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BoomerLifestyle.com commented last month on the post about Baby Boomers spending habits changing.
Love your concept that we might use this recession not only as a bellwether for change, but also as an opportunity to "reinvent ourselves as a less consumption-based society/culture."
Since you've already cut worthless expenditures, and seem to indicate we all might be able to cut our spending habits by 20% without breaking a sweat, do you have any suggestions as to how we might start doing this as a country?
You know, like the victory garden concept that became so popular during WWII?
I'd love to see a national campaign... an "all for one and one for all" kind of thing...
Here's my philosophical response:
If we asked ourselves every day, "What is the most essential?," then we would quickly eliminate the extraneous in our lives. I can define worthless expenditures" as wasted time, cheap goods, toxic people, imbalanced emotions, outworn concepts, etc.
Marketers are adept at stimulating desire through our emotions, primarily fear.
Developing discernment is the key to determining true worth and the fruits of our labor.
A Teacher once spoke of the danger of comfort. "Comfort is the coffin of the soul." I interpreted this to mean that in comfort, we can become complacent; when we are complacent, we are asleep; when we are asleep, we are open to manipulation; when we allow ourselves to be manipulated; we are as sheep.
When we are sheep, forces, that do not have our best interests at heart, will use us for their own gain.
Thus, I’ve summarized the history of mankind.
Is the returning of obscene bonuses a true sign of "all for one and one for all?" Coercion is not cooperation. True sacrifice springs from the heart and desire to do good. The word “goodwill” has a deep, esoteric meaning. Think about it.
Who is willing to sacrifice for his neighbor without thought for himself?
The material obstacles on the path of Service are not the most difficult.
When you strip away your possessions, your comforts, your ideas of what it means to be a man, ask yourself this: "Who am I now?" Can you face yourself with grace and humor?
When we broaden our consciousness, then we will have the answer.
