why do things mean so much to people?
and what does this mean for the climate change?
Growing up, I was never the kid with the band posters or pictures on the wall. I have been a Jack of trades all my life, a little talented in lots of different ways, a little informed about everything under the sun. I was never the kid that cared about what she wore, or where she slept or her things. And I never thought, not once, that that was the kind of adult I would become. But that is exactly the kind of adult I am.
Today morning, I found myself sitting on my couch in the den with my first cup of coffee and contemplating if a sofa in a different color would look good against my wall. And I wondered since when I cared. So curiosity sent me on a research tangent about what it is with people and their dependency on things that is somehow tied to our sense of self and worth.
Almost immediately, I found Ian Hodder, a Professor of Anthropology from Stanford who talks about humanity’s obsession with having things dating back to when humans first started using tools. He goes on to say humans have had an excavatory relationship with their surroundings since the beginning of time and it could be argued that the nature of humanity’s relationship with objects and the path to attain them is how they influence the environment around them and that this behavior is at the center of the climate debate.
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Eckhart Tolle argues that our material obsession with our possessions comes from fear. He thinks of object proliferation, in his words, as one of the “ills of our time”. Attachment to things drives consumerism and in this sort of economic structure, the only measure of success is more. Who has the biggest house or the fanciest car?
I meandered quite a bit from this point, went down a whole path of self-actualization, then I actually got up and Marie Kondo-ed one shelf in my wardrobe (feeling guilty the whole time because who wants to bet a lot of this is going to end up in a landfill?). Then I found a really interesting paper by Hoi-Wing Chan that discusses the Self-expression hypothesis.
Let’s break it down. Self-expression is essentially humans using things, their homes, cars, the tchotchkes on grandma’s shelf from their travels, the silverware, the clothes we wear, that watch my husband gave me for our first anniversary, our children and how accomplished they are; basically anything that we consider unique about ourselves and how we use these things to tell people about us, our values, our interests, where we come from, where we want to go, and our perception of how other people relate to this is the basis of the relationships formed in society.
Now how is this helpful for climate change? (which is the important question and almost the real point of this ramble). Apparently, in a culture that encourages self-expression, a culture that allows (readers might take offence to this word) people to be people, there is a strong link between pro-environmental values and pro-environmental action. Huh? Did that surprise us or is that obvious?
All this to say, at the end of the day, if we live in a society/culture where the basic tenets of Maslow’s Triangle are met, then we are more likely as a society to be influenced by our peers’ pro-environmental mindsets and follow that path ourselves.
So, basically, because of people’s love for things and their need to express themselves and be accepted in society, you can peer pressure them into being pro-environmental.
But should you do this? (yes.) I will leave that to the discretion of the reader who now understands why people care so much about their things.
