Have you noticed how insecure everyone around us seems to be? Snobbery used to be a minority sport, but now everyone is at it. It is nowhere stronger than in that pocket temple to inanity – the smart phone.
I have an Apple iphone, but seldom use it. I began carrying around a mobile long before they were very mobile . My 1987 Motorola weighed the same as a brick and was not something for the pocket. I bought the expensive thing because I was never in the office. Status was not a factor. Back then in fact you made calls from the train in the lavatory – otherwise people would all want to borrow t to phone home and say – guess what – “Darling I am calling you from the train”. Now I carry a motorola-style flip phone that can only call and text. If I want to surf the internet I use a laptop. It seems stupid to me to use something with such a small screen as an iphone for that purpose – and the only question I have for the ipad is “Where is the lid?”
Looking down on others for not carrying the latest device is, of course, a very materialistic form of snobbery. Like “following fashion” it is not asserting individuality, but being a slave to conformity. Which gets me back to that pervasive sense of insecurity. You do not have to follow some eastern religion to discover your true identity. I would argue that we can all choose our identity in any case. Modern life is confusing – but It is so easy to define and feel good about yourself – just by following age-old principles like kindness, honesty and generosity. A person’s job also helps to define them and as employers we should recognize our own responsibility for shaping mankind and making life worthwhile.
Pascal once said “Il n’est pas certain que tout soit incertain” (it is not certain everything is uncertain). The default condition is not insecurity, but a constant quest for happiness. The problem is that we tend to arrive at beliefs not through proof, but by gauging what makes us happy. Modern life offers the possibilities of infinite happiness, but seldom delivers it. Such is the mantra of the commercial world – but employers make he mistake of treating employees like consumers rather than with a common sense of humanity. That is why work fails so many people.
Here’s a way to make a start. Next time you take out your mobile think twice and talk to a fellow passenger instead – or make them laugh by saying into it “darling I am on the train”..