People wait patiently in long lines, buses leave hours behind schedule, or are sold out, or no tickets are available because the bus arrives full and no one disembarks, or the bus broke down, or left early and the next possible one is not for another twenty four hours. Yes, there is disappointment, but there is very little complaining. In poorer countries daily disappointments are a way of life, and through these disappointments, I believe, people become more accustomed to disappointment and therefore more accepting of circumstances beyond their control and over time the bulk of the culture is imbued with this value of acceptance.
My experience in Canada is quite different. I will freely admit that my world view is skewed, because I have spent many years in the hospitality industry and other jobs that involve a great deal of interaction with the public. However, over the last few years I have noticed increasing demands from people who feel "my own sense of entitlement must not only be met, it must be met in a way that is specific to me". Its like a Diana Ross virus got loose on the subway and now everyone is infected. At a seemingly exponential rate I encounter people with increasingly specific demands, as if standard offerings are not acceptable, because "I am so much better than everyone else". I need to have a "special experience"
I live on a trendy street in downtown Toronto, and I am fortunate to be here. Literally, there are about ten bars and twenty restaurants within a five minute walk plus a myriad of stores catering to all needs. Recently, I saw a sign go up on a vacant store "Coming Soon, "The Water Shoppe". "Dear God", I muttered to myself, "I hope that is not what I think it is". Sure enough, when it opened it was stocked with different bottled water from all over the world. I can just imagine some dead eyed corporate houswife having a water tasting at her home, so all her friends can share the excruciating minutiae of difference in taste between the "Fijiian Island " versus the lowland spring from Alsace. Empty and vacuous phrases like "I'm getting just a hint of almond" or " notes of vanilla" or "citrus tones" would echo through the perfumed room with the nodding heads of synchophants bearing expressions not unlike those present at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
Of course, the idea of a "water shop" is not new. I saw many "water shops" in Ghana, though they were a little different. Mostly, they consisted of very young children wearing a tray on their head, working in the searing sun or late into the night at bus transfer points trying to eke out a few pesawas by selling water sealed in plastic bags so that they could help support their family. It made me cry to see these kids working so hard when I compared it to what I was doing at that age (which was probably complaining because my very specific needs were not being met).
I do not mean to disparage the good people at The Water Shoppe, and I wish them luck in their business. I merely present their existence as an example of the misplaced values, inherent selfishness, and empty consumerism that dominates our unhappy culture. The city of Toronto has one of the most closely monitored and safest water supplies in the world. People are not shopping here because they don't trust the water in Toronto. The fact is that the stuff that comes out of my tap is far more inspected and regulated than the H2O that is needlessly shipped from around the world in small individual bottles on CO2 spewing airplanes.
Places like The Water Shoppe exist so that people of a certain ilk can have a special experience. This is not because they are simply savouring the joy of that special experience but it is more driven to display publicly that they have had that special experience, so that it may be lorded over others ( many of whom will be envious, and aspire to the same "special experience") .
The problem is that we have been trained to believe that the "special experience" is actually a product that can be purchased, when the real "special experience" is something that you create yourself or in conjunction with others. The easiest example of this is having a child.
The big problems begin when people purchase many products over a long period of time that they expect to give them "special experience" and it fails to do so over the long haul. Yes, the first rush of seratonin comes at delivery, but for many hope soon fades when the products that promises the "special experience" does not deliver. Instead of leading to acceptance, like the late bus in Ghana, the disappointment in North America leads to anger and a sense of entitlement unfulfilled, which leads to anger.
The thing that I am discovering is that the "special experience" cannot be purchased, it must be created. Unfortunately we have substituted consumerism for creativity and it is making a significant number of people in North America (and I suspect Great Britain) terribly unhappy for reasons they do not understand.
http://goyestoeverything.com
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