Some people think that donating things, trashing borderline garbage, and living in a mostly empty apartment is all one needs to unequivocally abandon materialism. But you aren’t an immaterialist simply by staring at blank white walls and a single swinging light bulb swaying overhead. The allure of materialism is stronger than an expensive antique.
To fully embrace immaterialism, you need to accept the irrelevant. This isn’t about things or stuff, but discourse. Conversations should be derailed by raising the immaterial.
When two people are discussing the war in Ukraine, interrupt them and ask what the V. in Vladimir V. Putin stand for? The New York Times insists on including it in every article, and while it has little to no relevance on the outcome of the conflict, you need to care about it.
The other day I overhead someone tell the story of a fatal electrocution. A man, an open immaterialist, asked whether it was AC or DC. The dumbfounded storyteller answered the idiotic question and moved on with the tragic tale.
But that’s how you have to get at these people. Chip away at their preconceived, post-conceived and should-have-never-been-conceived notions.
Hate materialism? Don’t put your furniture on the curb with the rest of your trash. Change the subject, interrupt friends, and never, ever make a good point.
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