reporter for the Journal
Sun Mengyuan

Consumption can improve the quality of life, but it does not bring true happiness. Happiness also does not exist in advertisements, but in the inner balance of a person. Dostoevsky wrote this in Handbook of the House of the Dead: "Give him all the economic gratification he needs to do nothing but sleep, eat cake, and worry about prolonging the history of the world, and use all the wealth of the earth to satisfy him, and bathe him in happiness up to the roots of his hair. This little blister of happiness will burst away like the surface of the water."

An incident I experienced illustrates this well. Last month.SThe lady had a fight with her boyfriend and angrily sent her friends circle to cry. Familiar and unfamiliar friends pulled together a group to comfort her, asking her what was going on. I was also pulled into the group, from everyone's words to understand the cause and effect of the matter:

SThe young lady was getting engaged and wanted a 100,000 dollar South African diamond ring. She was attracted by the diamond's brilliant light and the eight-centered, eight-sided cutting technique, and thought she would look great in it and in her wedding dress for her wedding photos.XMonsieur isSMiss's fiancé, who is young and well-off, wasSA "good husband" as the lady's friends call him. Of course he said yes.SThe lady's wish, which madeSThe lady was so excited that she posted a friend circle early to show off. But these two days.SThe lady is angry--XMr. told her that he had a friend in South Africa, why not go to South Africa to buy a diamond ring, where diamond rings are often discounted, and the same ring can be bought for only6Over 10,000 and the rest of the money can be used for traveling.

SThe lady cried and thoughtXMr. is very petty and fails to do what he promised. She has a problem withXMr. yelled, "If my girlfriends find out you're going to buy me cheap stuff, how am I going to have the face to face them, they'll laugh at me." One thing led to another, and the two argued.

Maybe it's a good idea toSFor a young lady, a diamond ring is a proof of sweet love; and along with the diamond ring, it must be a small ticket and certificate of authenticity - so that you can modestly say "no, no, no" amidst the envy of your friends.

Some people say that the people who hyped up diamonds are shameless and know how to cheat money. In fact, as the biggest scam in the age of consumption, the myth of diamonds can succeed only because of the brainwashed and fanatical consumers. In fact, as early as a hundred years ago, we were kidnapped by consumption.

There is no doubt that this is a consumer society. Buying things has become a necessary action in our daily life. Pay out money, get the item, and complete an equivalent exchange. In exchange for a short moment of good mood.

Consumer society has not existed since ancient times. In ancient times, the first thing people thought of when they wanted something was to make it themselves, and rarely did they think of "buying" it. It is only since modern times, with the increase in productivity, that buying has become a normal part of life.

Why do people consume? A scholar pointedly pointed out early on that "Consumption is the simplest way of class mobility. Through consumption, people of a lower class can disguise themselves as people of a higher class, or at least through objects can be in the same world as them."

And the average consumer is not so mindful. They tend to spend their money sparingly, and they can't say what their motives are, except that it's a purchase to satisfy their own needs. In fact, to a large extent, the advertisements give them strong hints.

We are in an age wrapped in advertising, all of which tells you explicitly or implicitly: buy this item and you will have a life as good as the one in the advertising picture. And the easiest one to use as a gimmick is often love. Perhaps because love is so evanescent, it is often necessary these days to prove that it really exists through merchandise.

Real estate agents tell you that you will have true love and family only after you buy a house; jewelry sellers tell you that diamonds are a symbol of love, and if you are willing to buy a ring that requires an ID number and can only be bought once in a lifetime, even better, it represents your fidelity to your lover; and rose sellers also tell you that flowers9999buy (a product)11A rose for a lifetime will last a long time ...... However, these wonderful lies are broken at the touch of a button - a house I can build myself; not to buy diamonds I can buy gems. What? You can only buy it once here? Then I'll just buy it again at another house; the speed of roses withering away seems to be much faster than love, right?

Some time ago.YSLStar lipstick burst the circle of friends, have turned the text "your boyfriend love you or not? See if he is willing to send stars", an instant this lipstick into a hot commodity, domestic and foreign major counter out of stock. Get boyfriend gift send circle of friends to show love, did not get the boyfriend in the implied boyfriend to send. This lipstick, which has no new color number and only changed its packaging, instantly dashed the minds of those who are "eager for love", and can be called the best marketing case of the year for non-essential consumer goods. Some people have analyzed this phenomenon as the "lipstick effect", pointing out that it is the cause of the economic recession. In fact, this is the deepest sin of the consumer era.

Just as medieval society established balance through God and the devil, our society establishes balance through consumption and its revelation. It is a society of saturated abundance filled with preventive whiteness, a society without vertigo or history, a society with no myth other than itself. We fill the emptiness of our minds by buying and gradually becoming surrounded by commodities.

The Consumer Society gets right to the point: the rich of today are not the same as the rich of the past, who were surrounded by people, but are now surrounded by things. By things, I mean commodities. Imagine if one day our lives are filled with all kinds of commodities resulting from overproduction, has our living space been squeezed too much?

In recent years, minimalism has begun to sprout. Unlike in the past when minimalism was forced by poverty, modern minimalists are actively giving up ownership of goods and focusing more on tapping into the heart.

Is minimalism against materialistic living? Not really.

There is a fascinating word in Japanese culture called "object mourning", and I am afraid that not many people have a greater attachment to objects than the Yamato people. However, the word "object sorrow" does not refer to all commodities, but rather emphasizes the importance of building a relationship between people and objects and making the best use of them, rather than being enslaved by consumption and kidnapped by merchants!