Consumerist withdrawal

[featherynscale]

I'm at an odd phase in the whole consumerist/anti-materialist tug-of-war.

I need a pair of tennis shoes. This is a legitimate need if I'm going to do this fencing thing, since my boots don't so much have traction on the bottom (which encourages me to slide rather than pick up my feet -- my first Bad Habit! -- and will no doubt one day trip me up, causing me to collapse in a heap with my foil up my nose). So I think I'll go pick some up today. No problem - legitimate need, legitimate purpose. The problem is that I think if I'm going shopping, I should hit a few more places. Now, I don't need anything else, and in all likelihood I won't buy anything else, but I can't resist the temptation of going to look, even though I know I'm not going to buy.

I guess this is a form of cheap entertainment, so on the scale of the world's evils, pretty minor, but still. What a waste of an afternoon.

Comments

Am I missing the point?

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I don't know - if you're *not* buying things, then what is the point? And if the point is to spend time in the store looking around pointlessly, then I'd argue you're still participating in the scheme, because there's a *chance* you'll buy something, and even if you don't...as you said, "what a waste of an afternoon". Lose/lose, in my book... you're better off playing Arcanum, or jouncing up and down the hall...

Please note, of course, that I am engaging in some philosophical debate here, not attacking you as a consumerist/anti-consumerist individual.

Re: Am I missing the point?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I imagine that at some point today, some Arcanum will get played. I'm holding off on the jouncing up and down the hall until kittenpants wakes up though.

And you're right. Either of those activities are probably of more value than sort of idly wandering about looking at this year's fashions and/or gadgetry. But I don't particularly mind the wandering either, as it gets me out of the house and off my ass, which is where I have spent the entire morning, writing email, proofing newsletter, and writing my contribution to EIR, etc.

I was mostly just observing that I had a habit of this and seeing if there was any positive application of it, though, rather than railing against the compulsion, or whatnot. Sort of a culture/individual status-check. I'm not placing a lot of value on doing it or not doing it.

Re: Am I missing the point?

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

I'm not placing a lot of value on doing it or not doing it.

Good on you. I mean, really, must every bloody thing be fraught with meaning and purpose? Go fucking windowshop if you want to, you.