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by asknthrow
2787 days ago
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You're framing this as an internet problem, which it is not. Before the internet it was called "keeping up with the Jonses" and one can not simply uninstall their environment, whereabouts and reception of social status and class telegraphing from others. I honestly couldn't care less and consumerism is deeply offensive to me. I often think I belong in a different time, when commercialism and consumerism wasn't such a thing. There was a time not so long ago that people took pride in saving, repairing and making do. |
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That's a myth. Just like pretty much all of the "in the past, it was so much better because people X" constructions.
Some people feel that way now. Some people have always felt that way. But many people have always felt a pressure to compete with those around them, in whatever ways were available and socially acceptable at the time.
It's possible that if you go all the way back to before urbanisation, the people in a small farming or hunter-gatherer community would feel less of that pressure because there was simply less to compete about, and more mutual support....but I suspect that even then, people would have competed in their own ways.
In terms of the specific "there was a time" you mention...OK, yeah, there kinda was. It was the Great Depression. People "took pride" in saving, repairing, and making do because there was literally no other choice besides doing without.
Despite the various problems we suffer today, I don't think that's a good model for our society.