It strikes me as dangerous that mankind has reached a consumerist plateau of satisfying solely wants instead of needs. Most, if not all needs have been accounted for. Even the homeless beg for money to spend it on drugs more often than on food, which is found in abundance everywhere one may travel or reside. There are shelters for the homeless, medicare for them, and fountains on every bus stop, where you might find them dwelling. Just the other day I saw a pair of homeless folk with an mp3 player and noise cancelling headphones. Strange, eh?

The title of this thread was picked due to a growing sentiment of mine that people who are never confronted with very essential problems, such as devoting time to the bare necessities in life, become rudderless, depressed, and anxious about their own insatiable desire for more. In one of my previous topics I outlined the perversion or downright confusion about mixing up wants for needs.

So, how do you go about living a meaningful and live with a sense of purpose if you have so easily met needs? Let me try and be clear here, what exactly do we want, after survival has been accomplished so easily? The average lifespan of the average European is significant longer than it was during the industrial revolution. Steven Pinker has made the claim that wars are becoming less and less burdensome or eventful in modern day human history.

Should we spend more time in museums to entertain what life used to be like?

I am honestly scared about how fast things are changing. I do not doubt that mankind doesn't have the capacity to adapt to any future happenings or progress; but, I honestly think we should at least slow down a little. Our very own emotional responses are used against us in the multitude of advertisements found online and elsewhere. This is strange, and perverted.

I suppose, the reader might be asking, 'so what', or 'who cares', or 'there's no solution'. I suppose, the point should be made that it's not a matter of so what or who cares, due to the fact that we are by nature a social animal. Despite the instilled hierarchies found anywhere in a social setting, it is apparent that man needs man to continue being a man. This so what, not my problem, who cares are actually pretty damming sentiments to profess due to their anti-social nature. Now, about the need for a solution, that is an important point in my mind. The solution ought to be found in the entertainment of what one already has. One of the most profound questions one can possible ask, is "Why do I want more?"...

When one asks such a question, the presupposition is that most if not all one's needs have been dealt with or satisfied in some long term manner. Indeed, this is a question I recently asked myself, and by the mere fact of asking it, I found my way out of the problem.

So, ask yourself, why do you want more? Aren't you already satisfied?