I Want Everything
Sep. 15th, 2004 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatIn a dream last night, I had some kind of flying machine, sort of like the one I gave to Dr. Vell, the villain in a few of my Oz stories. It was sort of an open hovercar, operating like an automobile but not looking much like one. A cop gave me a ticket for something, but I don't think he was at all surprised that I had a flying vehicle. It would be cool to have one of those in real life.
Speaking of wanting stuff, I've been wondering if I'm a materialistic person. It sometimes seems like being anti-materialistic comes with being an anti-capitalistic, anti-war, free-thinking liberal wacko, but I like getting stuff, and I don't think wanting material possessions is bad in and of itself. I won't say that someone with, say, a computer is necessarily happier than someone without one, but I'd be lying if I said having a computer didn't often make me happy. (Of course, it also makes me really angry sometimes. It's a real love-hate relationship, or something. But I digress.) I think problems tend to come in more because of competition (the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality, and getting things not because you actually want them, but because other people do, and you have to outdo them) and valuing money for money's sake more than simple material desires. I'm all for more equal distribution of wealth, but it just seems like, in a rich society such as ours, everybody who wants one should be able to have, say, a Game Boy Advance and a big-screen TV. (Keep in mind that not everybody WANTS these things, and I'm certainly not advocating forcing them on people, like it's some kind of cautionary science fiction story.) I guess I don't know really the economic logistics, though.
Speaking of wanting stuff, I've been wondering if I'm a materialistic person. It sometimes seems like being anti-materialistic comes with being an anti-capitalistic, anti-war, free-thinking liberal wacko, but I like getting stuff, and I don't think wanting material possessions is bad in and of itself. I won't say that someone with, say, a computer is necessarily happier than someone without one, but I'd be lying if I said having a computer didn't often make me happy. (Of course, it also makes me really angry sometimes. It's a real love-hate relationship, or something. But I digress.) I think problems tend to come in more because of competition (the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality, and getting things not because you actually want them, but because other people do, and you have to outdo them) and valuing money for money's sake more than simple material desires. I'm all for more equal distribution of wealth, but it just seems like, in a rich society such as ours, everybody who wants one should be able to have, say, a Game Boy Advance and a big-screen TV. (Keep in mind that not everybody WANTS these things, and I'm certainly not advocating forcing them on people, like it's some kind of cautionary science fiction story.) I guess I don't know really the economic logistics, though.
