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May 16, 2007

Comments

Philip Proefrock

There's also a kind of vicarious experience through consumption going on. You buy all the guitar paraphernalia because you *want* to play the guitar, and buying stuff is a substitute that expresses your interest in place of the actual activity.

It's an expression of intent, a surrogate for the actual activity in question, but one that lets you feel like you are participating at some level, even if you aren't as fully engaged with it as you would like to be.

Kitt

Hey, you're posting again! I haven't checked for a while, obviously.

Packing up to move and definitely seeing that I must pare down on the *stuff*. Good inspiration here.

Eoin

Re: Philip's "consumption as surrogate" -- I'll buy that. :-D

I think there's an acculturation influence working too--people have been told, are continuing to be told, that having stuff = being safe = being happy. I think the rebound in the 50s & 60s after the depression really put that mentality in high gear.

Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin make an interesting point in Your Money or Your Life, also... that buying something to address whatever situation may not be as efficient, effective, or satifying in the long term, but it's easier in the short term than really doing the work. It gives instant gratification and often at least illusion of transferring responsibility--the consumer can blame the stuff or the manufacturer or the hired worker if their project doesn't come out right.

I try to avoid getting more stuff than I need, but I also worry about offending by over-relying (by somebody's standards) on the generosity of friends who loan me things to try, or for use so occasional it's really not necessary to have my own whatsis. Another point YMOYL makes is that relying on buying means one is not taking advantage of potential noncommercial resources that support cooperation and sense of community.

Eoin

I forgot to answer the essential question "what makes fear ease, in favor of exploration & productivity?" I think the answer for the fear that feeds consumerism, is much the same as the fear that feeds our other nonproductive, self-protective behaviors in other life choices--relationship, vocation, self-expression, whatever.

How to ease the fear behind anything: realize that you have choices about how to respond, and what they are, what they mean to your life. Work toward making choices that are based more on principles, less on yeilding to fear. Try small ones first with a high chance of success & pleasurable outcome, to give emotional reinforcement counter to the fear. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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