ELECTRONIC NIRVANA
Almost every minute, one can find the upgraded version of his/her electronic gadget. The evolution is unstoppable. It keeps on coming, better, user-friendlier, crispier, thinner, sleeker and prettier. Take for instance the case of TV. From black and white tube, cased in armoire style entertainment center to huge DLP, crisp projectors, to LCDs and Plasmas “plastered” on the wall, so sleek and thin one can not determine if it’s a picture frame or a picture tube.
From black and white, to color; from heavy to paper-light, from fridge-thick-like, to thin. When will it end? I have read that Sony is developing a TV so thin and light, it resembles like a plastic film.
The trend is not only on TV. Try going to C-Net website and I bet you, you’ll get excited. The electronic evolution is so fast your wallet hardly catches up.
We all like what is the best, the latest, the most efficient machine and gadget. We don’t want to be left behind. We pride when we are ahead and on top. Not only that, we make our resolve to get and stay on top, even if our wallet and future financial forecast can’t afford. Unknown to us, retailers love this kind of consumer’s culture.
I would be hypocrite if I don’t accept I am one of those crazy ones. Recently, I tried going to Black Friday sales. I was there 15 minutes past 4 hoping to get one of the most coveted-half-priced TV’s. Thanks that I had experienced the icy-coldness of the
Ohio . My 45 minute stay in the icy cold weather with no coffee and was just wearing an inner shirt and a jacket was not so horrible because of that. I was ecstatic when the line started moving and was more euphoric when I lined up again in the cashier of the TV section of the store. I thought I could have it, for half the price. For unknown reason, or for the sheer bad luck, my chance of getting one became so slim when on of the customers told us that there were only 5 more TV left. I counted those ahead of me, and flabbergasted when I found out that, realistically, I may not be able to get lucky.
So frustrated and tired, I left the store and headed for home. But I was so restless that I browsed the internet hoping to find a better deal, without realizing that Cyber Monday was still 3 days beyond.
Thanks to Wal-Mart. When I finally realized that Ms K asked us to buy her a GPS navigation, I hurried down to Pearland. Lo and behold, right in the center aisle was a pile of TV, not probably the brand that I first wanted, but good enough to pacify my electronic anxiety, I checked the specs, asked the guy about the price, and when I finally called Jaz and got her nod, grabbed the blue cart and hurled the TV to the cashier.
An hour after setting up the new TV, I realized how fast a human person can fall into his cravings.
In both areas of Philosophy and Theology, too much emphasis to the sense of pleasure is wrong, even sinful. If in the middle ages, their gauge of sensual pleasure was centered to carnal, now and here, we have all of it, rolled into one. My new TV certainly brings pleasure, of Ohhs and Ahhhs, and can put me in a tantric position of stillness when a good show is up. I can become unmindful of the things around me. Not even the cry of my kids and the scream of my wife can make me move.
How I wish that happens during our meditation days in college. ‘Twas the opposite, in fact.
But is there an end in sight for this revolution? I can’t see in the future. There is no electronic nirvana whatsoever. Where there is crave for more, there is more to come. So, what is next? A TV screen right before our iris’? An MP3 implanted in our earlobe. What else?
Probably, the question is not what else, but HOW ELSE?
Even if, indeed, virtue lies in the middle, it’s always US, recognizing and differentiating our WANTS from our NEEDS, can only determine the right time to say, “I had enough, that’s it.”
Even if there is no electronic nirvana, I am confident that there is always an electronic karma. (One that could come in your wallet or in your health).
