I don't mean that I want to overthrow the government or anything like that. Neither am I a religious fanatic. Rather, I just want to simplify my life. I sometimes just want to get rid of many of my accumulated "treasures" and supposed symbols of status [of which I don't have very many of the latter.] Why? Because my apartment and my life is cluttered with a lot of stuff that no longer has any significance or value to me anymore. I like living in the present and surrounding myself with those things and people who are still very important and significant to me.
You ask, how in the world could wanting to do that be a subversive act? Not a mystery. The American economy and now the world economy depends on everyone buying lots of things, constantly. And the economy is only seen to be doing well if the level of our consumption keeps increasing over time. And things are seen to be really great if we continue to indulge ourselves in the orgy of mindless consumption of goods and services and a lot of really useless stuff.
We are taught that this is the land of liberty and that we are free to make our own choices and generally to shape our lives pretty much as we please. That is only partly true. We are a free society, to be sure. But we are confronted by our own kind of propaganda which is usually pretty blatant and less than subtle. We are merchandized to death by the advertisers trying to get us to buy everything from overbuilt luxury automobiles to toilet paper. And these ubiquitous ads have even become a form of entertainment. I will give you a very good example of that. The Superbowl will be on television this Sunday. What part of that event do most people look forward to? The new advertisements that are trotted out during that game. Does that not seem a little bizarre? It certainly does to me. Ah, well! Only in America!
Please don't get me wrong. Like most other people I really do like nice things. My favorite "Nice thing" is to go out to a really good restaurant for dinner, even if it costs an arm and a leg. It is just that with regard to all the stuff we buy... well, these things begin to take over our lives. The big questions of my life have become, "Where can I put another book? Where can I put this new cd? Where can we squeeze in the 84" big screen television set? How can I work it so I can still afford to buy that new SUV?" You know, the cosmic questions of our lives.
I don't want to get rid of everything and just start from scratch. Rather, I want to do what my daughters have be admonishing me to do for a long time: to be ruthless as I thin out my possessions. As all of you very well know, that is not an easy thing to do. We justify keeping this or that for one of two reasons. First, I don't want to get rid of item x, because I might need it someday. Second, I really should get rid of that, but it really is sort of a neat thing to have [i.e. I got it at a really good price and I kind of like it and really could not part with it... ever!] Neither justification will hold up in a court of law... believe me.
What is it going to take for me to bite the bullet and get rid of most of this unnecessary junk? First I am going to have to do an inventory of myself and my life and find the answers to a couple of really important questions.
- What is important in my life now, in terms of goals or of things I want to do?
- What things do I need to keep, in order to accomplish those goals or to do those things?
- What things do I really want and need to keep, to remember where I have been up until now in my life?
Once I have made the decision to honestly answer these questions, I will be able to determine what I really need to keep. The operant word here is "need" as opposed to "want." We want a lot of things, but we actually need only a fraction of the things we want. It will be infinitely easier to focus on the things which are really important to me. I will no longer be caught up in the deadly cycle of mindless consumption and then struggling to pay for my purchases followed by more mindless consumption to feel better about being so deeply in debt.
The very first thing I want to do, now, is to stand up in crowded room and declare, "My name is Howard Fireman and I am addicted to accumulating a lot of essentially useless stuff." From my perspective, mindless consumption of stuff is as much an addiction as is the addiction to drugs, to alcohol or to sex. The only essential difference between these addictions and that of being a dedicated consumer is that the latter is a lot more socially acceptable and actually encouraged by the guys who sell us this junk. After all, if it is good for business, it is good for the country. Isn't it?
When I will have finally made that public declaration, if I can restrain myself from giving in to the siren call of the credit card in my wallet, I will have made a giant step towards simplifying my life. I will have made my life a lot more pleasant and less stressful, by making a very logical, if difficult, decision. Of course, in doing that, I will have become a very suspect and subversive sort of person in the eyes of the fellows on the Congressional Committee for UnAmerican Economic Activities. But I know what works well for me and what doesn't work well for me. I think I will follow my gut instincts and if necessary, I will go underground for awhile, economically speaking. But at least I will be a lot happier in my life.
