A Material World

Page 418, Directed Freewrite #1

Imagine a world without material possessions. It’s hard, isn’t it? Without materialism, the world would not be the world as we know it. Slowly but surely, the commercial market has taken over America by storm. Our society has increased its productivity of such things rapidly throughout the past century. In the essay “Two Cheers for Materialism” by James Twitchell, he explains how materialism doesn’t always have negative effects. Although there are always two sides to every argument, I also agree with him. Yes, materialism can truly possess and consume a person so much to a point, but at the same time I believe that our society would not be the society it is today without these material possessions.

Back in the day, the French once described us Americans as “a nation of shopkeepers” (Twitchell 389). Compared to Europe, we seem to consume our time by spending money. In fact, Americans tend to shop three to four times as many hours as Europeans (Twitchell 389). It seems as if we are the only country who does prize itself on consumer products; we are always in a race of who can produce more efficient and advanced technology. However, sooner or later we are going to need to have to “acknowledge the uncomfortable fact that this amoral consumerama has proved potent because human beings love things” (Twitchell 389).

Stanley Lebergott, an economist at Wesleyan University, once argued that most Americans have spent their way to happiness (Twitchell 392). Not only has consumer products provided a sort of temporary happiness to humans, but it also has been blamed for the rise of eating disorders, depression, corruption of politics, and the spread of “affluenza” (Twitchell 390). It has also glorified holidays such as Christmas, or events like birthdays. Without such gifts, what would those holidays be like? I almost want to believe that they wouldn’t exist. Or maybe they would, but they just wouldn’t be that fun. It’s sort of pathetic in a way to think about how much our culture relies on such things, but then again, I could not imagine our life without them.

It’s clearly obvious that we Americans love things as well as live for things. By “things” I mean material possessions. Without such “things” we would not live in the world as we know it. The world would still exist, yes, but what would there be without materialism? Life would be boring; life would be bland. Although there are many negative affects with consumer products, I still believe that there is some good that comes out of it. For instance, without such things, we would not be able to perform everyday tasks such as cleaning our house or keeping in touch with friends with the newest technology. Yes life would be simpler, but it’s 2009, what else do you expect? It’s true, with age things do get better and with time we are able to produce more efficient items in mass quantity in our consumer market. I also believe that such facts of materialism affecting politics, happiness, etc. all just depends on each individual person. We are each our own person, so we are able to withstand and not let materialism consume our lives. I believe we can still enjoy life as we know it, as long as we do not let material things consume us completely. With our knowledge expanding we are creating more and more things in order to make each and every day easier. We should be applauding materialism.