Here is another multiple choice question for you. This question was the million dollar question answered by a young man who was a contestant on the game show, \u201cWho Wants to Be a Millionaire.\u201d\u00a0 So here is your opportunity, not to win a million dollars, but to gain the satisfaction of answering it correctly:<\/p>\n
Which insect shorted out an early supercomputer that inspired the term \u201ccomputer bug?\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n A: Moth<\/p>\n B: Roach<\/p>\n C. Fly<\/p>\n D. Japanese Beetle<\/p>\n Well it turns out that this young man answered the question correctly and he was the youngest person in television history to win a million dollars on the game show. So I have to ask, \u201cWhat is it about these game shows – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune, to name a few, that leave people mesmerized by money? \u00a0What drives people to be willing to risk a large amount of money and prizes or to even risk losing it all for the chance to win it big? Stupidity? Selfishness? Greed? \u00a0The pursuit for happiness?<\/p>\n Perhaps one of the greatest illusions of our day is that you can have it all! \u00a0Yet it seems that in today\u2019s culture the message has gone from \u201cI can have it all\u201d to \u201cI must have it all.\u201d The world and culture in which we live in tells us that to have unsatisfied desires is unacceptable.<\/p>\n Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, in thebook, The Rebel Sell<\/em>: How the Counterculture Became Consumer Culture,<\/em> state that as a society we are spending record amounts of money on luxury goods, vacations, designer clothing and household comforts.[2]<\/a> Yet anticonsumerism has become one of the most important cultural forces across every social class and demographic.[3]<\/a> \u00a0So how can we denounce consumerism yet still find ourselves living in a consumer society?\u00a0 What if countercultural rebellion, rather than being a consequence of intensified consumerism, were actually a contributing factor? [4]<\/a> In other words the counterculture\u2019s ideas of rebelliousness and being \u201ccool\u201d have become the focus of consumerism.<\/p>\n The authors suggest that people spend money not on things that help them to fit in, but on things that allow them to stand out from the crowd. In other words people want to look and feel superior, cooler, connected, smarter, and richer than others. Thus, consumerism becomes about competition not conformity. People may start out being happy with what they buy or obtain, but eventually, those things fail to produce lasting satisfaction.<\/p>\n According to Thorstein Veblen, an economist and sociologist, the fundamental problem with the consumer society is not that our needs are artificial, but that the goods produced are valued less for their intrinsic properties than for their role as markers for relative success.[5]<\/a> You may begin with the goods producing tangible, permanent gains in individual satisfaction (clothing, shelter, food) but once these basic needs are met, the goods become valued increasingly for their \u2018honorific\u2019 properties. The goods now serve as markers of social status. (116) \u00a0In Veblen\u2019s view, consumerism is essentially a collective action problem \u2013 a prisoner\u2019s dilemma.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Yet, the competition is not limited to status seekers and social climbers. Some people are not interested in outdoing their neighbors; they just want to have a respectable standard of living. However, as Heath and Potter suggest, their consumption takes the form of \u2018defensive consumption\u2019 since they are trying to avoid humiliation.[7]<\/a> So basically, one persons\u2019 attempt to retain a decent living standard forces the others to spend more in order to acquire superior status.(117)<\/p>\n Veblen calls this behavior \u2018wasteful\u2019 because eventually everyone winds up back to where they started. Moving up involves bumping someone else down. So the time and energy people take in trying to obtain status becomes \u2018wasteful\u2019 and does not generate any improvements in \u2018human well-being on the whole.\u2019 [8]<\/a><\/p>\n So what is the answer to the million dollar question? If you answer (A) Moth- you are correct. I can recall the moth being in the scriptures as well: \u201cDo not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in to steal.\u00a0 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus is warning us about earthly possessions.\u00a0 He is not saying anything against money or possessions.\u00a0 The concern here is about priorities.\u00a0 Whom do you love?\u00a0 Whom do you trust?\u00a0 When the priorities become skewed, the questions about love and trust begin to be answered with the markers of social status. They become our \u201clifelines\u201d and our \u201cfinal answers\u201d.\u00a0 So what\u2019s your final answer?<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Oe4G0z5en<\/a> (accessed 2\/28\/14)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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