As human beings

We, as human beings, feed our desires and wants.We feed these in many ways, but especially through CONSUMING.We, as human beings, create products from this earth's resources.We, as human bengs, consume and excrete these products, in some form or another. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. However, we, as human beings, the most highly evolved creature on this planet, and this galaxy, continue to consume when we know it will only bring about misery to other human beings.Why is this?I believe it is because of three things.1: We have always known a land of plenty (in well-developed countries), so know no better.2: We try to cover up all our emotional needs with THINGS. 3: We have been told, by various religions and cults, that this earth is our birthright.There was a time when we, as human beings, did not have enough to feed all of our family, and did not have all this technology which surrounds us day and night, permeating all areas of our existence. Many of us did not make it past the age of thirty, if we were lucky. Now, many of us make it past the age of eighty, and lead lives with a full belly. I'm not saying this is wrong, I'm just saying that this has lead to our current situation.Without technology, many humans who should have died a long time ago, would die. Not a good thing, right?Without technology, we couldn't kill each other as effectively as we'd like.Without technology, we would be left in the dark, not knowing where to turn. This leads onto reason Without technology, we are left with silence, and where there is silence, our emotions and demons and various psychoses and neuroses etc etc come out to play. Without technology and THINGS to CONSUME, we are left only with what we are, with nothing else to be. We CONSUME music, clothing, houses, cars, beds, people, to feed our apathetical views of what happens to this world.We, as human beings, don't like that. This is the new human condition, one where all emotions are stamped deep down into ourselves, never again to see the light of day, and replaced with new emotions, ones of shame, inadequacy, fear and, most importantly, hunger.Let's talk first about shame. Shame of what? Shame of our bodies, our intellect, shame of our house, our skin colour, weight, hair colour, hair length etc etc. The list goes on. This shame is then pushed aside by the product a certain company is marketing. Without knowing it, by listening to a new advert or watching a film, or being within the vicinity of any man made product, you are made to be ashamed of your own body. This is the basis of CONSUMERISM, and we buy into it (no pun intended).This shame leads onto a huge feeling of inadequacy, which is our next topic.By making you feel inadequate, these companies immediately make you want their product to better yourself as a person, when you don't need bettering. This is not to say the person who made the advert is evil, and out to get you. They're just doing their job, just like the rest of us. They are working for the machine that is CONSUMERISM. They may know, they may not. This is not the real problem.Those two feelings are preceded, of course by the human favourite, Fear. Fear drives us to do terrible things, as we have seen throughout the course of history. That is a different kind of fear. The fear I mean is the fear of impermanence. A fear of dying, if you will. We, as human beings, are terrified of not being remembered in some form, or even just leaving this earth at all. This fear drives us to try and solidify ourselves in time by surrounding ourselves with THINGS. We, as human beings, hold influence over these THINGS, and they give us purpose in that sense.All those feelings I have talked about lead on to the big 'un - Hunger. Hunger for what?Food? Shelter? Love? None of the above. I mean hunger as in the feeling of hunger. The feeling of emptiness in the pit of your stomach. A hole to be filled. This hole could be caused by emotional neglect, by ourselves or others. It could have been caused by a trauma of some kind, physical or mental. The first one, I think you'll agree, is much more common. This emotional neglect in turn causes us to feel inadequate and ashamed of ourselves, leading to.... You guessed it. CONSUMING.This vicious circle can continue most of our lives, and for most of us, it does. I'm still in it, and probably will be until I break free. Until WE break free. We are under the delusion, as human beings, that this is all the possiblity we have. This lot we are given by the government in which we live.We, as human beings, can do so much more than this. The religions that have told you and others that this earth was given to you by God, for all I know, could be right. However, just because it is your birthright, does not mean you can fuck it over. If you want to, by all means do. But when you die, please do have the balls to explain to your God why you fucked up the earth He/She so laboriously created.Religions and cults, by extension, feed the CONSUMERIST ideal. A good example is Christianity (sorry, but your religion is literally the best example possible, given your checkered history). Your religion is based on the principle that you are not good enough, and must constantly repent for your sins. This feeds our shame and ideas of inadequacy, keeping the crooked wheel of CONSUMERISM turning. Most religious people are the nicest people you could ever meet, but without them, this whole ideal of shame would be discontinued. The radicalising bastards who have tarnished your religions feed on your devotion to your religion and to humanity, using you as a human shield. The radicals who claim to be the true advocates of their religgion are complete bigots, who use the religion to their own ends, feeding their congregations (and all other religious communities of other religions) their own prejudices and hatred, and we CONSUME it, and all it's ideologies.We also feed our wants and desires by belittling other people.We feed this through, for example, making women and men objects of sexuality. This belittling of their emotional status, and denies their right to know anything else than the fact that to us, they are posessions. They are not. These people are... well, people. They are more than what they are made out to be by the media we CONSUME. Media like pornography, adverts for beauty products and clothing, gossip magazines, and television shows. All these forms of THINGS create an opinion of others, and ourselves, that we are nothing more than another thing to be owned and controlled. this is not the case. We are indivuals with our own opinions and needs and desires, and we are not to be put down like that. All of this feeds our wants and desires, and our own repressed feelings we refuse to admit to having inside of us. People are people, no matter what race, religion, gender, sexuality, size, and whatever opinions they have.We are not vacuums, sucking up all we can before we die. We are people, who do not have to bow to this CONSUMERIST ideal. We, as human beings, can live however we want.This is not the only way to go. You can stay with this habit of consuming, if you so wish. That is absolutely fine and good, as long as you know what you are doing. You can choose to ignore this entirely. You can take it on board as well, and that's absolutely fine as well.But whatever path you choose to take, try to know what you are doing. When you next take a cup of tea, think about the tea, whose hands it has passed through, what the water has been through to get to your lips. Know that that cup of tea is infinitely connected to you, and all of creation. In that cup of tea, lies all of your life, all life before it, and all life after it.Why waste it?