The millennial mindset must be purged of three things: 1) propaganda, 2) planned obsolescence, and 3) credit. But before I unpack these three barriers to the millennial mindset, let me first define what I mean by millennial. I am not referring to that generation whose births straddled or followed the dawning of a new millennium according to our modern calendar. Rather, I am referring to a period of freedom that spans a thousand years under the reign of Christ. To enter into this freedom mindset we must surely purge our minds of the three barriers mentioned above. Let me explain.
Propaganda convinces us that there is something terribly wrong with us or with the world in which we live. It deceives us into thinking the only remedy for our situation is another product or service fix that only the world can provide. Contentment is anathema to the propagandist's pursuit of power. Propaganda does not really promote the contentment it advertises. Rather, it promotes the perpetual discontent that will make propaganda perpetually more valuable. Advertisers do not work for the products they promote as much as they work for themselves. Product profitability (which is partially tied to planned obsolescence) insures propaganda profitability. As long as propaganda is profitable those liars that provide it will rule the world. When deception is no longer profitable, liars will fall from power. To live in a truly free world we must be freed from the general anesthesia of the deception that ensnares us.
Planned obsolescence, the darling of industrial profitability, insures that propagandists will always have something new and better to promote. Engineered into the design of products and services, planned obsolescence is the intentional enemy of genuine quality. Genuine quality would last forever. But the product that lasts forever never needs replacing -- a circumstance that those driven by greed cannot tolerate. Short-term profitability depends heavily on the waste of resources. There must be a throw-away society to perpetually generate the short-term just-in-time profits of the industrial appetite. Short-term profitability depends heavily on the velocity of consumption (which partially depends on the velocity of currency accelerated through credit). To insure that consumers do not hold on to products too long, products must either become obsolete or made to appear unfashionable. Herein lies the collusion of industrialists and propagandists. To live free, we must return to a sustainable pursuit of durable quality.
Credit enables us to buy the desires we cannot afford to buy more than once. The product that propaganda has rendered unfashionable or that planned obsolescence has rendered useless, if it is perceived as necessary, must be bought again. Once a product has become obsolete or unfashionable, buying a replacement will require financial assistance that comes at a cost. That cost is our freedom and the freedom of our children. Lured by credit, we are bound by debt to pursue a lifestyle that is neither creative nor free. Whether we realize it or not, our debt is compounded in the ensuing generation. Our debt not only enslaves us, it also enslaves our children. To live free, and to insure freedom for our children, we must learn to be content with what we can afford.
These three -- propaganda, planned obsolescence, and credit -- conspire to rob us of contentment, of material resources, and of financial freedom. They bind us to want and to discontent and perpetually diminish the availability of resources whose increasing rarity makes our needs proportionately less affordable. When our needs are no longer affordable without government intervention we become slaves to those who can afford what we lack. We cannot continue to thirst for and listen to propaganda and expect to live free. We cannot continue to waste our limited resources on disposable comforts and expect to escape want. We cannot continue to pay others to enslave us to the pursuit of desires that perpetually impoverish us. This is why the millennial mindset -- the mindset that makes room for a thousand years of genuine freedom -- must be purged of these three negative influences -- deception, waste, and debt.
The millennial mindset must embrace truth, quality, and independence. Truth contradicts propaganda. Quality contradicts planned obsolescence. Independence contradicts debt. Propaganda has no power where truth is known and celebrated. Waste disappears as quality improves. Debt is powerless against genuine independence. Sustainable, durable freedom will not be enslaved by deception, waste or debt. Genuine freedom always encourages truth, quality, and independence.
Michael Leonard Hennen
