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A N N A q U I N D L E N Stuff Is Not Salvation

S T U F F I s N o r S a r - r , a r r o r ' l r59

2. What are the most important advantages of "Ta1'lorism, orrhe application of scien- tific methods to human behavior? Are there aspects of human behavior rhat cannor be improved by such mcthodsl

3. As Carr notes, we tend to explain our minds as s orking like the most adranced rech- nologl, around-be that papyrus, a typesriter, or a computer. Choose one or trvo such m e t a p h o r s a n d d i s c u s s h o r v t h e m i n d i s - a n d i s n o t * l i k e t h e t h i n g t o \ h i c h i t i s compared.

4. Intervies'a few people, including some s ho greu' up using the lnrernet and some rr,ho remember doing research main\'using books. Write vour orln anall'sis of the impact of t h e I n t e r n e t o n o u r a b i l i t v t o t h i n k , r e a s o n , a n d r e s e a r c h , b u i l d i n g o n C a r r ' s e s s a t ' a n d t h e anccdotes you collect.

s T H E B O O t r t i m e s surfaces: ryhy in

fade, an important holiday question t h e r r o r l d d i d u e b u v a l l t h i s i u n k i n

the ffrst place? \4lhat passes for the holiday season began before

dawn the day after Thanksgiving, ryhen a rlorker at a Wal-lVlart in Valley Stream, N,Y., u'as trampled

to death by a mob of bargain hunters, Aftem,ard, there u'ere reports that some people, mesmerized by cheap consumer electronics and discounted toys, kept shopping even after announcements to clear the store.

These are dark days in the United States: the cataclysmic stock-market declines, the indusEies edging up on bankruptcl', the home foreclosures and the vvaves of layoffs. But the prospect of an end to plenty has uncor.ered rvhat mav ultimatelv be a more pernicious problem, an addiction to consumption so out ofcoritrol that it qualifies as a sickness. The suffocation ofa store emprovee by a stampede of shoppers rvas horrifving, but it *asn't entirelv surprisrng.

Americans have been on an acquisition binge for decades. I suspect tele- vision advertising, $'hich made me want a Chatty Cath,v dollr so much as a kid that when I saw her under the tree my head almost exploded. Bv contrasr, rnv father will be happy to tell vou about the excitement of getting an orange in his stocking during the Depression. The depression before this one.

A critical difference between then and now is credit. The orange had to be paid for. The rite of passage for a child when I rvas young s'as a solemn visit to

First appeared in Quiadlet?i Neu,srveek nrdgrrzine cohunn on Deceuber 22, 2008, at the height oJ the Christlnas slnpphtg setsott.

l. Chatty Cathy dolls, rvhich speak rvhen a ring in their neck is pulled, har,e been manufactured bv Nlattel since 1959.

r 6 0 A r x , . r Q u r N o r r N

the local bank, there to exchange birthdav monev for a savings passbook. Every once in a tvhile, like magic, a bit of extra monev vvould appear, Interest. yippee.

The passbook n'as replaced by plastic, so that todat,Americans are over_ u'helmed bv debt and the national savings rate is calculated, like an algebra equationr in negati\€s. Bv 2010 Americans s,ill be a trillion dollars in rhe hoie on credit-card debt alone.

But let's look, not at the numbers, but the atmospherics. Appliances. tot,s, clothes, gadgets. Junk. There\ the sad truth. VVall Street

".""ut1"". mav have

made investments that lost their value, but, in a much smaller rvay, so did tbe rest of us. "I looked into my closet rhe other day and rhought. $,hy did I buv all this stuff?" one friend said recentlv A person in the Unired Stales replaces a cell phone every l6 months, not because the cell phone is old, but because it is oldish. Nlv mother used to complain that the Chiistmas tovs s,ere grubbv and f o r g o r t e n b r t a s t e r . ' l d i d n i e r e n r c a l l l l i L e d o l l s . e s p e c i a l l t J o l l s r r h o i n r r o - duced themselves to you over and oyer again rthen you pulled the ring in their necks.) Nou' much of the countrv is made up of people u,ith the acquisition habits of a 7-vear-old, desire untethered from need, or the ability to fav. The result is a booming business in those free-standing storage facilities, *.here junk goes to linger in a persistent vegetative state, some\1,here benveen eBav and the dump.

- Oh, there is still plenty o[ need, Bur ir is for real rhings, things that matter:

college tuition, prescription drltgs, rent. Food pantries and soup kitchens all o.,er the country have seen demand for their serr ices soar. Hom.lessness, rr.hich had fallel in recent vears, mav rebound as people lose their jobs and their hor_:ses. For the first time this month, the number of people on food stamps n ill exceed t h e 3 0 m i i l i o n m a r k .

Hard times offer the opportunitv to ask hard questions, and one of them is the,one my friend asked, staring at srr eaters a nd shoes, r hv did rre buv all this stuff) Did anvone reallv need a fiat-screen in the bedroom, or a designer hand- bag, or three cars? If the mall is our temple, then )\larc Jacobs: r', God, The.e,s a s c a r l t h o u g h r .

The drumbeat that accompanied Black Fridari this vear \ras that the num- bers had to redeem us, that if enough

-on", ,ru. speni bv shoppers it u,or_rld

indicate that things s'ere not so bad after all. But rr.hat the economv required s a s a t o d d s r r i t h a n e c e s s a r r e p i p h a n r . B e c a u s e t h i n g s a r e d i . e . m a n , p " o p l e have become hesitant to spend monev on trifles. And in the process the;beg;n to realize that it s all trifles,

l{ere I go, stating the obvious: stuff does not bring sah,ation. But jf it,s so obvious, horv come for so long people hare not realizeJ ir? The happiest fami- lies I knos,aren't the ones rr.ith the most square footage. Jiving in on" of tho." ca\€rnous houses u'ith enough garage space tq start a homeless shelter. (There's a holidav suggesrion right there.) And of course thet, are not people

2. llarc Jacobs (b. 1963) sells a rridelv distributed line of clothing and accessorres. 3. Black Fridal is the dav after Thanksgir.ing, the beginning of the Christmas shop- p i n g s e a s o n .

t 0

G l r r K ^ - r r c . G e r , r D o t ; , u u r ( l e r R r o o r G u N s I 6 I

u'ho are in real rrant. Just because consumption is bankrupt doesn't mean that poverty is ennobling.

But someivhere in bet$'een there is a familv like one I knorv in rural penn- sylvania, raising bees for honev (and for the science, and rhe fun, of it), digging a pond out of the do\\'nhill flo\\ of the stream, \\'ith three kids rlho somehorr.. incredibll,, don't spend sir months of the lear rvhining for the tov du jour. (The youngest once dernulred u,hen someone offered him another box on his birtlr- dayi "l alreadv have a present," he said.) fhe mother of the household sals nar. ing less means her familv appreciates possessions more. I can gile \ou a srory about everv item, reallr'," she sa.r's ofu,hat ther.oun. In other lords, shat thel have has meaning. And meaning, real meaning, is \\hat u.e are alrl,avs tr\,ing to possess. Ask people u'hat ther"d grab if their house rlere on fire. the sar our national house is on fire right non. n-o one ever sals it s the tricked-up mrcro- u,ave thev got at Wal-Nlart.

Q u E s r r o N s

I. \{'hat does Quindlcn gain lronr rling her cssav so closch ro the recession thar began in 2008, the |ear he| colurnn appear.ed) \\ihar in it night soon appear dared ano \rrat rr,ill bc enduring:-

2. Does Quiodlen ralk enough about the stufl in her orr n lilei Horr. is she like the us' she analr.zes. and horr might she bc differenr)

3. \i\/fite an essav abour rhe stufl in lour life- \bu mav take Quindlens approach. con- demning Americans ds a nation of shallorr "collectors. or trr a completeh different a p p L o a c h .

M o r L y l t r r s Get a Knifu, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of Guns

U ^ ' s . E v E R n v H E R E G L \ S .

Let me start this discussion b1. pointing out that I am not antigun. I'm proknife. Consider the merits of the knife.

ln the first place, r,ou have to catch up lith someone in order to stab him. A general substitu-

tion of knives for guns u'ould promote phvsical fitness. We'd turn into a uhole nation of great runrers. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed u,hile cleaning their knives.

\ltitten for h,inis rcgultr colutnn itt tlteFott Worth Srar Telegraph olui collelcrl irr Nothin' but Cocrd'firnes Ahead 1J993). Lrit t1911-2007) vas frnuits Jbr lrcr rntspohen sttle, us \uggestel itl tlrc title oJ irer I'ooi. i\ lollv h ins Cani Sav Thar, Can She; {i991r.