Imagine that you have everything you ever wanted, but you had absolutely no one to share it with. In the illustration “possessions” by Andy Singer he shows us how materialism runs our lives. Some people may be content with just themselves and their items, but I do not think they would be truly happy. This depiction of human attachment to materialistic items is chilling and sad because of the truth behind it. The things we work so hard to obtain end up making our lives more difficult and stressful at times.
Andy Singer implies through his artwork that people are slaves to their own possessions. In this image there is an exhausted looking man, with beads of sweat running down his face and bulging eyes, trying to move forward but is weighted down by chains that are attached to his house, car, and other miscellaneous household objects. Singer is trying to prove that people are so worried about material items that those possessions actually dictate how people run their lives.I completely agree with Singer here. Our entire society is based on materialism, we as a whole actually base a person’s self-worth on the type and amount of possessions they have. Basically if you have nothing, you are considered nothing in today’s mindset. This is really sad to me, and hits very close to home. There is so much beauty in the world, but man is so egotistical and materialistic based that we get caught up in our own creations. Thinking it will bring us happiness we actually based our lives on how much “stuff” we can obtain when in reality it ends up making us miserable. Here is a quote I find to be the embodiment of this illustration, “People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.”(Unknown)
Do you find yourself buying things you can't really afford just for the satisfaction or acceptance of others? Are your things causing you more stress than relief? Don't be like the man in the image and be a slave to materialism. Materialistic things will not bring you happiness.
I like how you interpret the "chain" image and at the same time connect it to the song's message. Also, How you provide real life situations, visuals, and especially the quote is very nice. It would be better if you can place a few lines from the song that support your interpretation or maybe give a very brief introduction about who Andy Singer is. That way we could be familiarized about what kind of works he does and how he came up with those ideas.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to agree about the possessions are inside of people is your point, however, there are many, hard ways to do in their lifestyles as careers, bills, taxes, insurances, and etc, and then, the money means to be one of possessions that controlling over to people who pay everything what they do need at all the time. How do the independent people try to be flexible with the possessions? To be flexible is the important thing to deal with the possessions in the lifestyle because the possessions need people to have flexible minds.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike
ReplyDeleteI like how you take a stand for life having more value than material possessions. Why does this hit so close to home for you? Have you had to make changes in your life in order to make possessions take a back seat of life itself? Keep encouraging others to discover ways they can make this type of positive adjustment.