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When we’re dissatisfied with our possessions, we’re dissatisfied of ourselves

What drives our consumerist desires and wants?

Boredom and dissatisfaction of ourselves.

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For example, when I’m the most idle, bored, and dissatisfied in general — this is when I start spending too much time on the Apple website and think about buying new stuff. This is my theory:

Our possessions are our external selves. We see our possessions as external appendages of ourselves.

This is why we want the newest iPhone — to augment ourselves. The new iPhone is a symbol of gaining a new limb, or perhaps augmenting our own pre-existing limbs, to become better, stronger, faster, and more powerful.

We want more powerful devices, tools, and things in order to feel more powerful.

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Is it bad to be dissatisfied in ourselves?

It depends. If your dissatisfaction spurs you to action, dissatisfaction is good. If dissatisfaction subjects you into “learned helplessness”, dissatisfaction is bad.

Will buying new things cure your boredom?

I don’t think so. To cure our boredom, we must act. We must become more active, do more things, explore more, dare more, make more art, photograph more, experience more, and become more!

The cure is action!

Eric