Sunday, March 04, 2007
Here's something else...
Shopping is just poison. Never mind the credit card debt... even if you're a billionaire and can pay cash for everything, buying stuff all the time is poison. Owning piles of consumer goods is poison. This isn't about capitalism or the free market – it's about not burying yourself under so much physical crap that you can't breathe.
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2 comments:
You know, honestly, I wonder where we got off track. Why do most people focus on things and getting to the mall rather than forming or nuturing friendships? When did this - and I mean the really out of control, addictive materialism - happen? The invention of TV maybe? The first "mall"?
I think television was a big 'tipping point.' We really began to turn into a consumer society at the outset of the Industrial Revolution, but it was after WW II and the advent of TV that things went nuts.
I should probably modify my previous remarks. All shopping is obviously not evil. Sometimes you really need an ice cream sandwich or Hostess Orange Cupcakes or a box of Life cereal to keep in your car.
But the habit of relying on gadgets and doodads to ease the dissatisfaction of daily life - dukkha, as it's called in the 4NT – inevitably leads to more dissatisfaction, anxiety and suffering.
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