Surely we have enough stuff? This one is from the archives. Posting it as a seasonal reminder to myself.
Some kid on Christmas Eve waiting to open his “stuff”.
’Tis the season: for plastic, for wrapping, for quantity, for abundance. It is a funny word, abundance. My 1901 dictionary defines it as “ample sufficiency.” Today’s Webster’s defines it as “more than sufficient quantity.” The former points to an appreciation of what we have; the latter speaks to our current state of overconsumption. The former indicates an abundance secured against future want; the latter, merely a quantity in excess of what is needed for the present, just stuff, all of it the same.
Our local discussion group is reading the wonderful book Larding the Lean Earth by Steven Stoll. Stoll discusses at some length a topic that has troubled me for years. Has the sheer abundance of our continent ultimately conspired to corrupt our better angels? Or were we doomed by some inner corruption, some genetic predisposition to be the bipedal locusts hoovering up all in their path?
Has this abundance destroyed our sense of wonder and beauty? William Cobbett in his curious and judgmental work The American Gardener (1817) wrote of assessing the morality of a man by how he kept his garden. George Marsh (congressman from Vermont), when he took the floor in 1848 to argue against the Mexican War, made the unusual argument that what we already had was enough for any civilization, that to grasp for more, we would risk losing the sense of what was best about where we lived. It’s an argument that seems out of place with where we journeyed and where we have ended up.
Where we have ended up is as the spoiled kid on Christmas morning, surrounded by new geegaws and already bored. Why take care of the presents when he’s been given so much and expects more? Our consumer ethic, molded by abundance, has stunted our hearts: why take care of a home when it is only a “starter” home, a spouse, land, or neighbors when they can so easily be replaced?
Cursed by an abundance of land and resources, we have fouled our nest and moved on so often that our internal landscape now mirrors our external. The sheer ugliness of our daily landscape has a corrosive effect on our spiritual and political selves. Do all the geegaws we purchase this holiday season give us any more sense of well-being?
Maybe the true act of love for our planet, our home, is to repaint, tidy the garden, repair the torn pants, patch the jacket, sweep the sidewalk, bake some bread and give it to the neighbors. Maybe less can still be more. Maybe less is still abundance.
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Reading this weekend (11-2020): Stop Reading the News, a manifesto for a happier, calmer and wiser life, (R. Dobelli). Thankfully the above post does not apply to books. Right?
I don’t know about the books, but you’ll be relieved to know that I’ve canceled all your Christmas present orders.😁
Oh, that is really thoughtful of you. I’ll get busy on the same.
That would be fine if this were *my* blog and philosophy.
Ha!
Has the sheer abundance of our continent ultimately conspired to corrupt our better angels? Or were we doomed by some inner corruption …? You answered your own question in part by pointing to historical examples of content and restraint. However, those are indeed history and no longer describe our culture, which is full of discontents, restlessness, and growing fear of loss as what abundance remains is gobbled up and held hostage rather than shared broadly. Whose inner corruption are we considering?
I’d like to say there are still avenues available for an alternative direction. W. Berry, for one, focuses his writings on the ways in which a culture can say “enough”. But I grow tired and cynical.
Brian,
I read many years ago that this nation was settled by acquisitors, people who were unsatisfied with what they had. The theory is that we are the offspring of people who want to have more-and are never satisfied. Hence, the continual addition of more mini-warehouses blighting the landscape. When asking a tractor collector which one is his favorite, the instant reply was, “The next one.” So it continues, the quest for more stuff.
Don,
I’m not sure it is still the case. But building a mini-storage warehouse business used to be a cinch to pay back any investment. In short it was easy money.
Cheers,
“Has the sheer abundance of our continent ultimately conspired to corrupt our better angels?”
I know its a hypothetical, but the answer is, yes, there’s no doubt this has occured.
Pat,
Thanks for commenting (and like the post). It is a sad consequence of our modern life that the exploration and colonization of this wonderful continent came along at the same juncture as the industrial revolution.
Cheers,
Indeed, I should really have been more specific, as its just sheer abundance, not necessarily tied to our continent, that’s had the corrupting influence. Not just here, but throughout the Western world.
With our continent, the added deceptive element is that it allowed us to convince ourselves that there’s always more, just over the horizon, and that we invented all this niftiness ourselves, rather than came into a situation in which we could ideally exploit it. But as material poverty grossly declined everywhere in the Western world following WWII, others have joined us in that.