have we become too materialistic?

mmm, other ppl.



'We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, cause they dont dance, and if they dont dance they aint no friends of mine.

You guys have made alot of good points here.

Also, something to take into consideration..
If you've gone to any third world country you'll find some of the happiest people. It seems that those who have the least, are the happiest.

I find that interesting. Especially since media feeds us that happiness comes from having the latest/greatest products.

Eat. Sleep. Breathe. Ski.

^yea, like there was this girl who came here from Russia, and she was so shocked and happy to get a mcdonalds toy in her happy meal. She was constantly saying 'Are you sure I can have this!?' like it was one of the best things she had ever gotten in her life. She was so content and happy with what she had already. Also, when I was in Japan, they were so selfless. They wouldn't let me pay for anything. (Not saying Japan is poor, cause most parts aren't) it's just how much they took joy in helping me out. In america, we generally have this attitude like we're all better than everybody and that everybody needs to fend for themselves. Even with all the crap we have, we are so unhappy and are only grabbing for more, which we just throw away after we get sick of it. Yeah, I do it too, and it makes me sick that I do do that. I find myself giving away clothes after I've worn them maybe 3 or 4 times because I don't like it. I know this kid who's so poor off that he can't afford new clothes. He wears jeans year round with however many shirts he has and has one jacket. Even living like that though, he's one of the happiest people I know. He gets his happiness from just living life and making friends with the people around him. yep. just agreeing with ya jarrett

-Sara

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skihood.com

We, as canadians, americans, and most europeans have a more advanced society than third world countries. The more advanced a society becomes, the more complicated it is. Physically, we have less pain on average than a less advanced society, however, because we are in a more complex society, there is more mental pain and confusion. Which would you rather have, physical or mental pain?


'We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, cause they dont dance, and if they dont dance they aint no friends of mine.'
Me- come here doggy
Karl-I dont think he understands english man
Alex-yeah, it is a GERMAN shepherd

if our society is so great and our material posessions bring us so much happiness, then why are 35% of adults on prozac and many more in counciling/depressed. In my sociology class, we were just reading about how the rich are MANY more times more likely to commit suicide than the middle class, and the middle class are many times more likely to commit suiside than the poor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------'I am now a moderator... and all I had to do was suck harveys cock' -Ductapeboy

the answers are in the post above you, the more we base our happiness on materials, less less truely happy we are.


'We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, cause they dont dance, and if they dont dance they aint no friends of mine.'
Me- come here doggy
Karl-I dont think he understands english man
Alex-yeah, it is a GERMAN shepherd

Word, SickYo, you make good points...

And GhostDragon--youre absolutely right. Ive thought often about how people way back when lived, and how they didnt have much technology or toys, but Im sure they got along just fine and were happy. Getting off track here a bit--how is our society any better off than in prehistoric days? Take for instance, food. Sure, we can go out and buy food easily--nice, huh? But how complex of a task is it to get it from a plant or animal to your mouth? Think of all the steps--grows, someone has to kill it, process it, package it, gets loaded on a truck, uses some amount of natural resources (oil, gas, etc), goes to a receieving faciltity, gets doled out to a supermarket near your house, goes into a freezer where environmentally-non friendly freon is used to keep it cold until you go and pay your hard earned to buy it.
The 'caveman' would just go out and kill/pick/chop down whatever he/she needed whenever they needed it. Might not be quite that easy, but you get the point.
And because of this, how much has our physiology suffered? How many Americans are overweight fat-asses cuz they just mosey on down to McD's 3 times a day? A rotund caveman probably didnt catch much food (fat caveman = dead caveman).

Ok, this may be extreme and oversimplified, but Im trying to correlate how complex everything has become--does it have to be? Getting back to the point--this leads to the question: Do we have to be so stressed about things? How is our happiness suffering becuase our society has become engulfed in these complexities and images?


... oops, wasnt planning on writing that much. sorry.

Our girl sports teams at school have a secret santa thingy, where they give people presents, and a girl that just moved to the area was like mormon or sumthing. When she got her secret santa present, she cried, cause it was the first present she had ever gotten, and shes a high schooler.