Spring Break
Enough is enough
Scott Raynor
Issue date: 9/24/08 Section: The Edge
Buying things can be good. Buying things can bring pleasure. However, buying things will never be anything more than an act of self-denial.
Stuff can satisfy that temporary desire for newness, but only for a while. New, exciting clothes slowly make their way to the bottom of the dresser or the back of the closet, hidden behind even newer and ultimately unsatisfying new clothes. It is a never-ending cycle .
Stuff only has the ability to comfort when we project human emotions to it; an MP3 player's only value is the connections you make with your favorite singers and songwriters. TV is only as useful as our ability to relate to the characters in our favorite TV shows. These objects emulate human interaction and satisfy us in the sense that they provide understanding to us that we don't seek from our everyday interactions.
The most common trouble is one we all know too well: the anticipation of new things is always more compelling than when the thing is finally in our hand. We can impatiently check the shipping status of an online purchase again and again, but when it actually comes, our happiness is short-lived and we find ourselves looking for the next prospective purchase, sometimes ignoring the original purchase altogether.
This behavior also drains us of our money. We are willing to spend money we slaved hours to earn only to spend it on something utterly replaceable and un-fufilling when we can put it to a much better use.
Consumerism tells us that we do not have enough. It tells us that even when we buy the newest and most desirable things we still do not have enough. Consumerism tells us that only through buying things can we be happy, when it never makes us truly happy, which is absolutely outrageous.
In truth, we know that the only content moments we have are those that we share with those closest to us. We are psycologically desinged to draw happiness from our connections with others, and the more time we spend emulating these interactions the more it cheapens our real interactactions.
Happiness can come easily from understanding, but a reliance on materialism is nothing short of fooling ourselves. We think that there is a reasonable stopping-point to what we buy when we inevitably buy more than we thought we thought we needed. And so we spend more money on things we don't need and we distance ourselves from true self-understanding.
Life is difficult, but as long as we appreciate what we have and strive to improve ourselves and our relationships with others we can have all we need.
There is nothing wrong with buying things occasionally, but don't expect it to change a single thing.
Stuff can satisfy that temporary desire for newness, but only for a while. New, exciting clothes slowly make their way to the bottom of the dresser or the back of the closet, hidden behind even newer and ultimately unsatisfying new clothes. It is a never-ending cycle .
Stuff only has the ability to comfort when we project human emotions to it; an MP3 player's only value is the connections you make with your favorite singers and songwriters. TV is only as useful as our ability to relate to the characters in our favorite TV shows. These objects emulate human interaction and satisfy us in the sense that they provide understanding to us that we don't seek from our everyday interactions.
The most common trouble is one we all know too well: the anticipation of new things is always more compelling than when the thing is finally in our hand. We can impatiently check the shipping status of an online purchase again and again, but when it actually comes, our happiness is short-lived and we find ourselves looking for the next prospective purchase, sometimes ignoring the original purchase altogether.
This behavior also drains us of our money. We are willing to spend money we slaved hours to earn only to spend it on something utterly replaceable and un-fufilling when we can put it to a much better use.
Consumerism tells us that we do not have enough. It tells us that even when we buy the newest and most desirable things we still do not have enough. Consumerism tells us that only through buying things can we be happy, when it never makes us truly happy, which is absolutely outrageous.
In truth, we know that the only content moments we have are those that we share with those closest to us. We are psycologically desinged to draw happiness from our connections with others, and the more time we spend emulating these interactions the more it cheapens our real interactactions.
Happiness can come easily from understanding, but a reliance on materialism is nothing short of fooling ourselves. We think that there is a reasonable stopping-point to what we buy when we inevitably buy more than we thought we thought we needed. And so we spend more money on things we don't need and we distance ourselves from true self-understanding.
Life is difficult, but as long as we appreciate what we have and strive to improve ourselves and our relationships with others we can have all we need.
There is nothing wrong with buying things occasionally, but don't expect it to change a single thing.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Allen K
posted 9/25/08 @ 3:39 PM CST
Such moralistic morass this article is. Of course buying things (even buying useless things) changes something. First, it gives the individual buying a sense that they achieved their goal, if at the same time setting another goal for them - buy the next version of that thing. (Continued…)
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