Question: Once people went to a store to buy things they needed. Today, shopping has turned into a form of entertainment. How did this change in approach happen?

Answer: People don’t buy what they need, they buy what advertising encourages them to buy. They go to big shopping centers and receive pleasure from it.

The fact is that our egoism requires fulfillment, and we don’t know how to fill it so that the filling will become perfect, eternal, or at least prolonged. Our lives are directed only to be filled, filled, filled, and to get, get, get.

We live at much a higher frequency than before. In the past, a person knew that he needed a wardrobe and went to a carpenter to order it. There were no shops filled with completed wardrobes. The same is true with respect to clothes. There were no commercially ready-made garments, people had to go to a tailor for them to be sewn.

Nowadays, we come to a shop where we can find clothes of any style, color, and size. It is more convenient, but because the clothes are already there, it entices us to buy them and forces the shopkeeper to try to sell them quickly. Therefore, it has resulted in completely exaggerated consumption and competition.

We go to shops not to buy necessary food, clothes, and shoes, but to have a look at what they have and to buy something we like but don’t need. But this consumerism develops us as humans because we get used to the fact that we are guided in life not by the necessities but simply by whim. It means that we have begun to realize how low-lying our actions are. We don’t feel that we are people who control our desires and have a firm point of view on what we need.

Instead, we give in to the entreaties and advertising, and our “I” disappears. This culture of consumption shapes our new generation, which doesn’t notice deception and trusts advertising. We are completely empty people and buy everything the shops and media sell: opinions, culture, and worldview.

This process switches off our brain because we don’t need to think about anything. The main thing is to have money in our pocket or at least a credit card. Loans and debts are the reality of today’s life.

Question: Consumerism is the new religion of our time. How else, apart from shopping, can a person be filled?

Answer: For this, we need to give a person a special education. The cult of consumption isn’t just purchasing some item or apparel, it also watching a movie and listening to music imposed on us, and reading the news on websites with 90%  of the content clogged with advertising.

The news is also presented to us specifically to confuse us and burden our heads with all kinds of nonsense. Only a special education can save us from this disease of consumerism and give us other, higher requirements for life and fulfillment.

We are not free in anything, even where to go on vacation. Wherever we turn, advertising is everywhere, guiding us in a certain direction. This American culture has spread all over the world.

Question: So, what can replace it and provide the same satisfaction shopping does?

Answer: We need to give a person a different goal in life that is more eternal, perfect, and great. After all, we get tired of the things we bought the day after buying them. So we need to understand that we have the ability to desire and receive much more significant and eternal fulfillment. The feeling of lack and its filling with what we were lacking brings us satisfaction.
[197789]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/24/16

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