GroupWBench

George Carlin had some astute observations. This is one of his best. We finished moving out of the house last weekend and are settling into the new, much smaller, space now. We still have boxes of stuff. Stuff we (mostly me) couldn't quite let go of yet. Stuff that we really will need at some point and need to store away. Stuff we use day to day but don't really need. Even downsized as hard as we have, we have too much stuff. If we ever get a boat to live and go away on, we'll have to downsize by 90% again.

Stuff owns you more than you own it. We are thoroughly trained to buy stuff by society. Overtly, we are bombarded with advertising for stuff. The stuff we buy is engineered to not last long – either through breaking or by committing the crime of being unfashionable. Then there are the sneaky social pressures like conspicuous consumption. You gotta have the right brand of stuff to be cool. Breaking that conditioning is not simple, but I think it will be far healthier in the long run for us to be rid of a bunch of stuff. Selling the house and getting rid of a lot of stuff felt pretty good. We are well on the way to being lean, agile, and slightly unfashionable. Take that society.