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Read other letters about this article
This article is just one example of a formula piece which gets printed and reprinted with obnoxious frequency.
It could just as easily have been about the young, hip, thirty-something Christians who pray about the meaninglessness of societal success before heading off to the bar. I'm sure I've read that article before in Salon.
Or it could have been about the young, dynamic, hip Christian pastor/Muslim cleric who is changing the face of his religion/faith/whatever to serve the poor, disaffected yuppies who only respond to well-placed Jay-Z references. Oh, and whose usual complaints are that they have too much money and too much success.
I'm sure I've read that article in Salon before, too.
The problem is not that people are too busy, or too rich, or too hip, or whatever; the problem is that they are all doing things every day that are ultimately meaningless to them. This is capitalism, and it is mindless conformity, and it is familial pressures and traditions, and it is a whole host of things that people are simply unwilling or unable to address or change. So instead, they turn to religion, meditation, healing crystals, prayer beads or beer to try and soothe their unhappiness.
If we changed society so that people could do things that really mattered to them, and were also intellectually, emotionally and ethically satisfying, then people wouldn't need to seek out double-talking hooey like Buddhism to try and quell the utter stupidity of what a money-based society defines as success.
Instead, they push papers at a giant corporation all week and then wonder why they're not happy. And then I'm subjected to yet another article about how being spiritual/religious/whatever is now hip, daddy-o.
If only we could get reality to be that hip...
