Material success
By Ananya Srihari, Nossal High School
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Wise words said by the fox from the little prince. Centring a young prince as he explores planets, encounters odd characters, and picks up valuable life lessons about friendship, and the value of keeping a childlike viewpoint, The little prince is a novel I heard first when I was 7 and once again at 16 where I found it took on a new light from my new perspective.
Nearing the end of high school, I’m often told this is the time I need to “buckle down” and “pull my socks up.” I find myself becoming undoubtedly jaded about this whole process, as I cling onto the remnants of the prince that lives inside me. Growing up, our priorities move towards the pursuit of the more material indicators of success. Whether this is grades, occupation, wealth, or beauty.
Firstly, though there is privilege in criticising our society’s focus on money and status. For many people it is necessary in a world where jobs are becoming more competitive, and living is becoming more expensive. Money undoubtedly is important.I would like to speak to the value of interpersonal relationships, and the sacrifices in pursuing material success, rather than criticising the desire for wealth.
Our productivity as people takes priority. Even when I’ve finished my homework, and I’m enjoying my Sunday afternoon, a quiet voice that questions me. Why am I relaxing when I could be revising?
Often we are told that taking life as it comes is not enough. We must be constantly ahead doing work behind the scenes that nobody else is doing. Our success is measured, commodified, and wrapped with a bow.
Our success is sold to us through “self-help” The self-help industry is estimated to be worth 13.2 billion dollars according to market research. In the age where we have all the information at our fingertips, we are expected to have everything worked out.
Andrew Tate, a controversial public figure. Whilst not explicitly self-help, his content focuses on relationships and personal development. Though, his platform is now greatly characterised by misogynistic and violent rhetoric. Rhetoric that argues women are to be subservient and engages in describing graphic depictions of hurting them.
Some might believe he is a cultural anomaly and often question why young men are so attracted to his content? but I don’t think it’s purely the bigotry or the controversy. Tate’s lavish lifestyle paired with his tremendous focus self-improvement are a direct reflection of what we value in our individualistic and materialistic society.
When these young men have been primed their whole life to idolise the dollar signs and to continuously work hard, even when it becomes overwhelming. Tate’s fancy cars, mansions, and constant hustle are not only incredibly attractive, but aspirational. With many of his fans can finding his content at an impressionable age.
When this starts to become dangerous is when, our attraction to these beautiful shiny facades leads us into unknowingly subscribing to harmful agendas. So, when Tate begins to preach these agendas to young men, they don’t seem to find issue with it because of the glittering gold mouthpiece they’re hearing from. They are blinded by attraction to his lifestyle. This example is confronting, however there are more subtle ways that these personalities can influence our lives.
Tate uses his appeal to sell his online courses basically commodifying his masculine, confident, hustler persona in these programs. And what I feel we don’t realise, is that these programs are built to target this common feeling that we’re going to be left behind, similar to that feeling from my Sunday afternoon. We believe these personalities want to show us a solution. But before they present us a solution, they must make us believe that there is a problem. Whether that be we are not smart enough, not strategic enough, and most of all, not hardworking enough.
Maybe you might open up a self-help podcast, or a self-help book. They can offer advice and methods for developing oneself. But similarly, they are filled with a lot of words – a lot of buzz words. Words like “flow state” and “law of attraction” all these concepts lead us to believe that our life will change tomorrow. Often causing people to put their work and productivity before everything else, neglecting crucial aspects of their lives. This pushes us into a mentality in which we believe that growth is a solely individual journey.
These personalities worship wealth and leave no room for weakness OR room for other people. Social connection is emphasised as something we should turn to, as a means to balance our life as we focus elsewhere. Even though we as humans are social beings first, it’s rarely ever presented at something that we must actively invest in.
This is not helped by the fact that Australia today is isolated. Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third place” which describes a place that is not our first place (home) or second place (work or school) rather, another place where we establish community connections. This could be libraries, public squares, or community centres. Suburban Australia lacks a lot of these “third places” as residential development is often emphasised over community involvement. It also has a lot to do with our very car driven society and increased time spent in our homes on social media.
To love and be loved is like feeling sun from both sides. Quote by David Viscott, American psychiatrist.
Interpersonal relationships can present in many ways. Through friendship, family relationships and community. As the fox said, “what is essential is invisible to the eye” the connections we form with each other are entirely irreplaceable. Investing our time into others and being understood by others helps us in understanding ourselves and the everchanging world around us. Even science has shown similar conclusions, according Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychology phd, in her study of over 300 000 people, having few friends or poor quality friendships can have the same physiological impact as smoking more than 10 cigarettes a day. We simply cannot survive investing all our time into our material pursuits.
Circling back to the little prince. I believe looking back to our younger years helped me find clarity. The prince exclaims after one his journeys that “People…grow 5 thousand roses in one garden, yet don’t find what they are looking for…” There is a feeling of emptiness that can arise from isolating ourselves and fixating on our material pursuits. Roses will hold no value if there no one to share them with.
As I have explained today, we can become bogged down by toxic media that glorifies the wealthy and penalizes the lazy. Even more so, we can then be further disoriented by the flurry of self-help products that grow off of these ideologies. And even to the societies we live in, ones that don’t encourage our interpersonal connections In a world that is constantly trying to imprison us with the chains of expectation, isolation, and fear, we mustn’t imprison ourselves.
Although we cannot dismantle these complex systems, we can try help ourselves. Slow down for a moment, take a breath, and consider what you value most. Put more energy into the things you love and hold on tightly to the people that you love. As I move into this next phase of my life, I wish to take with me the child that presides inside.