Superficiality...

Sarah and I were talking today, and she was telling me about her friend, Gennie. Sarah was telling me how much she likes her, but she doesn't really care for most of Gennie's friends. Sarah said that most of Gennie's friends are annoyingly superficial and shallow which is surprising because Gennie is neither of these things.

So that got me to thinking. In my own unscientific observations, I've noticed that there seems to be a preponderance of shallow and superficial people. If you watch the types of people that are on those reality shows you'd think that everyone in America is shallow and sometimes just plain dumb. So I asked Sarah if she thought that there are more shallow people now than in the past. And yes, she thinks there are. She thinks it's related to how materialistic our society has become over the years. It seems that too many people are mostly concerned with what and how much stuff they have and how they compare to their friends and neighbors. It's all about what you wear, what you drive, and what you own. Hmmm, I'd say I have to concur with that assessment.

It seems to me that too many people don't care anymore about how well read or how knowledgable you are. Do that many people really even form their own political opinions anymore or are their opinions based on what they heard a commentator say on tv? I've run into this quite often. People are full of sound bite-type opinions. I've asked these people to expand on their particular political opinion and explain why they think the way they do. Quite often they can't because they heard this particular opinion and liked it or their friends believe it, so they espoused it just like that. No investigation whatsoever. Some celebrity believes it, so that's good enough!

So are we doomed as a society because of our rampant materialism? Will shallowness and superificiality take over everyday society...that is if it hasn't already. On the other hand, I don't think that pretentious intellectualism is any better than shallowness. In some ways, it's just the flip side of the same coin. Only with pretentious intellectuals, they're trying to impress people not with their material status, but with intellectualism.

What happened to being a well rounded and interesting individual? To me this means that you can carry on a conversation that is not centered on material pursuits. You are informed and aware of the world around you. You have well thought-out opinions based on your own personal research and reasoning. You have a basic understanding of how our government works, and you know who our leaders are. You know basic geography, and not just how to get to the nearest mall. You're concerned about the well being of others including those less fortunate than you. And so on and so on.

Hey, I'm not against material things and luxuries. I like them too, but they don't define my outer or inner life. And they shouldn't for anyone. It's nice to have stuff, but other than our basic necessities it's about wanting and not needing. Should we be defined by our desires for things? Should we be defined by our status based on materialism? I know I don't want to be defined that way.

I guess maybe the bigger question is how can so many people be satisfied being shallow and superficial? What kind of life can that be? It sounds very tiring to keep up with the Jones' and very empty, too. And if materialism is the center of all your conversations, it seems to me that makes for a very boring person. I certainly don't want people to think of me in relation to the material goods that I've possessed throughout my lifetime, but rather that I am compassionate, smart, funny, humble(!), and so on.

Socrates said, "The unexamined life isn't worth living". And I couldn't agree more...