How do you cope with the state your existence?

Question

How can I best survive in today’s society?

Not by turning to religion. To all but the intellectually infantile, religion is an infrastructure that exists primarily to support itself. Given this and the prominent role religion plays today, it is clear that retarding social change is a primary objective of organized religion. Maintain the status quo. This would be fine, but the willful ignorance, apathy, and above all the gleefully urgent consumerism of the status quo is what created my ennui.

Even to turn away from organized religion, there is nothing. Faith, god, hope, prayer, all are delusions, socially constructed, existing unsupported by clergy to keep us whistling and docile until our deaths.  Upon death, my estate, that painfully inept measure of my life’s worth, will be divided among the living, who will value it for its illusion of authenticity, because we, as humans, know that nothing is permanent or meaningful. Unsurprisingly, permanence and meaning are what we devote our lives to.  

If there is no god, no fate, no master plan for our existence, where can I turn? Art, at best, is a diversion. At worst, it is another indication of what type of consumer I am.  Turning something unique into a tangible good with a monetary value perfectly describes the ethos of our age. What is the aggregate value of the National Parks? Which sphere of influence extends to the moon?

I despise the consumer society, but I know change will never come. 

So I’ll fall in line. I want what you have, or pretend to have: happiness, contentment, confidence in your place in society. I know these things are intangible, but I’ll buy their tangible manifestations in order to pretend I have these qualities, while resenting you for doing the same. I wish someone would change the world for me.  

How can I best survive in today’s society?

By expressing my station in life (as determined by myself, but primarily by others) through status symbols.  Society is a fractal, and with each iteration it breaks down into cultures, subcultures, cliques and social groups. Each is a new market, full of potential for profit.  

How can I best express my individuality by buying goods designed for mass consumption?  Which clique best describes my personality? 

How can I maintain any sort of morality while I hypocritically consume? I can’t. I do drugs in a futile attempt differentiate myself from the mainstream. Yet by using drugs, I am beating my mind into submission, making life tolerable in an intolerable society. Even worse, in our society where even something so essential to our survival as food has brand names, drug users are just another subculture, a clique, yet another market to exploit. How can I hate the consumer society, when I want to be judged on what I like (buy) rather than what I’m like, while despising those that consume differently with identical motivations? 

I can’t, but I can hate myself.

Sweet Loraine · Accepted Answer

I can't decide if you're a moron or just a cynic...or both.  Those are some big words for such a tiny mind.  You SOUND intelligent, but you lack something... 
Griffine S.  This is a formal apology from me to you!  I had no right speaking to you that way.  I reread your question without bias and understand where you're coming from.
Can we be friends? : )

You Are Enlightened · Answer

What can you do? You can first stop all your machinations, thinking yourself correct and others delusional they are but in your own way you are as well. Stop all your thinking and see reality without all of its label in this way you will free yourself, you can do nothing for others but accept that they are the way that they are and not have a view about the situation.

You sound like you have grown tired of society now you just have to decide if you have a real desire to know Ultimate truth. I cannot give it to you no one can give it but it can be seen.  In one simple step it can be seen and you can loose all of that hate you may have inside yourself, you hate yourself because you have been conditioned by society to do as society does and now you have seen that it is against your true nature to do so. You can go along with the delusion of the masses without being deluded and still along your way in life slowly opening the eyes of all those who can see nothing due to their own self deception. It is not hard only you have to point the way very carefully without interfering in their lives. Only first you must see clearly. If you wish to see ask yourself this. What is a Human without all those nifty labels without, man, woman, child, organism, living thing. When all those labels fall away when everything is gone what is a Human being? If you can answer that for yourself you will open your eyes and be qualified to complain about peoples free will to delude themselves, Here is the key though once you have opened your own eyes to that point then no complaints will be necessary. After this you will see clearly who you are and who all other beings are only then will you be free from all those things you feel trapped by.

Carol B · Answer

I'm not quite sure of the question, but I agree, humanity seems to be so very superficial. 
We spend nearly all our time searching for just the right things that will help us fit in with just the right crowds. Or, at least, make us feel that way.
I like to think of myself as a minimalist. Not that I'm bragging because it's really quite hard.
I don't believe our things are half as important as we think they are. Mostly, they just make us want more things. But try to give it all up? What else is there? Nothing. Which is kind of nice once you get used to it.

new Phm tech · Answer

you can change your own world yourself:my advice to you and please
take it seriously is to spend the next 2 years doing Yoga and learning
from a master teacher-it sounds like you can afford it too.

(go read some Yoga books,there's enough of them although most
don't go into the philosophies deeply enough)

there are courses offered at many colleges,but it's the opportunity of a
lifetime to study w an actual master

Anonymous · Answer

I feel sorry for people like you. If you spent more time living than thinking about living, you wouldn't warp your line of thought so.

Anonymous · Answer

This is THE Secret, but don't tell anyone that I told you: Get a grip.

Amanda · Answer

You need to be happy with yourself first.

Jeff G · Answer

Get out more.

bluffylee · Answer

if there is something that you deserve? this is because you have a definition! you have it because you define! and thats why you deserve it!

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How do you cope with the state your existence?

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