Worshipping Possessions.

 

 Worshipping Possessions.

Two thousand years ago, gifts were amazingly expensive. There is a good list in the Christian Gospels around the story of the first Christmas. We have reasonable accounts of gifts from archeology and even written history. The most valuable goods were those from faraway countries and were imported by merchant caravans over long distances, often defended by armed servants riding camels, horses, and donkeys for months at a time. Silver and gold made into intricate jewelry, spices, and incense topped the list. There were fine textiles, with silk being the most coveted: ivory carvings, rare gems, iron weapons crafted by one-of-a-kind masters, and pearls. Herds of livestock and slaves fetched a good price as well. Pretty young maidens, even from one’s own family, were often traded, sometimes for salt or tea. Humans valued material possessions and gained favors by giving gifts.

I just spent almost three years in isolation, not because it was mandated by the government but strongly recommended by my physician and a specialist. Amazingly, I discovered I could be thrilled with life without shopping. I never realized how much time and money I was devoting to buying stuff I didn’t need and getting rid of the garbage soon after. Johnny the barber told me I was spending money on junk, but I didn’t believe him at the time.

There is an interesting new book on the market by Paul Berton, the son of the famous Canadian author Pierre Berton, titled Shopomenia. It deals with our obsession, or better, our addiction, to possessing things. There is definitely an attempt here to have us contemplate some of our primary motivations in life. It deals with the psychological aspect of shopping. “We shop because we are happy, we shop because we are sad.” We shop to be accepted and keep up with the neighbors.

Borrowing money and shopping is not bad. It is the grease that moves the wheels of our economy. We demand that all people will work for their pay and regularly try to make others do more work for less pay, but expect them to shop for services and goods. It starts with the raw materials. Humans mine or grow them. The product is transported, refined, and shaped to become consumer goods. Packaging design and manufacturing are added, marketing takes place, and storage plus delivery to retail locations completes the picture. The item is taxed, and the wages that were invested in it are also taxed. This ensures a great deal of employment and profit-making.

The entire system works wonderfully well if we ignore some glaring problems. It is unsustainable. It is based on addiction to things and money. Money translates to power. Most of those who contribute do so for low returns and hardly any acknowledgment, while very few reap the most rewards. The miners, farmers, drivers, and salespeople, to name a few, find it hard to have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, while those who do the least work are drowning in riches. We can all see them owning many mansions and all other symbols of plenty. Stories about people owning hundreds of pairs of shoes, hundreds of expensive cars, yachts, and mansions are often not just fake news. The systematic cheating of workers and on taxes is true as well.

Why do people feel a need for so much stuff is another question not easily answered. I guess that is why we pray, “lead us not into temptation.” Paul Berton answers it with “people like stuff”. He gives an example about a family he stayed with, in the Himalayas, northern India. They had no manufactured toys, TV, games, or puzzles, and had very little furniture, or any other western-made items. As far as he remembers, they were some of the happiest people he ever met. He also remembers people who won the lottery, some millions of dollars. So many used up their winnings very fast and had nothing to show for it. One said, “Life has more meaning when you are not shopping.”

Now we have new ways of shopping, like over the internet. Many of us realize it can easily become a risk to our existence when overdone. The cheap unneeded goods, packaging, advertising materials, transport, storage, and energy used for manufacturing, are all together threatening our existence on the planet. I am excluding overeating, related pollution, make feel-good drugs, as well as artificial beauty achieved by cosmetics. A little is great, but we don’t use only what we need. We go overboard.

The world has changed significantly in the last few years. Wars are raging, natural disasters are more severe. There is a lot of suffering and all can see it on electronic screens. We would be foolish to ignore the signs, and “Positive thinking” will not save us. We must learn self-control and empathy. Not doing so is not weakness but stupidity. This is a Christmas like no other coming our way. There is a new meaning to the old prayer, “Deliver us from evil.”

Evil brings suffering and love brings joy to those who give it and those who receive it. That’s the Simple Raven’s way of thinking.

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