Community Service:
It seemed to me that, by far, the more prevalent aim was pleasure. This might be because we as humans are so focused on our own desires, and ourselves but it’s also largely due to the fact that our culture puts such a huge emphasis on sex and desire. A few of the songs that I found were focused more on love and connection and sensuality, but in all honestly, it is so much easier to just come across songs about sexual pleasure. Community service doesn’t seem to be a very big theme in pop culture. That’s not to say that it’s not out there, but more often I came across songs that were simply a commentary on the problems and downfalls in our society, and not songs that talked about how we could change that, or what we’re doing to help. It seems like so many people can talk about what is wrong with the world, but no one has anything to say about what could be done about it. It was interesting to me to see this discrepancy in the number of songs about pleasure versus community. You would think that especially in the times that we live in now, people’s focus would be more on the community and world around them. Yet it seems like songs about desire and sex are what makes songwriters more money.
But, I’m digressing from the point of this analysis. As I understand it, the Hindu approach to the pleasure aim is that people will eventually need more than just pleasure to satisfy themselves. I think that by this understanding, it’s hardly comparable to American culture. What I mean by that is this: Americans do not seem to grow out of their need for pleasure (of some form) throughout their lifetime. Everyone wants to be satisfied. It’s hard to put this side-by-side with Hindu culture, because in their view, they have multiple lifetimes over which to break free from the need for pleasure. Americans, for the most part, believe that they only have one. Also, Hindus suggest that pleasure be indulged in sparingly, as to maximize pleasure without inflicting harm. That seems to be a concept completely lost upon Americans, who die of alcohol poisoning, drug overdose, and sexually transmitted diseases fairly regularly. My point is, everyone is obsessed with having their pleasures, and having them now. And for those people who do focus on community service, the question could be asked, “What is their motivation behind their actions?” Is it not to get some form of pleasure out of it, by helping others? That’s not to say that most people who give back to the community don’t have true intentions. I believe that many do. But there are, and will always be, self-serving people out there.
Wow. Your analysis of the inherent differences of American versus Hindu way of thought may pinpoint why Americans have such an emphasis on pleasure. It is true that Hindus believe they have many opportunities to have pleasure so pleasure seeking can turn into a "been there, done that" type of thing, while most Americans see it as we only have one life to live. Yet in today's world, most modern Hindus that believe in reincarnation do not satisfy the third aim of Hinduism. I believe this focus on personal pursuits is not just in America but a global phenomenon due to a competitive, high technological, and media centered world. What do you think about that?
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think that worldwide people are beginning to focus more and more on the self and what is best for them personally. It's something that we can clearly see happening with the differences between generations. Still, despite a global focus on personal pursuits, it seems that our society focuses even less on desires with... longevity, I guess you could say (such as love, personal connection, etc.) and instead focuses on desires that are only in the now (drugs, drinking, promiscuous sex). I'm not sure if pop culture in other societies focus on those things or not.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really interesting how you brought up the fact that the emphasis on pleasure in Hinduism is built upon the idea that no one will really be satisfied with only the pursuit of pleasure, and that they will eventually need something more in order to feel complete. However, I also felt as though in pop culture, there is no such caviat, and we are led to believe that pleasure is all there is for us. Perhaps also the second aim, success. Forget community service and giving to other people-we are led to beleive that it's not important, or at least not prevalent enough or worth it to devote our time to.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the point you made that Hindus believe that they will outgrow their pleasure seeking ways, where as Westerners hope to live lives full of pleasures. Although, I do believe that as Westerners get older we do not outgrow seeking pleasure, but we do learn to do it more intelligently.
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