Sabbath 18: Meeegan's post, Tripp's post
I think Muller gets to the point he wants to make for this chapter rather towards the end: "Happiness is the single commodity not produced by the free-market economy." He goes on to say that when we are happy, we don't feel the need to buy anything, and that the Sabbath is supposed to be a day of delight, a day of being "at peace with all we have" rather than yearning for more.
Muller points out that the United States (most of his assumed audience) leads the world in consumption, and if the rest of the world followed our example we'd denude the planet in incredibly short order.
To get there, though, he goes in a direction I just can't follow. He says that we now follow a gospel of mass consumption, as in, consumption will make you happy. He hints that there's some kind of huge dark big-brother conspiracy among manufacturers to promote this gospel (either that, or he anthropomorphizes "the market" and says that the market has made greed the essential human impulse).
Um... no.
Basically, this week's chapter sounded like a warning against conspicuous consumption (and I happen to agree with him on that, by the way) that Muller has force-fit into the ongoing theme of Sabbath rest.
I also disagree with his basic premise in this chapter: that money can't buy happiness. Yes, it can! Maybe I should draw a distinction between two situations: poverty, or a paycheck-to-paycheck existence, versus a certain financial stability. I know of nobody who has come from the first to the second who isn't far happier in the latter condition. But to draw the distinction between comfortable and rich... Muller might have a point there.
If we say that money can't buy happiness, then are we saying that global poverty means that most of the people in the world are happy, and we should leave them alone? Of course not!
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Muller's suggested exercise this week sounded interesting: go to a favorite store, one where you particularly enjoy shopping. Walk around for an hour in that store, but do it knowing you're not going to buy anything. Pay attention to how you feel. Let yourself feel the tug of buying. Listen to the things tell you "you want me, you would be happier if you had me." Walk away, hopefully free of the impulse to buy things, feeling a sense of sufficiency.
Okay, this sounded interesting in principle. But, I'll admit ahead of time, I haven't done it yet. We've had multiple house guests for the last week, and I haven't spent an hour on his exercise. I'll try to do it, but I'm not sure how much help it's going to be for me, because I don't really enjoy shopping in the first place. I don't wander and look at random things. I'm not even sure what store I should go to for the exercise. (A bookstore, probably) I'm also skeptical that the exercise would make me more frustrated rather than more rested. We'll see how Megan and Tripp do with it.
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6 comments:
since I hate shopping I don't think there would be a tug to buy but a tug to get out of there.
I do agree that money can't buy happiness, but it can alleviate the ghastliness of poverty. There's a huge difference.
I posted my response to your musings on my own blog. This is good stuff, Cristopher. I disagree with how you read Wayne this week, but it is good stuff nonetheless.
I see what you're saying, and I posted my response to your question about the exercise this morning.
Are you comfortable discussing how you are guiding your growing child to think about money and consumption and happiness?
that's a really good idea. I'll try to include it with next week's reflections.
You asked a couple of weeks ago about integrating a scientifically trained understanding of the world with an unprovable faith. I'm not ignoring you, but that's a meaty topic and I don't want to give it a trivial response. It's obviously not something I have a significant problem with... it also explains why I'm an Anglican--Anglicanism allows, nay, encouages me, to use my head. :-)
Cool, I don't feel ignored, and will wait easily for the time when that post appears!
I DO have a significant problem with it, so I look forward to seeing how you manage to sidestep the problem.
"the market has made greed the essential human impulse"
The market doesn't make it so. The market is because it is so. In other words, it is the essential human impulse. That's tenet number one of "the market."
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