Saturday 20 October 2012

Karl Marx and me


Today i've quit Computer Sciences Corporation. Why i quit is anybody's guess, they did not pay me enough. But just as a forethought, when have we ever been paid enough? I remember getting about 15k every month in my bank and think that i have climbed the success ladder. 15k was a lot in my days of bachelorhood, we used to drink ourself silly, make day trips on bikes and still have money left in the bank. 

Now i make a fairly good amount considering my brains stopped working a long time back but still feel i don't have the money to lead the life i want. I'm skeptical every month end, sometimes i stretch filling up my car till about the last few liters of diesel. This can been looked up in two different ways either i'm becoming an ass in dealing with money or i'm not earning enough to satisfy my appetite for a lifestyle i don't need. 

Life was simpler back then, was happier sharing a cuppa with my buddies in a tea shop than having latte in Coffee Day. Dinner those days ment a shop on the roadside or Kaiyendhi Bhavan's (diplomatically), today it has to be KFC, PizzaHut, Anjappar else it does not qualify as a proper dinner. Drinks and catchup with friends used to be at a local bar (we did not have TASMACS back then), today it has to be in a Pub.

So where is this consumerism coming from? Consumers are willing to pay more and been seen in a McD than have a simple healthy meal at home, we have a false sense of status and the need to spend money to feel important and show that we have climbed the ladder of success. Basically trying to emote a class of people above us inspite of not having the means to do so. 

I'm 30 yrs old, educated, paid sufficiently yet cribbing about the most basic things in life? Maybe Karl Marx was right, we don't need this capitalistic society, we don't need this class struggle. What we need is a classless society, a place where everybody feels equal, there is dignity of labour, a place where a software engineer is not necessarily better paid than a carpenter. We can call in socialism, Communism whatever, as long as it serves my purpose of leading a happy life in a happy society where money is not the only thing buying happiness.