I wanted to contribute to humanity. I ended up with an air conditioner instead.

Randomed by Rituraj / at 3:12 PM / /

I changed my apartment a week ago. The new one is markedly better than the previous one. One such improvement is an Air Conditioner. And this is a problem. Why? It is such a long story; it is the story of humanity.

I do not even know where to begin. So I will begin at some point in mankind's history where material possessions started becoming more important than all other aspects of existence. I am not sure when this transition from "following the wisest" to "following the one who is wealthiest happened". But it happened. And here we are. Our entire race spends its existence in amassing material possessions. This dawned on me one day when I thought to myself - what if I did not give a damn about which brand of shoes I wear or if I owned a car which had cruise control or if the house I lived in had an air conditioner or not. I mean a state where all these things DID NOT MATTER TO ME. I realized I will be liberated. Liberated to achieve and put my energy into doing stuff that truly matters. Put my energy into new ideas or intellectual discussions or eradicating hunger from a village right next to the city where I live in. But no, I, like most other humans, have chosen a path to value things I do not need over things that humanity needs.

Let's examine what happens when one is engulfed by the insatiable lust for material possessions. Any amount of money is consumed, thus creating a need for more. To be able to sustain the current level of lifestyle and take it to the next level, one presses on to means that would result in earning more money. Some refer to this as career advancement. Some also refer to this as bribes. Many other names include embezzlement, crime etc. Before we know it, corruption is rife, the people are afraid of the state rather than it being the other way round, warlords capture and kill children, drug trade kills millions and forms a billion dollar industry that doesn't even exist on paper. The list is endless. Not only this, the very few who do want to put in effort where it really matters are blown away by this gale of money because the entire world is now governed by who owns more expensive stuff and who has more money. So, these very few people are also forced to output only those tools or ideas that will result in the creation of more wealth. I mean every problem we are facing today can be attributed to someone somewhere wanting material comforts and more money. Like I said, it forms the basis of our existence.

This has also led to the wrong people forming the role models. We quite simply look up to the people with more money or with private jets. We aspire to be like them. If not private jets it's a huge apartment with a heated swimming pool or meeting friends in a restaurant that charges 20 times for a pint of beer and so on. And then, when we realize that these people are corrupt or know nothing about life we think something is wrong with the world or people cannot be trusted etc. Well, the truth is, you cannot have so much money without engaging in some activity which is amoral or unethical. And yes, there is something totally wrong with the world and that is us.

So getting back to my problem. I moved into this new apartment because my friends were clearly smitten by the ACs installed in each one of the three bedrooms. However, the fourth bedroom did not have an AC. I had decided that I would take that room and I would not install an AC because I did not need it. I had survived 2 summers at 40 degrees Celsius already and I found it was not that big a problem. If I had some awesome algorithm to work upon or an interesting conversation with someone or a challenging game of Dota with my friends, the heat was forgotten...totally. BUT, my girlfriend usually keeps coming over and she said it was absolutely unacceptable living in that much heat without an AC. She hails from a cooler city so she cannot bear heat. As a result, I ended up with an AC. But more importantly, I ended up one more useless possession toward money-ravagotron. The descent has already begun. I do not know if I can halt it for I am surrounded by a society that will accelerate my descent. No one can resist the force of the society. Unless, I decided to turn to the way of a hermit...it has always held so much appeal.