‘First world problems’ are the trivial issues that we, the more affluent societies, often attribute mock or benign importance to, completely irrelevant to any concept of need or survival.
Whether disguised as deferential or self-deprecatory reminders of the privileged umbrella under which we live, the ease of their integration within our contemporary language and our informal interactions also demonstrates an awareness of the lot of those less fortunate, those we commonly refer to as ‘Third World’ societies, or at least those more disadvantaged than ourselves. It is a manner without manners, however rarely contemptible.
‘Issues’ that have become ‘grist to the mill’ include road rage; slow Wi-Fi connections; losing the TV remote handset; jet lag; ‘dead’ batteries; cyber-‘anything;’ traffic lights and traffic; recycling; excessive packaging; vegans; urban sprawl; melting ice cream; blunt pencils; broken down copiers; cold tile floors; dripping taps; the wrong phone charger; that last bit of toothpaste; sold out concerts; no mobile reception; QR code menus; nut intolerant airline passengers, even, the cost of Mounjaro... I’m sure you get the idea. We can find humour in all of these in most social settings, and draw a nod, a smile, or a laugh.
The height of such ‘problems’ can be traced as far back as the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, who, at the height of his power, simply didn’t want to get out of bed. He simply didn’t want to get up! He had no need; everything was done for him, but he complained famously in his meditations, “In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, I am rising to the work of a human being,” as he describes how he discusses issues with himself under the bedsheets, determining that rest, sleep, eating and drinking were pleasant, and that “nature, not man, decides when enough is enough,” and that was two thousand years ago! Maybe, ‘first world problems’ have seen us become dismissive, more easily turning a blind eye to concerns that deserve more? We shouldn’t, as Louis Yako suggests, lose our compassion for those faceless behind the ‘safety in numbers’ of millions, not having the food, water, sleep, or shelter that Abraham Maslow identified as essential physiological needs, in a manner that lauds wealth or screams superiority.
Trivialising our own situations does not cure theirs, does it? David Sinclair, in ‘Without the Mob, there is no Circus,’ writes that in belittling today’s issues, we are doing humanity few favours, and he may well be right. Maybe we are losing, or at least diminishing our humanity, by ‘lightening’ too much that we should be offering greater gravitas? These are long bows to draw, however, as they place too much meaning where it’s by nature superfluous.
A reflection upon the proliferation of first world problems is that moaning about trivialities, as if they were Shakespearean tragedies, has become a social media strategy, in which appearing vulnerable to frippery, feigning distress over nothing, to meltdown over a trifle, even for a moment, is to draw upon traumatic empathy, a moment when that scintilla of humility, pain, or grief creates a bond, the relationship of a moment, and in social media currency that’s a like, and a follower, and Internet gold! And when you think about it, seeing the “poor little me,” “woe is me,” bleatings of vacuous wannabes with their brand of problems. I just shake my head... I’m not here to rain on anyone’s parade, can the chuckles, or for one moment suggest we shouldn’t laugh at ourselves, but really, I don’t see them as any more harmful to celebrate however we like, what we have, freedom, wealth, education, opportunity, and each other, all easier lost than won. Instead, let’s see first world problems not as sticks and stones, but as names that will never hurt you.
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