By Dr. Sawraj Singh

          Capitalism promotes individualism and careerism is a manifestation of individualism. Capitalism alienates a person from nature, society, family and from one's true self. It makes people extremely selfish. A person becomes self-centered and individualistic. Capitalism tries to give a respectable name to this phenomenon; careerism. It promotes the concept in the youth that their priority in life should be to advance their career. However, without social awareness and social struggle one cannot maintain one's spirit. Therefore, the end result of individualism and careerism has to be frustration regardless of the heights of career one scales in life. Without meaningful social interaction, one feels isolated. The feelings of isolation and loss of spirit will eventually lead to a feeling of loss of purpose in life and depression. No wonder, many people who have achieved the highest success in their career feel depressed. A case in point is of the most successful actors, many of these have admitted that they were struggling with depression.                                                                                                                                          

                 We have seen a big change in people's attitude in Punjab because of the farmers' struggle. Punjab had become an epicenter of consumerism. The Punjabi youth seemed to have become completely careerists. The worst thing was that the only career for the vast majority of our young people had become immigration, particularly to Canada. We can see advertisement everywhere to encourage people to migrate mostly to Canada and sometime to Australia. Everywhere we see advertisement for the IELTS. It appeared that the only thing on the youth's mind was immigration. The urge to migrate seemed to have reached the level of desperation. 

                A young man called me and told me that one of his friends, a very beautiful and well educated 30 years old was going to marry a 65 years old man in Canada so that she can migrate to Canada. Earlier, I had heard from somebody about a 17 years old girl who wanted to marry a 70 years old man in Canada for migrating to Canada. However, we see a change in the attitude of youth now. A girl whose sisters are married in Canada and whose family has migrated to Canada, refused to migrate even after getting a Canadian visa. She said that she has joined the farmers' struggle. Girls have come from Canada, Australia and New Zealand to participate in the struggle. When asked about how it will affect their visa status, the girls replied that they will worry about this later, after the struggle. They said that they really found a purpose in life that was missing in their lives.                                                                                                                                                                           

                It is not just these girls who have found a new meaning and purpose of life because of the farmers struggle, the whole Punjab feels as if its spirit has been revived. Regardless of the outcome of this struggle, Punjab and the Punjabis are already seeing tangible benefits of the struggle. Contrary to capitalist propaganda that people can only be happy by acquiring more consumer goods and comforts, people seem to be happier by sharing what they have. In the long run happiness eludes individualism and careerism . True happiness can only be achieved by a feeling of completeness and purposeful life. Capitalism by alienating people from their true selves makes people incomplete and purposeless. Such people can never find true happiness in their lives. The three fundamental principles of the Sikh philosophy of life; Kirat Karo (Engage in honest and productive work), Naam Japo (Enlighten yourself spiritually) and Wand Chako ( Share your earnings), bring true happiness. Becoming socially aware and participating in social struggle ends the alienation of a person brought by capitalism and makes his life complete and purposeful.                   

Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at sawrajsingh@hotmail.com.