Consumerism in our Societies.

I recently read Taban Lo Liyong’s play the “showhat and sowhat” which supposedly depicts the Kenyan materialist culture; I was forced at once to concur with him, my earlier discord with his calling East Africa “a desolate literary desert” notwithstanding.

Our Kenyan society, today, is a far cry of what it used to be. We no longer care about the plight of our immediate neighbor. We are all in a race to empower “me, myself and I”.  We are all like little machines heightened to the level of megalomania with the belief that it’s only by buying all the latest type of fashion item that you are guaranteed of a happy existence regardless of its utility. Capitalism today has brought to fore a new trend that is not fully reflective of its contribution to our society.

the grip of materialism

Capitalism is the way; am not objecting. It’s the driver of change, the mother of all inventions and all the innovations all around us. But I disagree that all the outcome of the capitalist society is fit for our communities as Africans, we need to question some of the negative cultures that is a product of the capitalist norm; consumerism is one of this trend!!

Just look at anything around you and you won’t by any chance fail to notice the little consumptive machines that we have made ourselves to be. Today consumerism has changed the norms of our society and people have developed some delusion of grandeur that is finally becoming the yard stick and the only parameter of measuring progress.

Cheap is indecent by all consumptive standards; the story today is anyone dressed modestly in Kenya is mediocre and very unfortunate in the social strata, the materialist culture demands that one parades in trendy fashions to be regarded with respect and revered in society.

The luxury of considering the utility of a commodity is a thing of another era; this is the age of ostentatious existence and anything that brings the show is a do! Wonder no more; how some of your friends have become “show-what” over a short period of time.

Ever wondered why you always want to have that new phone Or some overbearing urge to change your wardrobe every month, every semester? Blame the media for the consumerist image that it is selling to the youth today; blame the FM radio stations for preaching pizza to a country struggling to have basic foodstuffs for its 10 million hungry populations.

Through the eyes of materialism simple has no place in our society. The media and corporate companies sell a lifestyle that is hard to maintain and one that eventually entails self-deceit, one looses his humanity, his identity as he/she buys into the media-sold image.

So, comrades before you jump in the materialist fray take a hard look and consider your needs and the utility of whatever it is that you want to purchase. Consumerism is an addictive process and will need some kind of mental emancipation.

this post was published in Maseno University's EQUATOR WEEKLY as a weekly Opinion.