think the level of wealth being achieved today is beyond the point of maximum consumption.  They could eat, shop, be entertained and travel 24/7 and they would still have wealth left over.  They would be so busy consuming that they wouldn't have any time to appreciate or enjoy it!  I imagine they would justify the excess wealth as "something for my children to live on."  If extended over an unlimited number of generations I guess there is no limit to how much we can consume and therefore no limit to our appetite for wealth.

I wonder, is there something wrong with the human mind, heart and/or soul that a person can be so consumed with consumption that they fail to see or care about the nearly endless throng of people with next to nothing or less?  Is it a disease, or a madness...or is it the heart of the human condition?  Do we want things just to keep them out of other people's hands as though other people's wealth/success harms us in some way?  Are we any different than a wolverine in a frenzy, killing far more than it could possibly eat?  The more closely you examine man, the more he resembles a mere beast.  Perhaps if he used God's gift to him more often this wouldn't be true.  If you're not keeping score, God's gift to man is his advanced brain, capable of both creativity and cruelty nearly beyond comprehension.  Most people have their brains on autopilot for most of the waking day.  Some nearly shut it down entirely with mindless activities (e.g. reality TV) and 'what-was-I-just-daydreaming-about' lost thoughts.  I certainly think that if people stepped out of themselves for a moment and used their brain's full potential they might strongly question their insatiable urge for more.  They might even find time to be happy, and satisfied.