Money can buy most of what most people desire. Is this because money can buy most desirable things, or because most people want only things that money can buy? Are we trapped in a positive feedback loop of humanity creating artificial needs and then fulfilling them? The situation seems to be analogous to science's tendency to focus on what can be demonstrated empirically and ignoring the spiritual unseen which it is powerless to explain; here, capitalism focuses on that which can be created and consumed and as a result non-material needs tend to get disregarded.
posted by howtolive.org at
2:45 PM
3 Comments:
Aren't you assuming most people know what they truly desire? I for one didn't know what I desired until after many years of my adult life had passed. Of course, I'm more stubborn than most. I've noticed that people like to sound wise by saying "Money can't buy happiness|love|joy|peace|whatever" but then they go to great lengths to avoid thinking about how to get that thing that money can't buy. People don't try to buy their happiness - they try to buy their numbness. Buy enough stuff, stay busy enough, dedicate yourself to a cause, avoid heartbreak and pain, and if you're lucky enough to slide through life without any major tragedies you can go your whole life without ever contemplating how to fill that hole in your soul. And modernity makes life so comfortable and easy that it's increasingly possible for more and more folks to do that. Look at Europe for example. Maybe the numbness is what people really are after. I applaud you, Mr. How To Live, for trying to figure it out when nothing is forcing you to. I went looking a few years ago and found the answer in the most unexpected of places. But more on that later.
By
Barnabas, at 8:01 PM
Excellent points! I agree with everything you said, with one small exception, which I think is just a semantic difference. You're right that I was assuming most people know what they desire. When people say "I don't know what I want", I think they really mean "I don't know what would make me happy/content/fulfilled/joyous/etc" or "I don't know what I should want"; my use of the word "desires" was meant to imply conscious desires that they already have and are aware of. Having said that, I totally agree with your point that most people, upon discovering that money doesn't buy the happiness they thought it would, don't explore other routes to that happiness, and instead fill their lives with "creature comforts" that abound in modern life. Thanks for the post!
By
howtolive.org, at 3:48 PM
Hello. Just found this site now (22/8/09) thanks to my emptiness so I thought I'd start reading from the beginning...
Money *can* buy a 'layer' of happiness and contentment - think of it as a topsoil above the bedrock/subsoil (the fundamental happiness of being).
Unfortunately people without this fundamental contentment assume that money will buy it through superfluous purchases. It's not their fault - as a society we're not guided to realise this or we never analyse our lives, and we just plod on.
Barnabas' comment on 'buying numbness' is an exception rather than the rule. Not sure where Europe fits into it, what with me being from London.
Your 'Read This First' article mentions the Socrates quote: "The unexamined life is not worth living." This self-analysis requires a degree of open-mindedness, a questioning mind, and perhaps an intangible goal orientation to achieve this contentment. Not everyone is inclined this way - I am which is why I quit the rat-race and am turning my whole life around. 'But more on that later.'
There are plenty of ways to spend money for happiness. The best way I can think of is to give it away to charity for someone else's quality of life... And then maybe a Lamborghini - that'll keep me happy for ages and you can't take that away from me!
By
Poppadom Dave, at 5:24 PM
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