I've managed to trap a certain feeling under a glass for inspection.
It's that one you get when you're unsure about some new venture, so you buy things about it, many more things than you could actually use, rather than simply try it. I don't mean, when you want to learn to play the guitar, you buy a guitar, and you buy an instruction book. Both of those are critical to learning.
I mean when you buy a shelf of 'how to play guitar' books, and 20 cds, and spend lots of time online looking at guitar instruction sites. "I've got a new hobby - avoiding the guitar."
Substitute any other hobby, any health issue, anything. Cookbooks rather than cooking, diet and exercise vids rather than moving around, etc. I'm hardly innocent, but I want to get past this.
We've got a whole economy based on fear, I think. Do other cultures do this?
What makes fear ease, in favor of exploration and productivity?
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.
Posted by: Philip Proefrock | May 16, 2007 at 11:40 PM
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.
Posted by: Kitt | May 17, 2007 at 01:41 AM
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.
Posted by: Eoin | May 23, 2007 at 07:40 AM
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.
Posted by: Eoin | May 31, 2007 at 11:00 AM