Material Society

Labels and brands have come to define the social class of individuals around the world. Our society has conformed to this new trend of wearing expensive labels, which has now become a definition of who you are.

Many celebrities around the world are role models for young people and therefore what they wear is treated as the ‘in thing’. In a developing country like South Africa, it becomes difficult for many to keep up with these celebrities and sometimes the celebrities find it difficult to keep up with themselves. There have been many cases in South Africa where celebrities have been rumoured to have lost their assets and became broke. An example is the Jub Jub case. It has been rumoured that ever since his court cases, he has not been performing and is now living off Kelly Khumalo, his current girlfriend. This is a typical example of celebrities trying to keep up with the high class regardless of their situation. Jub Jub has denied these allegations and claim that he is not broke.

Remember Kenny Kunene’s big birthday bash? Sushi on a half-naked woman’s body? Well that is the kind of lifestyle our society wants to live and yet they tend to forget that one has to work for that kind of lifestyle. Men like Kenny Kunene, who is a former teacher and owner of Zar bar in Johannesburg tend to splurge their money left right and centre, mimicking international celebrities like P. Diddy and Jay-Z to name a few. What these men have in common is the love of money, leisure and the obsession of materialistic goods such as expensive cars, houses and clothing.

The problem with our society is that we forget that not all of us can afford expensive cars and clothes and not all of us can live that high life that some celebrities live. We have become greedy and want more than what we have. We want to conform to something that has been created and is not necessarily legit. What one needs to know in life is to constantly be happy with who you are and what you have. Material things do not define who you are, they add on to what you already have. Personally, I think we would be a much wealthier society if we could focus on trying to solve our social issues and going back to what our ancestors fought for, which is Ubuntu.