Materialism vs Authenticity: Why We Choose Appearances Over Truth
Acharya Prashant: Look at the average person around you. What else are we trying to do? My Bunty should get admitted in a college, engineering college, something, because that's what the cousins have managed. How does it matter what Bunty is carrying within? Does the inner substance count for anything? All we care for is the form. And forms come cheap. We seem to have chosen cheapness.
Think of how much a fighter plane might cost. 2,000 CR, 5,000 CR, depending on how loaded it is. And what would an empty model of the same plane cost? Nothing. If it's just to please, entertain, and impress, you can probably raise an almost real-looking model for 1% of the cost. That's what we have opted for. Won't fly, won't bomb, but would impress.
The wedding industry in India is bigger than the education industry. What are you trying to do? Impress.
Go to small towns. No libraries, but dozens of banquet halls. What are you trying to do? Impress. Fake PhDs, so that you can have a doctor against your name. Impress.
Most of what we do is more about visibility than authenticity. We want to be visible. We don't want to be authentic. Don't blame the nation. It's about us, the citizens. Think of a movie set. Does it not impress you? You know what it's made of. Our lives are like movie sets, built to impress.
We know India's per capita income. We know when it comes to meaningful products, India is not a big market at all. But when it comes to reels and things, Instagram, India is a huge market, probably the biggest one.
In fact, a lot of international companies do not enter India because they do not manage to find a way to dilute their offerings or products. And when they come up with something of a standard, something solid and genuine, it doesn't sell. Because we don't want that. We want something blingy. Glossy. Even if it's hollow from within. But give me the bling.
First of all, what we need is a culture that promotes inward honesty. A culture in which people are always looking at each other to seek validation and authenticity would never produce genuine individuals.
We need a culture that does not penalize deviants. When the whole thing is about an inward hollowness, it becomes important to deviate. Does it not? So, we need deviants. We need rebels. We need whistleblowers.
Questioner: And so, this impressing thing, it's not as if others don't know that we are impressing. Even the person who is a friend, that person also knows that we are impressing, and that person also knows that we are trying to fool. Like, we are fooling each other collectively.
Acharya Prashant: In fact, it's a friendship. It's a relationship of mutual deception. You are hollow, I am hollow, and we make our mutual hollowness ring. Our hollowness resonates with each other. And that's the basis of our friendship. But if you are honest, then you're scary because you'll call me out. So, I'll stay away.
Questioner: So, we are actually not tired of sweet lies.
Acharya Prashant: One product that will never have a market here is the mirror. The one product that will have a huge market is colors. Colors to fake to others. But mirrors are dangerous. Mirrors make you see what you want to avoid. Mirrors expose who you really are.
