[sw104]

> Do they not have any purpose for their lives beyond consumption?

A lot of people have no purpose in their life beyond consumption. Truly, this is it.

If people put the tiniest fraction of work into their fitness, their personality, their intelligence or any other character-building activity or experience instead of working away to buy trinkets and tokens of vapid displays of wealth, we may actually get somewhere as a species.

Exercising is hard, as is resisting junk food, as is reading a book compared to watching TV, or throwing yourself into a new situation. It's so much easier to not do that stuff, sit in an office and collect a paycheck and redirect that money towards things we think make us better than each other.

Personally, I'm way more impressed with the people I know who run 100km+ a week, workout hard and study hard, than people who walk around wearing designer clothes or showing off the things they've bought. The latter sounds sort of pathetic.

[cameldrv]

This is an old thread, but I just saw your response. I think fitness is a fine goal instrumentally, and way better than just buying crap you don't need, but ultimately your six pack abs are still another trinket or token. The question is what your purpose is. For some people, their main purpose is bringing up the next generation. Others try to build big things. Others try to discover something new. Others want to help create or perpetuate useful organizations. Others want to glorify God.

Now all of that said, if you want your six pack abs so that you can attract a wife so that you can start a family, great. If you want to be fit so that you'll live longer and with more energy so that you can accomplish other things, also great.

My general feeling though is that due to a bunch of changes in the modern world, people have lost outlets for a sense of purpose in their lives, and this is leading to major psychological problems.