Ok.. well, if the idea is to buy things… consume..., then you get to a point where you have bought so many things, you think a better life is had by buy more.…
False dichotomy. Liking certain things or enjoying certain things is not the same claim is that a better life is had by buying more thing. There are many options between “sell almost everything” and “buy all the things!”
But if someone asks about “buying a better life”, then, I’m going to point out what seems obvious to me: maybe a better life lies in other direction.
Maybe it was bit hyperbolic, but the basic intent was to shock someone into appreciating what they already have. That the desire to have “a better life” has nothing to do with material goods. This could be a desire for a nonmaterial fulfillment being expressed that resorts to the materialist method we’ve been trained to use.
I never said that the things I had to buy were goods… experiences and services work too, and better than many goods :)
Also—I never said that it was the only way to a better life…
In fact—it was precisely to fight against the “I’m sad, I’ll buy another Thing” idea that I started this process… because I wanted to make sure that if I were buying things that it wasn’t “just another thing”, but something that would be a strict improvement of my life, rather than just something that I’d discard without much use.
ie—we are in agreement about the problem, just have different solutions. Your solution is “Things are the problem, therefore never buy any Things ever and get rid of all the ones you have now!”* , mine is “i am where I am now and have the Things I have now… but I don’t want to keep doing that. What can I do in future that’s different to what I’ve been doing?”
(note, gross oversimplification and exaggeration intentional for humourous effect)
False dichotomy. Liking certain things or enjoying certain things is not the same claim is that a better life is had by buying more thing. There are many options between “sell almost everything” and “buy all the things!”
Sure, that’s true.
But if someone asks about “buying a better life”, then, I’m going to point out what seems obvious to me: maybe a better life lies in other direction.
Maybe it was bit hyperbolic, but the basic intent was to shock someone into appreciating what they already have. That the desire to have “a better life” has nothing to do with material goods. This could be a desire for a nonmaterial fulfillment being expressed that resorts to the materialist method we’ve been trained to use.
I never said that the things I had to buy were goods… experiences and services work too, and better than many goods :) Also—I never said that it was the only way to a better life…
In fact—it was precisely to fight against the “I’m sad, I’ll buy another Thing” idea that I started this process… because I wanted to make sure that if I were buying things that it wasn’t “just another thing”, but something that would be a strict improvement of my life, rather than just something that I’d discard without much use.
ie—we are in agreement about the problem, just have different solutions. Your solution is “Things are the problem, therefore never buy any Things ever and get rid of all the ones you have now!”* , mine is “i am where I am now and have the Things I have now… but I don’t want to keep doing that. What can I do in future that’s different to what I’ve been doing?”
(note, gross oversimplification and exaggeration intentional for humourous effect)