Being Owned By Your Possessions

Hey Jessumors

Consuming and accumulating is the oder of the day, its what we've reduced our lives to, a game of cash grab and see who can accumulate the most stuff before they die. Most people have a wishlist of things they want to buy or items they would like to replace or upgrade. It's probably the most benign of the vices we all have but doesn't make it any less of a vice.

What once stemmed from a need for survival and improving your standard of living has become a toxic shackle for many overextended people. There are entire companies worth billions devoted to assisting us to organise or store the stuff we already have.

It’s easy to get into a spiral of spending money on items, and then spending money to store or organize them so that we can make room for even more.

Image source: - Medium

Hoarding Hordes

The best way to turn non-sensical behaviour into acceptable behaviour is by getting the masses behind it. The more everyone does it, the more it becomes normalised even if it's not in your best interest. We all come into this world ready to learn and looking for answers. We look around us and we see what we think is an example of happiness and we try to mimic it.

Then we find ways to justify ever single need with some sort of rationality. It's a level of inception like no other. We sell ourselves on the idea and who would be better at selling you on something than yourself.

More or less

The world is focused so intensely on growth and not on sustainability and these ideals have filtered down to the individual. We're always wanting more, more stuff makes us more successful and makes us happier.

This drive for excess shows in the level of disparity between the haves and the have nots. It shows in the way the middle-class fight tooth and nail with their disposable income to compete with one another.
It shows in the number of trickle-up economic policies and business practices that help funnel wealth to a select few.

Modern-day consumerism is the most elaborate pyramid scheme the world has ever devised and we're all in on it.

We accept it as part and parcel of how we live a fulfilling life.

Ties to our things

Once we accumulate stuff of value we then try to protect it, we secure our homes, our values and add insurance in case that is not enough. We freak out if something of ours is damaged, lost or stolen. We tie our emotions, our pride, our value and even our physical location to the protection of these things we really do not need.

While we think we own these inanimate objects, we do not consider how much of it owns us. I'm not saying you can't like nice things and buy things that bring you joy. I'm just saying we should be more conscious and considerate of the things we purchase and why we purchase them.

To not give it so much power over us.

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