Reformation & Consumerism

Consumerism, sounds like a strange follow up to reading, but bear with me for a while. I believe that consumerism brings us into dependence as does the lack of reading, of staying on top of what is happening within the world. You can read a Brave New World, not a world obsessed with consumerism, but with a society controlled via pleasure, which I would place consumerism under.

If you are busy buying things, keeping up with the Jones or whatever you want to call it you are not watching what is going on around you. You do not have the time to see how, what, where and why. Consumerism is a distraction that is easily applied by people who do not want you to be involved in the world around you. Do not be a useful idiot. Instead be involved with the world around you.

How much time and effort are you spending on buying ‘stuff’? How much of you salary is being spent on consuming ‘stuff’. All of this money is not spent on improving yourself and your situation but on ‘stuff’ we are told we need?

Take an inventory of what you have and what you want. Now comes the hard part, you need to decide if what you want is a ‘want’ or a ‘need’. A need is like food, you need food to live, but too much, a want, will make you unhappy as your weights increases and your health decreases. So do you need make a determination, e.g. do you need to replace that 50” plasma television with a 70” television? Maybe a bit drastic, yet I am sure that it happens.

Action

Reduce your spending by 20% and take that money to do something to improve your life. What would happen if you spent 50% on improving your life and those around you? What would happen if you took the remaining 50% and used it to reduce your debt or add to a savings?