Material possessions, we don't have to renounce them!

[Vision]

This is just a sudden insight I had. I want to write this down before I forget about it.

We can still pursue material possessions and enjoy them without expecting happiness from them. It doesn't mean we need to renounce them altogether. 

With cars for example - we can still want to buy fancy cars without wanting to impress anyone or flaunt our success, it can literally be just because we want to experience driving them. 

Do we buy fancy cars in those video games to impress people? No! We customize our cars, make them fast and look awesome because it's fun! My reference point for this is when I played GTA V many years ago. The characters in GTA V aren't real, so it's not like I'm buying fancy cars to impress them, I'm doing it for myself, simply because it's fun to drive them. 

There will likely come a time where you naturally lose your love for material things as there are better juices to life (in theory), but I think it's counter productive to force it.

Life is like a videogame. You can treat your human self as a character that you are playing in this game we call life, and realize that you are the player, not the character. 

[aurum]

@Vision

Ironically, our materialist stage Orange society does not actually value material things very much.

That is what drives consumer culture and economic growth. You don't value or want what you have. You always want something else, something more.

So I'd say moving up the spiral from Orange to Green actually means really appreciating the material possessions we have. Which means you'll probably own "less", although it will feel like more.

Also, the desire for something like a car is extremely relative. How do you know buying a car is a good decision? What if you lived in a city with vastly different infrastructure where everything was walkable? Suddenly something that seems essential like a car might not be.

People absolutely can buy cars to impress other people. Your material wealth is completely relative to everyone around you. If everyone around you has a car, now you feel like you need one because that's what is "normal".

My point is we need to be conscious of why we are buying what we're buy. Freedom is good, but it's not a guarantee we are making conscious choices. Freedom includes the ability to be unconscious.

[Vision]

@aurum

Agreed. Often times it can be a distraction. It takes great honesty to understand why we do what we do or want to do. 

With great power, comes great responsibility - a lot of people who become successful end up losing themselves to drugs, or other forms of self-sabotaging hedonism. It's sad.