When I first got back from Bhutan, I had the urge to surround myself with possessions. It was both a reaction to the lack of the luxuries of western life and the need to link to my past as I went through the process of separating myself from Marie. Soon afterwards, a longing for the Bhutanese simplicity of life caught up with me and I had the urge to get rid of all the ‘stuff’ I have accumulated over the years.<\/p>\n
That desire has lasted a few years, but it’s starting to crack in the face of the Australian consumer culture. Was the first sign when I bought a car? I don’t think so. I still hate having one, even as I know that it was the only way to allow me the time to work, study and still have some time to myself.<\/p>\n
Now, though, the list of gadgets I want is growing. I can justify all of them. A netbook so I’m not tied to my desk to write, a large screen to plug it into when I’m home to save my eyes, good headphones to use when I’m away from my stereo for months at a time and an ereader to remove the paper cluttering up my home.<\/p>\n
I can justify them, but I can’t justify getting them now<\/em>. I’ll be in this house for another year, then I’ll have at least 6 months before I start travelling in earnest and my computers are still working. By the time I get back on the road, the technology will be more advanced and cheaper and there’ll be more books for that ereader. But I don’t want to wait!<\/p>\n What is it about our culture that creates this need for immediate consumer gratification? How can we fight it? If you have any hints, let me know because my usual strength of will is weakening fast. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first got back from Bhutan, I had the urge to surround myself with possessions. It was both a reaction to the lack of the luxuries of western life and the need to link to my past as I went through the process of separating myself from Marie. Soon afterwards, a longing for the… Continue reading Consumer Urges<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}