How often do we stop to take a look at our behaviour and make the effort to trace them back to our core beliefs? It isn’t something very interesting at first glance. A man takes a look at himself and draws a blank. The very act of observing himself halts his processes, stops him in his tracks, and he wonders how boring and fruitless the task is. He finds it mundane and tries to avoid the feeling that accompanies it. It is better, he thinks, to focus on interesting things that can somehow pull him out of self-defeating and self-limiting attitudes and behaviours and push him in the direction of self-development and ever increasing levels of performance and well-being.

The funny thing is that we are fed two contradictory types of messaging in modern society. On the one hand moderation, living a balanced life, and free-thinking are endorsed and recommended. On the other the philosophy of indulgence is subversily encouraged. The right hand is betraying the convictions of the left hand and vice versa. The philosophy of indulgence or excess-ism is conveyed either right in the open or is communicated in the most cunning of ways.

And this cannot be otherwise! The issue stems from the top, from the fundamental intent and nature of whether the society flows from ideologies of capitalism, communism, or somewhere inbetween like the Scandinavian models of quasi-socialism. In capitalism profits are secured by competition where the more creative you are the more likely you will be differentiated from your competitors and therefore the greater market share you can hope to claim. Creativity in this instance relates to expanding the nature of your products and services outside the boundaries of what are inherent human needs and into the fantastic world of human wants. Immediately this ideology sends us into a world without boundaries where people, the consumers, can and will succumb to all sorts and varieties of desires which are incessantly invented through a never-ending conveyer belt. Desires such as these, the ones which are disconnected from real human needs of survival and well-being, will either be demonized or idolized.

And in the midst of all of this a good chunk of society will hold and foster good values which allow them to think properly, in a balanced and moral way, where they budget and spend appropriately, and resist or ignore all sorts of marketing ploys which attempt to educate them towards wanting something they don’t need. But then again, the philosophy of indulgence seeps into all sorts of areas in our lives which we may not realize. Cunning, subversive, and ingrained, a man needs to sacrifice his boredom and take a deep look at himself, his behaviours, and the core belief system underlying it all.