Advises on how to live a simple life (socialy)

4 Antworten [Letzter Beitrag]
jules_verne
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Beigetreten: 01/02/2017

For what I read in this forum, most users, like me, share a likeness for not only free software
but for what I would call a "simple life".
By simple life, I mean that many of you are aware of the harms that consumerism causes.

We buy expensive poor quality objects that we neither enjoy nor care and dispose of it as quick as we bought using our credit card. I shouldn't use "We", for I don't. And I am sure that many of you neither.

My problem arises not from me, but from those near me. Many people I hold dear are shopping maniacs...
It troubles and annoys me. It makes me grim (I try to hide it) but it is becoming a problem... I don't feel comfortable around this "bloated" life... And am tired of explaining why I don't have neither will have "ithings", even thought it can picture things in higher DPI than my eyes could perceive or measure things using a camera (feel the irony).

I am a simple person and I do enjoy the simple things in life... A beer, a good music and the feeling of moist grass under my feet.

I enjoy spending time outside, camping (dealing the minimal impact as possible in the wilderness), I enjoy building a fire and talking, I enjoy the sun beating down on my cheeks and the rain pouring down my hair.
In the other hand the people I like would get ill by staying close to a fire and get a cold from getting wet.

The whole scenario is frustrating indeed.

Do you feel the same about your friends? Have you ever felt like this? How did you manage to get past the frustration?

onpon4
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Beigetreten: 05/30/2012

Is it that your friends like going shopping but you don't? Or is it just that you feel pressured to spend money when you don't want to?

If it's the former, maybe suggest every once in a while something else that you would rather do. Of course, it's a two way street, so I would put up with the shopping trips at least some of the time even if it's not your cup of tea; just take the time to relax and socialize, try to enjoy yourself as much as you can. Your friends might be doing things they don't particularly like so you can do what you want to some of the time, too.

If you feel pressured to spend money, on the other hand, just make yourself clear that you're just along to socialize and don't plan on buying anything. Eventually they will accept that.

In any case, remember not to worry too much about what your friends are doing or spending their money on. It's their money, their choice, and you don't need to let it affect you.

As for having to explain yourself, just stop explaining yourself and just say "I don't want it" or "I'm not interested in it". That's what I usually say when people ask why I don't have a cell phone.

> In the other hand the people I like would get ill by staying close to a fire and get a cold from getting wet.

The idea of water or the cold making you sick is actually incorrect. It's staying indoors all the time, usually prompted by cold weather, that causes viruses to spread more easily. Just an interesting fact. ;)

SuperTramp83

I am a translator!

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Beigetreten: 10/31/2014

>We buy expensive poor quality objects that we neither enjoy nor care and dispose of it as quick as we bought using our credit card

The goal for the corporations is to maximise profit and market share. And they also have a goal for their target, namely the population. They have to be turned into completely mindless consumers of goods that they do not want. You have to develop what are called "Creative Wants". So you have to create wants. You have to impose on people what's called a Philosophy of Futility. You have to focus them on the insignificant things of life, like fashionable consumption. I'm just basically quoting business literature. And it makes perfect sense. The ideal is to have individuals who are totally disassociated from one another. Whose conception of themselves, the sense of value is just, "how many created wants can I satisfy?" We have huge industries, public relations industry, monstrous industry, advertising and so on, which are designed from infancy to mold people into this desired pattern.

Noam Chomsky

>Do you feel the same about your friends?

Of course

>Have you ever felt like this?

Almost all the time.

>How did you manage to get past the frustration?

By being alone, enjoying loneliness. There are two kinds of loneliness: the imposed one and the one you chose. The first one is not good. The second helps you find yourself and develop your inner magic.
Music, art, computers, weeed, whatever floats your boat help too.

Unfortunately it would seem capitalism has managed to kill man. It's no surprise. Only the shell is left. And it needs constant filling. Tons of coca-cola and chewing gum.

jules_verne
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Beigetreten: 01/02/2017

Thank you all for the responses.
I really appreciate it.

nadebula.1984
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Beigetreten: 05/01/2018

I'm against consumerism, but I'm even more against natalism. My belief(s):

Don't have children. (There are already too many population on the earth, not too few.)
Don't buy something unless you desperately need it.

Because capitalists prey on profits, refusing to spend excess money can be a sound blow to capitalism itself.