Entitled to be Happy: The Pursuit of the Ridiculous.
One of the most significant of the American pathologies is our confusion over the American creed. We have taken "pursuit of happiness" to mean the right to "be" happy. Since Romanticism's debut on the American intellectual game board and the Utopian notion that perfection is possible here on this earth, we have been entranced with a false sense of mortal power and, subsequent to that, of entitlement. If we can have it, then shouldn't we? Because we've additionally confused products with self and having with happiness, we find ourselves in the mess we are now in. We are so entitled and so afraid of not getting that to which we believe we're entitled we go into debt to get it. Or we steal. Or we sue.
There is an expression that goes something like, "that which you gaze upon, you become." This is certainly true in motorcycling, where it is understood at least in racing circles that you (and your bike) go where your eyes are pointed. I remember many years being warned by a friend, "If you ever see me go down, keep your eyes on the road and pull over slowly. Don't let yourself watch an accident." I never forgot that and have applied it to all areas of my life. What we see all day at the supermarket checkout, on packaging, on television, on cable and in movies is fame, beauty and money. A study was done with young people to find out what was most important to them and they reported the results we should have expected and hardly needed to go to all that trouble studying: fame, beauty and money.
There are two problems as I see it:
1) Americans don't just want what they see, they covet it. As a result they feel they should have it, that it is their right to have it and if they don't have it then something is vitally wrong with them. Their fear, once again, is that someone will find out they are "less than" ( less than perfect, less than expected, less than beautiful, successful or sexy) and that they will then be shunned, chased out of the pack and left for dead.
2) It has become an iconic need, a substitute for meaning, God and love.
We are saturated with more distraction than any other creature in history. We are surrounded by more cures, more opportunities, more checkouts and more choices than ever before. We are told that this, that or the other thing is the answer we've been waiting for. Until the next one comes along. But instead of answering our questions or satisfying our needs, all that they have succeeded in getting us to do is avoid the first and most important question of all: What does it mean and why do we want it? I sincerely doubt that Nike has anything to offer on that score.
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