Success vs. Success

We pray that God will lead us to influence someone's life, and in reality, we all affect those around us without even knowing it.  The roll of peers in each others' lives has increased profoundly; our mentality success is no longer tabulated against the standards of one's own personal best, but has shifted to the values of those around us.  When Veblen says we want to result "in a more creditable showing of accumulated wealth," he is cutting to the chase on the inner most desires that each individual will face, and then will choose whether to follow or take another path.  Success is now known as a destination, not the journey.  There are many individuals who would immediately back away from their hard work and effort if they were informed that all the "creditable showing" waiting at the end would not be there.  No matter how nice or naive a person may seem, everyone has that streak within them to desire acknowledgment or recognition for something.  

One of the consequences I thought of from Veblen's definition of success can be found today.  We are already seeing the effects of this mentality: people are losing trust within one another.  Technology, knowledge, and more avenues of ranking has catapulted our society into a "competitive war."  From advertisements to slogans, all have the same underlying theme that bigger/more is better!  We will begin to lose the significant value in the individual if we keep trying to compare the individual to the community.  Everything starts to be labeled black and white, yours or mine, and the spirit of unity and teamwork so prevalently displayed in history's stories will begin to fade until our society becomes "every-man-for-himself."  

Personally, I don't think it is bad to aim for success even when one knows the "creditable showings" that will come out of it; I feel that what brings the sense of nobility is if an individual would be willing to put another individual above himself, if it means otherwise having to "step on him."  Moral tests for cases like this don't come around too often, but when they do, it is so easy to see different individuals mentality on their approach to success.