When I was younger my mom always told me "the more you see the more you want". I never understood what that meant when i was younger, but as i have slowly began to explore the world the meaning behind this seems clearer than ever to me. Today in 2010, we live in a society where our happiness and all of our goals and desires are fueled by one thing: TO BUY STUFF. We are a gluttonous generation, whose only desire is to want, then once our wants are satisfied they only grow. It is very rare for anyone nowadays to just go into a store with the intention of buying only one thing and walk out with only that. Because we are a society that is filled with a never ending supply of wants, we have created this world where greed and expansion is the center.
We are a society of excess; everything we own is in excess; everything we desire is in excess; and everything we have available to us is in excess. If Dante had to place us in his inferno, we would all be in Circle 3. Swimming in piles of wasted food, never worn sweaters, half empty water bottles and the latest Apple technologies, being forced to accept the severity of our inconsiderate self-indulgent lifestyles. "Stuff" is omnipotent, and we have become its devotee.
Kendra I could not agree more. Everything that we do is fueled by our wants and once a want is filled, we already have something else enxt on our list for us to acquire. What is even worse about our wants is how we acquire them. Yes we do have a never ending supply of wants but we do not have a never ending supply of resources or space. Our consumption of resources is one which has led to the greatest climate problem that our planet has ever faced and our lack of limitless space has led to us dumping on very third world country out there. Our waste no longer becomes our problem because all we have to do is find the nearest poor country and get rid of everything there.
ReplyDeleteYeah-- This thesis, Kendra, strikes me as all important. I watch my neighbor install a new fence, install and discard a newer fence within a year or so, and I wonder what happens to that pile being carted away. I also wonder about how much thinking the fence-buyer does -- how much planning, how much soul searching -- does he need the newest fence? does it matter what fence he uses to decorate his small property.
ReplyDeletei was talking to an older lady one day and she asked me what i was going to "be" when i was older..and naturally i responded with " i want to be a lawyer". Anyway as sweet as this woman was she went on a 5 minutes rant about how much money i was going to make and how many nice things i would soon be able buy. It was at that moment i realized how obsessive our society is on stuff and the need to buy more stuff. Is it really necessary...i mean we say that money doesn't by happiness...but thats the biggest bunch of BS ever and we know it.
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