Materialism and Identity

The article "All My Life for Sale" is very interesting in the respect that the author makes very profound claims as to what we, as humans consider a crucial part of our identities. On the surface, the article addresses the age-old cliche of 'one man's junk is another man's treasure', but the author continues to express deeper concerns, which appear to evoke an existentialistic kind of tone. Just the fact that he sold all of his belongings in order to find himself further reinforces the exitentialistic attitudes. You see a transformation in the speaker. He began questioning why he had all the 'stuff' he did. He wanted to change things, to see what would happen if he took all the things out of his life that distracted him. He wanted to start over; to turn his own world upside down. He wanted to create a new identity for himself. But, overall, it's not the material things that make you, you. It's the human interaction you get from sharing those material items. After visiting all the people that had bought all of his items, he came to this realization. He figured out that it wasn't about the items he had sold, but the people he had sold them to. He no longer felt uncomfortable around strangers. He had found himself. And ultimately learned that no matter how hard things get, you eventually have to face life head-on. You can't escape it forever.

I felt the audio recording of George Carlin further reinforced our obsession with material things. Satire in nature, the recording brought up a good point. We are nothing but hoarders in a sense. Everywhere we go, we have to have 'stuff' with us. He made the comparison of houses being nothing but storage sheds for our 'stuff', and that whenever we travel we always have to have a piece of that storage shed with us at all times. Material things don't really matter in the end and they certainly aren't the most important part of our identities. Yet, we tend to revere 'stuff' more than all other things. I don't think mankind will ever be satisfied without 'stuff'.