The Law of Dissatisfaction vs. Gratitude
“The job of advertisers is to create dissatisfaction in its audience. If people are happy with how they look, they are not going to buy cosmetics or diet books; if people are happy with their old twenty-inch tube television they are not going to buy a sixty-inch LCD flat screen TV. If people are happy with who they are, where they are in life, and what they got, they just aren’t customer-potential, that is, unless you make them unhappy.” J. Bader MRPwebmedia
The antidote to dissatisfaction?
Gratitude is the antidote to dissatisfaction, writes Eco-philosopher and Buddhist Joanna Macy in Active Hope. “Gratitude is about delighting in and feeling satisfied with what you’re already experiencing” (p.46). She says more than $400 billion is spent on advertising yearly that supports messages that you’ll be better off when you buy x product. By having an attitude of gratitude toward who we are, the people you know and the things you have, you are saving important planetary resources from being used to manufacture yet another pair of shoes. Macy, J. and Johnstone, C. (2012). Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy. Novato, California: New World Library.
Just imagine…
…a tsunami of gratitude occurred and no one wanted to buy anything because they are pleased with what they already have. What kind of different future might emerge?
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