Buying Into Our Culture

The world as I see it or at least from the western view is a pretty messed up place.  In a macro view of things I see too much consumption and competition.   These two things lead to some of the worst attributes in the human condition.  We think that if we consume more products that one: Our economy will be in a better shape for it, and two: What ever we buy will make us happy. These are fallacies that lead to greed.  Competition to be the best, drives us to try to one up our competition and leave them in the dust, this is survival of the fittest. We think that since this happens in the animal world that it's ok to do it in the human world.  But what we don't see is the compassion that types of animals give to one another and even the democratic process that happens when groups of the same type of animals get together. Showing compassion and co-operation are two virtues that indigenous people held very high. things like competition, and consumption were things that were looked down upon. I guess it was best said by Morrie Schwarts in the novel Tuesdays With Morrie, "The culture we have does not make us feel good about ourselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it." To me our culture is just something I just don't by into.