Consumer lifestyle threatens family stability

[Love Pulse]

The decline in family stability in recent decades cannot be seen in isolation from the rule of consumer lifestyle and the consequent rise in the cost of living.

The spread of consumer culture from the center of capitalist systems to the oceans of the Third World has created an ideology of consumption based on viewing consumption as a goal in itself, and linking it to the lifestyle and forms of social distinction, which made people flock to consumption regardless of their actual needs .. and then turned Their selves are under the influence of material and moral consumption to submissive ones who have nothing of it, and social groups have sought through consumption to confirm their social status and position in society, and a large number of individuals have turned towards sensual pleasures and caring for the body, in line with All products designed to beautify or entertain the body.

The social segments were affected by each other in spreading these patterns in a collective tradition, and the continuation of the excessive consumption process led to the creation of successive consumer desires and tendencies among these segments, which achieves the interests of companies producing goods and goods at the expense of the consuming groups, and many peoples of the land turned to Just marginal consumers are a good source of profit, regardless of the negative impacts this process has had on their economic and social reality.

The media has a major role in disseminating the excessive consumption patterns of its audience in developing societies, and making it, through the frequency and expansion of its dissemination, over time, a socio-economic phenomenon that has become more established and has evolved into a "culture of consumption" in these societies, a phenomenon that has been transferred to it from developed societies, and has not been taken into account in the transmission The phenomenon is the social, economic and cultural differences between these societies (1).

The media, especially television and radio, which are supposed to play the role of education, entertainment and awareness, have become the language of trade and marketing, because the programs are funded by merchants or businessmen; that is, they only serve their interests and publicize their goods in order to create demand for goods and create the reasons that drive the consumer towards Procurement (2), as most media outlets call for consumer gluttony, the fever of purchase and marketing, and the tradition of luxury societies with boastful consumer style, and call for the spread of a new unified approach to life on a global level in the field of travel, tourism, fashion and food quality, and the media relies on p Z targeted advertising with the participation of world celebrities; leading to a waste of peoples, especially Arab ones to turn the wealth of the individual to the consumer rather than be a competitive product (3).

The consumption pattern that prevailed in Arab societies will only be increased by poverty and backwardness between the gap between developed (productive) societies and developing (consuming) societies, and we see this through the unified Arab Economic Report for the year 2001 AD which indicated that 62 million Arabs of the total world po[CENSORED]tion live Below the poverty line, that is, 22% of the total Arab po[CENSORED]tion live on only one dollar a day, and 140 million Arabs, or approximately 52% of the Arab po[CENSORED]tion, live on a daily income ranging between 2-5 dollars (4).

And more dangerous than that, the consumer creep comes to push the members of the poor and middle classes to spend more than their energy in the areas of luxury consumption, which has caused a clear imbalance in the families budget, and it suffices to know that hundreds of billions are spent annually on mobile phone calls, which have become It is used for social orientation and not to meet the necessary needs for communication (5).

What drives us to consume?

We are addicted to consumption, because a large part of the meaning of life in our depths has not been resolved, and who finds the true meaning of his life does not fluctuate in the maze of his desire, because he was able to lead it to what truly satisfies him, and for this, the base of the authentic consumption pattern: the more I own, the greater the meaning of my life, which is The essence of the material model, and its antithesis: the higher my being (the true value of my self) without looking at what I possess, the greater my happiness (6).

The property model is increasing in severity, and does not fade because ownership is related to the image of the self, and its severity cannot be diminished unless we separate the “self” from the “property”, from Abu Hurairah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Unhappy, the servant of the dinar, the servant of Abd Al-Durham, and Abd Khumsa, if my consent is given, and if it is not given discontent, unhappy and relapsed, and if he doubts, then it does not crumble. ”This is the essence of the consumption pattern: to possess me the things that I claim to be able to possess. Whether he likes it or not, "Umar bin Al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, was wrong with people seeking their appetites, and he For: “The more you desire, the more you buy!” (7).

It is striking that the modern man who claims to take his decisions independently, and no one forces him to do what he does not want .. If he contemplated the depth of his reality, he would find that he is buying a lot of things just because the "marketing machine" is what drives him, and he has become enslaved to them while he thinks that he is Free, on the authority of Hudhayfah, and Ibn Masoud, may God be pleased with them, who said: The Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said: “None of you is a nation. He says: I am with the people, the best of the people is good, and if they are the worst, they are the best.” And if they do wrong, do not be wrong. ”(Narrated by Al-Tirmidhi) (8).

The question here is: Why do not we start with a silent strike and a punitive rhetoric to resist the temptations of consumption and boycott industries that enhance our dependency? Let us thus consolidate the pillars of joint Arab action and derive from the fountains of wealth in our civilization, and stop abstaining from our brains in dissolving an alien culture that saturates our instincts with deliberate distortion (9).