“The main preoccupation of society is to keep society sick” – Source: Anthony de Mello
We don’t really need most of what we have, society has taught us we need it and society teaches us that greater happiness lies in getting more, being respected more, etc.
Pretty much the entire world economy is built on this. If we were all suddenly quite happy with what we had there would be an economic disaster (which ironically we wouldn’t mind one bit!).
But there are people who do mind if such an event would come around. It would cause corporations to collapse and the CEOs of these corporations would then think they looked bad in the eyes of others.
So the entire set up of society is to keep us wanting a little bit more. That no matter how much wealth we accumulate or how much we believe in a religion we must want for more.
Eckhart Tolle believes that “understanding that the role of society is to keep society sick” is starting to be understood by a wider audience and that this is the next phase of human evolution. However if we don’t evolve fast enough we will make ourselves extinct either through war or over exploitation of the planet.