Licking the Razor's Edge (2015)

*Reason #03: GUILT …
And yet it isn’t only our culture that inspires our hoarding. Guilt is another major
contributor to our massive materialism.
Many of us work long hours and therefore have relatively little time to spend with our
loved ones. A natural consequence of this lack is the buying of presents to somehow
make up for the small amount of Quality Time that we invest in each other. The United
States has only 3.1% of the world’s children, and yet over 40% of the world’s toys …
quite the ominous statistic, really.
In addition, that same guilt often has us holding onto gifts that we don’t even use and that
we don’t even like – as though there is some unwritten code than requires us to keep a
gift forever to somehow “prove our Love” to the gift-giver.
*Reason #04: FEAR …
Fear is another powerful motivator for our over-accumulating. Americans are especially
susceptible to “doomsday” propaganda and “imminent crisis” angst. As a culture, we are
fascinated by “worst-case scenarios” and almost obsessed with being ready to face them
“just in case”.
Of course, these dangers are almost always illusory, and we end up wasting our time and
our energy and our money (and even a part of our sanity) on accumulating things to
needlessly prepare for them.
*Reason #05: HOARDING IS ADDICTIVE …
We are biologically programmed to believe that surrounding ourselves with lots things
somehow guarantees us security; a greater protection from danger in general, and once
we start doing so, our bodies then become physiologically addicted to the hormonal
“high” that we experience every time we buy something new – a “high” that is as fleeting
as it is hollow – a “high” we get whether the thing we buy is actually important or not.
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