What's the Point in Acquiring More Stuff?

Consumerism. This urge to amass junk has been rolling in my head, as a concept and an ugly one, and one that, in light of the recent season, call it Christmas, and my own urge to amass, seems pointless. The urge to amass junk is pointless. I think there are a number of nice to haves, like a good tie, and a good suit jacket, as well as a nice pair of shoes that take care of my feet so my feet will take care of me but beyond the basics, the list I just started does not quite cover, admittedly, why get all that crap?

The reason for this post, what drove me to it, was the connection between that thought-ball and this: when I type in a search for an amazon.com coupon, there are now hundreds of sites with endless lists of all the super duper specials to be taken advantage of, provided I buy a certain brand at a certain dollar amount, I could get it shipped free!!! It's enough to make me hit Buy Confirm I Agree at least 20 times before I come to my senses!

I've often wondered what I would do with more money than I need. I'm not at that stage yet, and probably won't be, we just got a light we can't really afford-- to make matters worse, we already have a light where the new light will go. Why replace it? The new one looks better. Anyway, I digress from this all-too-essential question: if I had more money than I need, what would I do with it? I've taken to looking at the very rich's clothing over the last... more than two years. I wonder to myself, is that clothing really amazing, or is it just clothes that have a higher price tag, sold at that price because the store can, but in reality the clothing itself isn't that much better than what I can get now? I've decided it depends on the definition of having more money than one needs.

Need in today's life is a subjective word. Do I need expensive shoes? I say yes, because my feet need to be not in pain. How expensive? Enough so that they're not in pain, and so far $100 a pair seems to cover it. More than that, and I call it extravagant. Ok more than $150 then, but not more than that. However, let's go to televisions. I have a CRT TV 19 inches or so, in my living room and it is sufficient. I can get DVDs, video, and PlayStation 2 to work on it. My needs are met. However, I'm slowly being brainwashed and will eventually 'need' a nice, new, not more than 26", or.. well, possibly 32" flat screen LCD high definition TV. I even saw one on craigslist for less than what they want in stores, second hand from some other bloke. How's that for savvy. The price was still $500, though. Once I decide I 'need' the flat screen, my need level just went up, and the end goal of having more than what I need was pushed back just a little. Compound that with furniture, decor, appliance, automobile, and vacation needs, and what I 'need' suddenly becomes more of the pie, leaving less for 'above need.' My next camera will be a large lens like the Rebel or something.

Cheers.

Journal Writing

I wonder how many people see blogging as a way to keep a journal. I would imagine that for the more personal and non-newsy, non-business blogs that would be the case. For me, there's not much personal information here, except for my opinions, which tell you a little about me. To get more, you'd have to read my journal, paper and hand written.

For New Year's my wife and I will be writing in our journals, summing up the year a little, and writing down whatever comes to mind. I'm already thinking about the blank that usually settles over my mind with the whoosh of a hardbound book being opened and flattened. Then something starts, much like drifting into a dream, where my mind catches onto one idea and it spins into more.

Happy New Year everyone. I always get nostalgic about this time of year, and for me nostalgia is painful, because it's usually 'What Might Have Been.'

New Family Blog

Well I've bought a website address, now I just have to figure out what I want to do with it. It's actually been a month now since I made the purchase and I've done nothing. I'm thinking of using blogger to post, or maybe WordPress. I have a host, but I'm not sure if I'm all hooked up or what. I did a few things but I haven't really taken the time to get it set up right. I need to call tech support and I admit I have an aversion, because I feel like there are things, like setting up one's blog that one should be able to do with the tutorials and FAQs at hand.

I probably won't post the link here since it will be for friends and family only, not that you, my gentle readers aren't like family or friends, but being like isn't the same as being.

Catch - up

To all my fans, I apologize for the long time in which I posted nothing.

I'm currently reading China * Inc. by Ted C. Fishman

Before that I read The Mole Diaries which was clearly teenagery audience, but entertaining still. My wife had it, she brought it over, and I grabbed it having nothing else to read, since I'd finished...

Can't remember what book it was. I got it from the library, I'm pretty sure. I think it was

Count Zero by William Gibson. I was glad to have read Neuromancer already, since a lot fo the world that was imagined/created in that book was borrowed and used for Count Zero. My review in three words: unlikely heroes abound.

I was explaining my book to my sister, and it felt good to talk it out. I think I'll be doing more talk out with my wife, since she's stuck with me, and well we can't always talk about what she saw on TV at the gym, she might start to think conversations are hers, not shared.

Fyo D 2

I have heard your cries, yesterday's post was not enough.

Here are some more paragraphs taken from The Brothers Karamazov.
This also is from Father Zosima, only now he is preaching on his deathbed. He starts by asking, 'what is a monk?' and I'm going to jump in part way, to the part that piqued my interest. Zosima is speaking.

In this that I think of the monk untrue and presumptuous? Look at the worldly, at those who set themselves above the people of God--have they not distorted the image of God and His truth? They have science, but science contains nothing that does not come through the sense. The spiritual world, the nobler side of man's being, has been rejected altogether, banned as it were triumphantly, perhaps even with hatred. The world has proclaimed freedom, now more loudly than ever; but what do we find in that freedom of theirs? Nothing but enslavement and suicide! The world says: "You have needs--satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrin of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder; for while the poor have been handed all these rights, they have not been given the means to enjoy them. Some claim that the world is gradually becoming united, that it will grow into a brotherly community as distances shrink and ideas are transmited through the air. Alas you must not believe that men can be united in this way. To consider freedom as directly dependent on the number of man's requirements and the extent of their immediate satisfaction shows a twisted understanding of human nature, for such an interpretation only breeds in men a multitude of senseless, stupid desires and habits and endless preposterous inventions. People are more and more moved by envy now, by the desire to satisfy their material greed, and by vanity. giving dinners, riding in private carriages, occupying high social positions, and having myriads of servants--these are considered so important by some that they devote their whole lives to acquiring them and sacrifice for their sake their love of their fellow men, and sometimes even kill themselves if they cannot obtain what they believe they must have. It is the same with those who are not rich. And, as to the poor, who cannot satisfy their needs at all, they just drown their envy of others in alcohol. But the way they are being aroused now, it will soon be blood rather than liquor on which they will get drunk. Now let me ask you: Do you really think that such men are free? One "champion of freedom" told me himself that when he was arrested and deprived of tobacco, the privation was so painful to him that he was on the verge of betraying his "cause," just to get something to smoke. And this was a man who said: "I am fighting for mankind!" What can such a man do, though--what is he good for, unless he acts on some sudden impulse? He will never be able to endure pain for the sake of his "cause." So it is not surprising that, instead of freedom, they lapse into slavery, that, instead of promoting unity and brotherhood, they encourage division and isolation, as my mysterious guest and teacher explained to me in my youth. That is why the idea of service to mankind and brotherly love has been dying out in the world; indeed, now it is often sneered at, for what can a man do who has become the slave of the innumerable nees and habits he has invented for himself? He lives in his separate little world and does not care about the great world outside. The result of all this is that, today, when more mateiral goods have been accumulated than ever, there is less joy.

As in the last post, some of the views in the passage sound rather sweeping and extreme to someone like myself, who realizes one can't make statements about all of mankind and safely say that this is the way people are now. On the other hand, it does offer an interesting point of view regarding freedom, the way it is understood today, and I think many of the points made, such as the misconception of what freedom means, the accumulation of wealth and power, which drives people to be actually less free more isolated, and inevitably more desperate.

I find in this passage just one more example of the way in which Dostoevsky's ideas and concepts are truly timeless. This concept applies to mankind in any age.

From the pen of Fyo D.

I should probably do these in order... there are several quotes I'd like to put in as examples of why I enjoyed reading The Brothers Karamazov. In order of appearance as opposed to order of size, alphabetical order, or even in order of preference, since I haven't read the quotes all together recently and couldn't be bothered to rank them.

And by appearance I don't mean the way they look on the page, mean the order in which they appear in the book, my having read from page one onwards.

Alexei is speaking with his mentor, Father Zosima, who is recounting some of his experiences as a younger man. He has recently resigned his commission in the military over a duel. After news of the resignation and why, a wealthy but distant man who lives in the same town starts to visit him, and they have some deep discussions. The visitor says that he agrees with the younger Zosima that everyone is responsible for everyone else. That if people do not think in that way, heaven can never come to be. I liked particularly the comments on isolation. Father Zosima is telling the story to Alyosha.

As he spoke he looked at me and smiled, and I thought he was about to revel something to me.

"Heaven is within reach of every one of us, and now it is within me reach too; if I chose I could have it tomorrow, real heaven, for all my life."

He spoke with fervor and looked at me mysteriously, as if asking something of me.

"As to every man being answerable for everybody and everything, not just for his own sins," he went on, "you are absolutely right about it, and the way you succeeded in grasping that idea so fully, all at once, is really remarkable. It is true that when men understand that idea, the kingdom of God will no longer be a dream but a reality."

"But when do you expect that to happen?" I cried bitterly. "When will it come about, if ever? Perhaps it's just a dream and nothing more."

"So you don't believe yourself, " he answered, "in the things you preach to others. Let me tell you, then, that this dream, as you call it, will most certainly come true. You may rest assured of that, but it will not happen immediately, because everything that happens in the world is controlled by its own set of laws. In this case, it is a psychological matter, a state of mind. In order to change the world, man's way of thinking must be changed. Thus, there can be no brotherhood of men before all men become each other's brothers. There is no science, no order based on the pursuit of material gain, that will enable men to share their goods fairly and to respect each other's rights. There will never be enough to satisfy everyone; men will always be envious of their neighbors and will always destroy one another. So to your question when heaven on earth will come about, I can only promise you that it will come without fail, but first the period of man's isolation must come to an end."

"What isolation?" I asked him.

"The isolation that you find everywhere, particularly in your age. But it won't come to an end right now, because the time has not yet come. Today everyone asserts his own personality and strives to live a full life as an individual. But these efforts lead not to a full life, but to suicide, because, instead of realizing his personality, man only slips into total isolation. For in our age mankind has been broken up into self-contained individuals, each of whom retreats into his lair, trying to stay away from the rest, hiding himself and his belongings from the rest of mankind, and finally isolating himself from people and the people from him. And, while he accumulates material wealth in his isolation, he thinks with satisfaction how mighty and secure he has become, because he is mad and cannot see that the more goods he accumulates, the deeper he sinks into suicidal impotence. The reason fo rthis is that hshas become accustomed to relying only on himself; he has split off from the whole and become an isolated unit; he has trained his soul not to rely on human help, not to believe in men and mankind, and only to worry that the wealth and privileges he has accumulated may get lost. Everywhere men today are turning scornfully away from the ttruth that the security of the individual cannot be achieved by his isolated efforts but only by mankind as a whole.

"But an end to this fearful isolation is bound to come and all men will understand how unnatural it was for them to have isolated themselves from one another. This will be the spirit of the new era and people will look back in amazement at the past, when they sat in darkness and refused to see the light. And it is then that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens... But until that day we must keep hope alive, and now and then a man must set an example, if only an isolated one, by trying to lift his soul out of its isolation and offering it up in an act of brotherly communion, to keep the great idea alive.

I can tell you there is a huge amount of isolation in the community where I live. People shun one another, not even necessarily out of fear, but out of habit, not questioning their own actions, assuming it's for good reason, vaguely reminding themselves on occasion that the world is getting worse.

The world is getting worse, it is a result of thinking that 'everything is permitted' which by the way is a recurring theme in the book. People these days seem to have seriously adopted that mentality, that everything is permitted, and the isolation and unfriendliness is really distrust and suspicion; they feel justified in acting however they want though it may encroach on others, and they fear reproach. Because everything is permitted, who are you to reproach me?