Why do we build motorcycles that will go 300kph when the fastest we can go (in this state anyway) is 110kph? Why do we get really excited when they bring out a new bike that will do 330kph (200mph) when we can still only do 110?
We don't need, we can't use it, but we want it anyway. When they build one that goes 400, we'll line up for those, too because we love bigger, better, faster - and more. We love excess.
While we're at it, let's get one of those gigantic go-anywhere four-wheel drives with some of those ridiculous wheels and one of those obscenely enormous motors that get ten feet to the gallon. Then let's commute around suburbia in it and see exactly how much additional carbon monoxide we can pump into our already polluted atmosphere - a Hummer, perhaps. You never know when you might have to contend with some stray artillery or a hand grenade from an irate passer-by.
To me it seems we live in a world of excess and contradictions. While billions (no, not millions) are wondering if they'll eat in the next week, if they'll ever learn how to read, or if they'll make their fifteenth birthday, Western corporations are seeing if they can build a robot that can pour us a drink and do the vacuuming while we watch our sixty-foot TV. We certainly wouldn't want to get off our asses, would we? Imagine having to pour your own beer or do your own housework. That’s so 1974 - such unnecessary hardship.
Those starving people: they just don't get how tough we have it. They don't have to deal with the stress we endure on a daily basis. We need all this stuff.
Apparently.
I don't know if it's an expression that's used outside of this country (let me know), but in Australia there's a common saying often used by blokes, "He who dies with the most toys wins." While many people would suggest this expression is meant to be a joke and tongue-in-cheek, the reality is that for many people, it is anything but a joke. It is actually some people's mantra. They would never articulate as much, but look at how they live - they don't need to say it. If you want to know what people's values and principles are (what's important to them), look at how they live their life.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Sometimes less is more?
Craig, from this article, and from my experience both in America and in Israel, less is always more because less means a sustainable economy: more means war, conquest and more space taken up by the dead war heroes in cemeteries...
Does every Israeli need a car when the bus system will take him almost anywhere in the country? Does every American need two cars? Can't life be arranged so that less IS more?
I think it can.