Enough Already

I think my approach to the concepts of wealth and poverty can be summed up thus: once you have reached a position where you know longer denied the necessities of survival then wealth and poverty become really only a question of mentality. If you have a poverty mentality you will see yourself as poor and in need no matter how materially well-off you are. Even if you have very little if you appreciate your life and the things and people in it you will consider yourself rich.

The problem is that the whole of consumer society conspires to make us think we are poor. It does this to ensure its own survival. How can you sell stuff to people who think they have enough already? The captains of industry have bought into a poverty mentality - in order to fulfil their own desire for status and material goods they have constructed multinational companies that must convince us that our lives are lacking something - their products! Bizarre as it may seem, but our entire society is trying to tell us that we are unhappy and we could never possibly be happy unless we consume things we don't need and which won't do anything for us except burden us with more stuff.

The more I think about it the more I am convinced the secret to living simply - indeed to living any sort of contented existence - is to cherish what you have. Despite its ethnic strife, its bad weather and other problems, Northern Ireland is a wonderful place to live. Nearly no-one dies of hunger, cold or indeed seriously wants for any of the necessities of life. Why do we not appreciate that we have enough already?