I had issues logging in from my desktop this morning, so this post is late. My apologies.
The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.”
-Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
This may seem a bit strange for a stoicism quote, but in my opinion this is something we should value. Only own that which is necessary for life. Things you don't need only exist to distract you from reaching your full potential. Spending all of your time playing video games is not helping you or your community improve. Do you NEED a 12 bedroom house with a 5 car garage? Only if you have 20 kids. And if your home is that big, you are going to spend a ton of time and money on maintenance, and for what? Instead you could live in a small home that requires a smaller investment in time/money,and only have the items you truly need, and you can spend more time with the people you love or improving yourself.
I am not saying leisure and luxury should be completely dismissed, as everyone deserves to unwind at times. I simply think we spend far too much time at leisure and not enough time improving ourselves. We have been blinded by decadence and we have forgotten what is truly necessary for life.
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[–] KDs_Other_Burner 1 point 1 point 2 points (+2|-1) ago
You never need to say sorry Had. Voat is lucky to have you.
Your post was pretty thoughtful. Mass media and globalization have IMO been the main driving forces behind the rampant materialism that dominates our age. Women, in particular, have been targeted and manipulated. The western mainstream pushes the idea that you need things to be happy or that because other people have things they possess more happiness than you. It's not often talked about, but the suicide rates across the Western world show this to be simply not true. How many times does someone end their own life and we hear "....but they had it all, why would they do it?".
Although we are the dominant species on the planet, we are at the end of it all an accident of biology. And as biological creatures we have urges, needs and impulses that are not properly acknowledged or understood. Money is a poor metric for happiness or being content but it is the one that society uses. I don't foresee this changing within my own life, in fact it will get worse, but I do have faith that eventually a better balance will be achieved for all humanity.
Many thanks for the thought provoking post and quote as always. We are lucky to have you.