Inherited Consumerism
Remember growing up? Remember how your family had all this cool stuff that you were never allowed to touch? Remember cupboards full of plates and linens? Remember your parents buying stuff every year?
Imagine decades of collecting but never selling, returning or throwing out anything. All that stuff is likely still there, as well as your old childhood possessions and those of your siblings. We are born into a state of consumerism inherited from our fore bearers and it is ingrained in us to aspire to have the latest and greatest of everything; nice car, nice house, etc. Our parents were taught that they had to work hard in factory jobs to be able to afford those nice things to be happy and for them it may have been true at the time. This was our 'inherited consumerism'.
Have you ever cleaned up your parents house? If not you should. If they are anything like my parents what you will find should be amazing, terrifying, funny, embarrassing and well worth it. You will discover things that will make any hoarder envious. You will find outdated things, jammed full cupboards held together by the stacked contents, the occasional eclectic throw back to simpler times, cool records and clothes from 50 years ago, failed electronics, decades old tapes and photo albums amongst other things. I recommend doing a massive sort through of this time capsule as a family activity to re-live old memories and learn more about your family growing up from a different perspective.
Today we are torn between our inherited consumerism and living a responsible, decluttered, low carbon footprint life, as is the new hip paradigm. However we are left wanting more, more, more. All driven by large social influences like corporate advertising, sporting heroes, musicians, Hollywood, political correctness, social guilt and more.
The old way of fitting into the good factory worker mentality, the cookie cutter way of looking at the world, is over. There are less factory jobs in western countries and therefore the new way is to have more creative and innovative jobs. The old way of working yourself into an early grave, never enjoying retirement and collecting stuff is not feasible in today's world and is slowly dying. It won’t go without a fight though. It will make us both buy stuff yet feel guilty at the same time, thus taking from our enjoyment of said items which diminishes their value significantly. Hence making us want to replace these items before their expiry. This irony of hating on consumerism causing you to consume more is fascinating. How can we resolve this conflict?
On a side note have you noticed that there are constant sales on trying to lure us with their sweet siren song, not to mention online shopping gives us choice, ease and value. As more and more people are conscious about their eating, the sales on confectionery items, for example, at the supermarkets is out of control. Daily half price specials on big name items in every isle lure us with psychologically designed stores to maximise our consumption. Every time I go to the supermarket I find it is getting harder to resist these items and occasionally succumb to my own temptations. A new strategy needs to be implemented. Any productive suggestions welcomed.
M & M's World London
We are however much more comfortable selling things on eBay for example so hopefully our lives won't end up too cluttered. One way of keeping us in the old paradigm is the state run education system which stifles creativity and critical thinking and promotes the politically correct status quo, shunning anyone who thinks differently. These shunned people move to the fringes of society, they become innovators, rebels, activists, prolific artists, fighters, drug addicts, criminals and any other kind of outlier. I would prefer to nurture these outliers and teach them in a different way to maximise their value to society rather than lose them to criminal pursuits. Television and advertising, reinforced by learning from adults’ consumption, are numbing our children’s creativity and trapping them in consumerism. Let us promote striving to be better and nurture the outcasts so they become an integral part in our society and not become so shunned that they turn to a life of crime as it seems their only option.
We can get trapped in collection, never free to create and expand our minds or beliefs. The goal is to free ourselves from this consumerism cycle. For example, do I really need 5 tailor made suits in my wardrobe? REALLY? I don’t have an office job but this is an example of always wanting the latest fashion. I would still be more than happy with 2 or 3 suits. I’m not saying consumerism should be avoided at all costs but we need to take control of it and not let it consume our lives. Take stock of what really is important to you and take care of those things first. Once the important things are taken care of then you can make a clearer decision when buying those cool new sneakers.