Scarcity

Scarcity is the human condition.  Everything we do is to get something that we do not have and just about every religion seeks in the end to quell our fear that we will never get that which we are looking for.  People react to all sorts of scarcity and pursue different things, health, shelter, safety, food, money, power, fame whatever but never get enough.  Conversely religion tells us to either remove all desire, desire something different (God), or that eventually if we do/believe/find x we will never live in want.  The end result is the same, a life free of the constant drive for something else.  At the end of the day, can we divorce ourselves of desire?  Is scarcity solvable, are some parts?

We often believe that we should do what we can to keep health, food, water, and shelter available and attainable, but even in the societies that have managed to nearly eradicate them they still exist and that is because scarcity is wrapped up in self worth at best and malicious pride at worst.  We define ourselves by what we have in relation to what others have.  Why?  Why do we insist on defining things most often by what they are not rather than what they are?

This entry was posted on June 5, 2010 at June 5, 2010 and is filed under Philosophizing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.