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Letters of a Stoic
Seneca to Lucilius: 87, in favor of the simple life
Why so many things that people think are good are, in fact, no such thing
[previous entries in this series can be found here]
I’m sure you noticed that we live in a capitalistic, and therefore hyper-consumerist society. The logic of capitalism implies that the economy has to keep growing, and in order for that to happen more and more people have to buy lots of crap that they don’t need. Setting aside the obvious observation — made even by some economists — that indefinite growth is the goal of a cancer cell, that is why we are bombarded by advertisements that not so subtly aim at convincing us that if only we had the latest smart phone, a nicer car, a bigger house, and so forth then we would truly be happy.
Of course, all of that is plain bullshit. And the ancient Stoics figured out exactly why. Seneca — who was himself very wealthy and thereby was not talking out of envy — begins his 87th letter to his friend Lucilius in this manner:
“The journey showed me this: how much we possess that is superfluous; and how easily we can make up our minds to do away with things whose loss, whenever it is necessary to part with them, we do not feel.” (LXXXVII.1)
