What are we doing?

I was ambulating through Office Depot last night as I shopped for pens, paper, and pleasantry, and I observed a son arguing with his mother over why he needed a particular expensive backpack and not the one she was suggesting.

My first thought was of reminiscence of my own maternal arguments. My second thought was of pure insanity, however, and I did all I could to not laugh. Here standing before me with only a scant 50 or 60 years left was this overweight child arguing about a material thing that he would most likely throw out in a few years and forget about by the time he reached 11th grade.

Office Depot really put things in perspective.

Material goods seem to define modern societies status. The man capable of performing beautiful arias with a single instrument is set to the gutter in favor of the much less talented nabob with a large house and an over priced car that screams 'look at me.' Much the same way as the overweight adolescent believes that the expensive backpack will make him more acceptable to his society; when in fact, he was outcast the moment he was born to a lower class with less money.

In the midst of all this material goods talk, I realize something that is just utterly ridiculous in its concept but holds true for every example I put to it. Society hasn't changed at all. From the filth ridden streets of feudal Europe to the modern high-rise expanse of the Big Apple, a person's place in this world is purely based on their material status and that has been translated to the belief that acquired goods will raise a person's status and then finally, amidst the cultural and industrial revolution of the modern era, crass consumerism.

Happiness is another problem that faces today's society. Happiness has been linked to material wealth. A child's belief that an Xbox360 will make them happy is a false one. Throughout the child's life, he or she has been trained surreptitiously from family, friends, neighbors, TV personalities, movies, et cetera, that the newest gaming platform or the newest clothes will make him or her happy or will bestow more attention upon him or her through the adoration of those around him or her and that attention will make him or her happier, because being cool and loved by society is vitally important for happiness, right? Wrong. The Xbox360 might bring adoration and friends down upon that young child, but its the fleeting superficial kind; and when the newest Halo game comes out and that child doesn't have it, but another kid does, that child is suddenly going to find him or herself alone with their Xbox360 and three friendless controllers lying on his bedroom floor. That is, until they buy the newest Gears of War game and that kid with the Halo game will have three friendless controllers lying on their floor, and the consumer cycle continues because happiness is just a purchase away.

So, lets throw away all our clothes and our material offal and run naked through the trees spreading peace and love throughout the land. No, I intensly dislike hippies. Material goods do bring some measure of happiness, but its the kind of happiness that comes from the experience gained with their use. Buying a large TV isn't a bad thing, but the TV itself isn't happiness; happiness is from those sitting around you and the fact that you don't have to sit in each other's lap in order to see a little tiny screen. The Xbox360 isn't happiness either, but rather who is sitting around you playing with you.

This is hard thing to remember in today's society, where the swipe of a card can bring frisson so intense, that people can spend a whole day doing it. But, like drugs, the high only lasts so long and soon your back swiping again and again and again, until your life becomes an endless cycle of earn and spend and you are left with a pile of junk and no time or money to enjoy any of it.

So, what exactly has Office Depot taught me? Material goods are a false idol of happiness and societies happiness is a drug that must be purchased day in and day out. Makes me look back on my life and really realize what a waste of time and money most of it was.