Comments | cadence_seeker: "See. Want. Have." and Other Signs

cadence_seeker

"See. Want. Have." and Other Signs

Apr 24, 2006 11:29

The inability to delay gratification has been a well-known increasing trend in the last two decades of American culture. The need for instant gratification has been blamed for the obesity epidemic, rampant consumerism, and the dwindling size of our professional classes, among other things. In my daily musings, I wondered to myself, how does our ( Read more... )

Comments 3

happygophucky April 24 2006, 18:28:43 UTC

I see this as the basis of the Sims games. I bought one of them, played for like a week and then got sick of them completely. It seemed like the only way to make the Sims happy was to accquire money and toys for them. If they didn't have those things then they were cranky and boring. I ended up playing to kill them for the last two days... and then I just threw the game out.

Right now I am contemplating just throwing out the majority of my possessions (save for mojo's things) and starting over. I feel like all of the things i have are just suffocating me... then again I have to find a smaller place to live for next year anyway, so disposing of all of my crap would be a blessing.

Interesting post.

cadence_seeker April 24 2006, 20:46:15 UTC

That's funny, because I had exactly the same problem with that game - I think it's currently collecting dust somewhere in my apartment.

Throwing out all your worldly baggage can be really cathartic. Reminds me of a line from from Fight Club: "Only after disaster can we be resurrected."

Thanks. :)

America the fearful otaku_hamster April 26 2006, 13:50:19 UTC

Desire, or fear if you choose to view it that way, drives us through all of our interactions. Many of these desires are taught to us from a young age, and among the first in this society is to charge ahead, no time to wait! Unlike eating, acquiring a television can wait a week or two; it's not the end of the world. But try telling that to the person who just found out the model they want is on back order and it will take that long to arrive! People in this culture at this time feel that waiting is a sign of weakness and lower status. The rich, popular, beloved get what they want when they want it and the poor, unpopular, unloved must wait for the scraps ( ... )