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RE: ...

in #money7 years ago

There are so many ways I could reply to this, so much to unpack, I'll try to stick to one or two ideas.

I appreciate your honesty. Honestly pursuing material goods seems preferable to self righteousnous that is doubling up as a cover for selfish desires.

There is nothing wrong with desires either, though I think it's important to look at what fuels your desires. Are they desires that stem from a sense of fear or lack? Do you "need" these things to feel successful? Will you feel lack if you don't achieve these things? Are you willing to place their realization above your ideals? Or are they just things you'd like to have, things that would make life more enjoyable? It's often hard to tell unless you dig really deep.

I understand your ...annoyance (would you call it that?) at people who seem to think money is evil and that it's wrong to want to enjoy any modern comforts. But there is validity to the idea that are economic systems are built on faulty, self destructive premises, and as you participate in them, it becomes harder and harder to accept that line of thinking. If you reject these ideas as bullshit too easily you risk limiting your perspective and coloring yourself in the ideas accepted within that system, pretty biased, I'd say.

There is nothing wrong with looking out for yourself, I think this is where the confusion comes in. Somehow some people want to retaliate against all the selfishishness in the world by being completely selfless...something which is not really sustainable and arguably can't even really exist. Looking out for yourself can potentially a "selfless" act because when your needs are met you are more available to help others. For this reason I don't reject money despite being able to see how deeply tied it is to all the contradictions in the world. The fact is, even bough I don't believe it should be the case, a large amount of energy has been placed in money because of the belief that people have in it. I would prefer that this energy slowly seeps out of money and back into human relationships but by rejecting money from coming my way, I'm fighting an uphill battle so I'd be happy to have much more of it. At the same time, I'm not willing to make big compromises about how I make it and would like to avoid being overly self indulgent with whatever comes my way. That's me though. ;-)

The real question for you is, when you get that collection of cars, will you truly feel encouraged to use that position of abundance to think of the freedom, well being, and abundance of others, or will you remember all the hard work and bullshit it took to achieve these things and feel a sense of entitlement which causes you to further focus on your own personal, "selfish" pursuits?

I'm not judging you, please don't get that idea. I think you are really insightful and everyone has their own situation, focus, and purpose.

Sorry this comment was a mess, like I said, too much I wanted to reply to and I didn't want to make it painfully long. Im happy to keep this conversation going if it interests you though.

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