I want your XBox…
The crowds forcing their way into stores on Black Friday or Blue Thursday confirmed my prescient labeling of Thanksgiving and the day after as black-and-blue events. People fought and were trampled, shots were fired, pepper-spray was used—it was as if we were in Egypt but with consumerism as the goal, not democracy. What do people outside the U.S. think of us when we become so mesmerized by the ownership of goods? “I want your Xbox!” or “That’s my wide-screen TV” takes the place of “Down with the military junta!” or “Out with dictator X!”
Have we become slaves to our possessions? I know people who really don’t watch many movies but they absolutely must have the latest in surround-sound systems and wide-screen TVs. Other people have the latest sound system and then hook up their iPod to it. Don’t they know that all compression schemes are lossy? You’ll never be able to hear the marvelous dynamic range of a Cesar Franck pipe organ piece. In particular, those little Bose speakers will never produce bass notes that set your entrails a’floppin.
Of course, there are those who have a five thousand dollar sound system and use it in combination with their three thousand dollar wide-screen to watch football games. They like to hear the thud of helmet against helmet as another concussion victim is added to the tally. Many of these same people probably have a Lexus or Mercedes sitting in the driveway—maybe several. You don’t have to be part of that infamous 1% to do this either. The family just has to have Mom and Dad working at fairly good jobs and defining the quality of their lives in function of their materialistic possessions. The GOP would probably applaud such people as patriots, although rabid consumerism is probably a bipartisan sport.
I realize that people don’t often give much thought to this. Sometimes it’s a matter of convenience. They’ll extol the virtues of fine food and drink but still go through the Burger King drive-thru. Yep, I’ve seen both a Mercedes and a BMW in the drive-thru at Burger King. Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were ordering salads? I myself go the chicken sandwich and side salad route, but I drive a ten-year-old car so I don’t count in these statistics. My stereo system is old and works just fine—I can actually hear (feel?) 16 Hz pipe organ notes through my speakers! Beat that, iPod or Bose!
Most people are living contradictions. They’ll say one thing and do another. They’ll look for bargains by visiting multiple grocery stores, ignoring the fact that any money saved using those coupons on such a safari evaporates into thin air when we consider the gas used and the wear and tear on the vehicle (especially with the potholes in the tri-state area that multiply like salmonella). Add a few traffic and parking tickets because you’re driving that Mercedes or BMW too fast and the whole thing starts to be absurd.
I also chuckle at the “I-possess-more-so-I’m-better” attitude. The guy behind me in his Lexus thinks he owns the road even though I’m in the slow lane driving at the speed limit. The guy in the wine shop looks down his nose at my two bottles of Shiraz as he puts up a case of Cabernet where each bottle is at least three times the price (as an ex-patriot of the great Pacific nation of California, I know it’s not three times as good). It seems that consumer spending and snootiness walk hand-in-hand these days.
Do you measure yourself by your possessions? I know people, for example, that plaster their office or den wall with their diplomas. A college degree is an expensive possession, more expensive than most cars and comparable with a down payment on a house. Parents struggle to send their Joannie or Johnnie to the “best schools” without realizing that (1) as an undergraduate J or J will do just as well (read: learn just as much) in the local state university; and (2) if J or J are motivated enough (and why waste money if they aren’t?), graduate school is the time to find the best school for a particular graduate discipline.
A diploma never tells me whether the person receiving it is an intelligent, creative person. In fact, I’ve met people with diplomas covering an entire wall that are certifiably insane. A diploma from Harvard or Yale, especially at the undergraduate level, signifies little, as some recent U.S. presidents have shown. Yet possessing a diploma is yet another aspect of consumerism. And where the diploma originated only tells me how much you and/or your parents were willing to pay to own it. It was always the last thing I looked at on a resume. A diploma is a union card of sorts—what you do in the jobs afterward (or before, if you have work experience or are a veteran) is far more important.
We live to consume and define ourselves by our consumption in our society. That $200k diploma from Harvard is still perceived to mean that the person is ten times better than one who struggled through a night program in a state university while working a full-time job. Hospitals and big corporate law firms are full of people who are there because their families have been rewarded for conspicuous consumption. These people and their families are not bad—they’re just misguided. Moreover, they set the bar for people with lesser means and effectively close the door to better and more motivated employees.
There is a distinction, of course, between pride of ownership and rabid consumerism. The family that works hard to have some comfort and luxuries in their daily living ranks higher on my list than someone who hasn’t made his money through honest work and yet consumes at a high rate. A decent person might have a few luxuries but he doesn’t rub other people’s face in them. That guy driving his Mercedes to work with five buddies during his car-pool week is higher on my list than the Wall Street banker who has a chauffeur to drive him in a similar Mercedes. Especially if the Mercedes is a diesel (I don’t know if they make a hybrid or electric).
Often in this blog, I have arrived at the conclusion that it’s all about priorities. If your priority in life is to own and consume, and you define your life through ownership and consumption, you have a sad, sad life. The adage “you can’t take it with you” is very a propos to your case. Think about that as you go into the holidays and feel the urge to make that mad dash into Macy’s, Best Buy, or Wal-Marts for the latest and greatest gizmos that will adorn your electronic trophy case. Think about it even more when you’re about to consume at a higher level—a car, a house, a college education. There’s a lot more to life than owning things. You’re only here on this planet once—think about where you place your priorities.
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Ebook holiday sale! OK, you say you want to consume? It’s patriotic to support local mom and pop U.S. industries and I’m one of those that happens to produce books (who said manufacturing is dead?). Books are not expensive gifts (they cost a lot less than a wide-screen TV) and they aren’t passive entertainment that turns your mind to mush like TV or Netflix. I dare you to read any of my books without interacting with the plot or the characters in a way you will never experience on TV. All my books are sci-fi thrillers that make you think. Some are on sale for the holidays—see “Steve’s Writing” page for a Smashwords coupon for Full Medical ($2 off)…now you can have the entire “Clones and Mutants Series” for $5.98 (Full Medical + Evil Agenda). These are books for your favorite conspiracy theorist on your gift list.
Or, maybe your holiday spirit urges you to give to deserving charities? If so, support indie authors—they’re providing you with inexpensive entertainment to whittle away at those recession blues. (Yeah, I know, most indie authors aren’t charity cases, but allow me a bit of exaggeration here.) Their best is equal to anything the Big Six (those publishing companies that place full-page ads in the NY Times, for example—talk about conspicuous consumerism!) put out and is usually priced more competitively. For example, check out my other eBook prices…all under $10.00, at your favorite eBook online retailer. And if you prefer trade paperbooks, I have those too. Buy American…buy indie! You’ll get more bang for your book (in my case, literally—that’s the thriller part of sci-fi thriller). Exercise your mind this holiday season! Your mind will thank you. Indie authors will thank you.
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[Note: This post was postponed from Tuesday. I felt the news on Senate Bill 1867 was more important. Did you write your Senators?]
