We Make Our Own Problems

Traditional market - Pasar Gede in Solo - is more enjoyable than a supermarket.

Life is absurd. How can it not be? Let me give you an example.

This world is now such that you can find almost any product you can imagine. From disposable plastic stirrers to disposable marathon running shoes. They create convenience. Our lives become easier and more enjoyable. In turn, manufacturing and trading of goods and services create wealth for us to buy more products.

Our lives have indeed become easier and more enjoyable in the past century. The market economy - although imperfect - sustains creation-destruction cycles. Producers that cannot follow changing consumer habits and demands will perish.

The notion of competition comes from our needs to secure raw materials for manufacturing, skills to execute manufacturing processes, and money to buy products. Added to this mixture is the awareness that resources and skills are finite. Some countries are so worried they are willing to go to war or manufacture conflicts to get resources.

Competition then leads to progress. A person or a country needs to generate progress in order to compete. Otherwise, he or it will lose in a battle to secure resources, skills, and money.

The relentless pursuit of efficiency and competition collides with our wish to have enjoyable lives. It demands we work very hard - or else, we don't make enough money to satisfy our shopping needs - in order to lead comfortable lives. We get stressed out to be comfortable, which is a first indication of this absurdity.

Hundreds of stores in Ambassador Mall in Jakarta sell consumer electronics.

We reconcile this contradiction by compartmenting our lives. We work hard during the day and we enjoy our lives in the evening. It happens also in our lifetime scale when we say to ourselves we will get our freedom - that is, retirement - when we reach 55, or 65, or maybe never. Another indication of the absurdity.

What I find amusing is that the stuff of living we enjoy essentially do not change with time. Our brain chemistry has not changed. We like spending time with friends and families. Some do sports, some like eating, and so on. These activities are relatively inexpensive, yet we embellish them to look more expensive and desirable. Because of these embellishments, the cycle of work -> money -> purchases -> perceived status -> work -> ... cannot be stopped easily. We spin in a vicious cycle.