Abundance: Pink's View of America's Disease

Abundance, from Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind, attempts to open the workings of the human mind as he amusingly explains how America's obsession with frivolous material possessions has changed the mindset of the average citizen. The "triumph" of left-directed thinking has actually led to its own decreasing significance. People are more prone to right-directed thinking, such as "beauty", "spirituality", and "emotions." This irony means businesses can no longer produce rough looking items that serve a useful purpose. Items must also be unique and beautiful. Pink's most telling example of this humorously explains how Target has begun to carry designer wastebaskets. The left side of the brain says this is illogical and wasteful. However, the right side fights back, saying, all items must have good aesthetics. The change to more right directed thinking has actually led to the greatest paradox of our generation. People have more and more material possessions but are not any happier. Pink explains that "liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it--are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning." Practices once considered eccentric, such as yoga and meditation, are now becoming mainstream. Pink offers "one last--and illuminating--statistic:" Candles, once needed by the population too poor to afford light bulbs in the 20th century should be no longer needed. However, candle sales are a 2.4$-billion-a-year business. Pink's last pun along with all his other examples adequately explain the change in mindset of the American population as our generation has entered the 21st century.