Create Luxury or Remove Misery?

Does it make sense to create luxurious things and artful objects when so much squalor remains to be eliminated?


We live in a world full of ironies and conflicts. The world’s rich fret over how to gratify their palates with a new recipe, while the poor wonder when or whether they are going to have their next meal. People in one part of the world go to bed nestled in comfort, while in another they spend sleepless nights looking for a few inches of space to rest their exhausted bodies. There are some who don’t know what to do with all that cash piling up in their vaults, while there are many who are unsure how they’d support their families if they lose the only jobs they have known for years…

In the midst of acute food deprivation, we keep worrying about exotic cuisine. In the midst of widespread homelessness, we keep building sprawling bungalows. And as we face alarming levels of job cuts, we never tire of devising ways to hike productivity and efficiency.

Why?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to first bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots? Shouldn’t we work at equally distributing wealth, means of production and living space? Why should we cater to the luxurious living of the rich when we can’t take care of the basic needs of the poor?

Our conscience pricks us uncomfortably at these questions. And we are often left speechless when we try to defend our pursuits. But centuries of physical, mental and spiritual evolution has meant that creating creature comforts and continually developing things that please us is something that’s gotten etched into our minds.

We see luxury not merely as production of things that gratify us, but as an aspiring pursuit for enhancing our lives with things which we really value and which prod us to go higher – be it art, literature, music, gadgets or anything else that doesn’t necessarily have to be pursued in order to merely survive.

At times, this aspiration does get bogged down by the misery of fellow human beings around us. But it never dies out. On the contrary, the coexistence of squalid subsistence and luxurious living creates a vivid contrast of how things are and how they should be.

For instance, a landscaped apartment block surrounded by slums does look like an eyesore, but it’s also a very powerful pointer to how we should and should not live. One that blaringly reminds us that well-built homes in a clean and green environment – not dingy slums – is worthy of our emulation. It’s only that the contrast between the two highlights it in a painful way.

But such a contrast also heightens the intensity of our aspiration. Potholed roads make a new, superfast highway all the more valued just as a rag makes a finely tailored suit so much more desirable.

That, however, doesn’t mean undesirable things such as potholed roads or rags or hunger should exist. But the fact of the matter is that they have always existed in human history – and we’ve always been struggling to keep them to the minimum, but with different degrees of success.

We are a race that is forever seeking new pleasures, exploring new frontiers and improving upon our own concepts of beauty. It’s hard to think of how to distinguish between two delicacies on an empty stomach, or go for an adventure trek if we’ve been shivering in cold without shelter for weeks, or create a designer label when our nakedness is a compulsion rather than a choice. But once our basic needs are taken care of, our mind itches to get more, to make better what we already have, and to excel in our chosen field.

We can’t altogether reject this ‘itch’ – it’s an inseparable part of our character, chiseled into our brain over centuries of civilization.

Creation of luxury and of things we consider beautiful is the only way for us humans to exercise and stretch our faculties that make us so different from other animals. That creativity and urge to create is the bulwark upon which we have honed our ceaseless efforts to become more and more civilized. If we stop to evolve in our creativity, we’ll most likely retreat to our uncivilized ways – and perhaps finally become just another species.

That’s why we must keep our creative efforts going – in spite of all the wretchedness surrounding us. We must not see our attempts to live a better life as counter-productive to our intent to create a more equitable and just society. But we should see it as a challenge before us to balance our quest for luxury with the removal of our destitution.

The day we achieve that balance more peacefully and successfully will be the day of a paradigm shift in our rise to the top among fellow animals. It will also be a time when we’ll be free – perhaps for the first time in history – of the collective guilt of inequality we’ve been carrying on on our shoulders for ages.

So we must continually ask ourselves: How far is that day and what can each one of us do to make it happen?