Yes, as long as you don't take it completely literally. We become a slave to stuff. The phone, our mortgages, our personas, even. They impact on how we act and impact on our motivations.
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Everything You Own, Owns You
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Yes, as long as you don't take it completely literally. We become a slave to stuff. The phone, our mortgages, our personas, even. They impact on how we act and impact on our motivations.
Politesse
Amor Vincit Omnia
Depends on how you own it, I think. It is more than possible to tie up your identity in things; if you see your stuff as a symbolic manifestation of yourself, your fate definitely gets tied up in it. The basic principle of sympathetic magic begins to apply : all symbols are to some degree transitive, and meaning and action have the potential to slide both ways along that line of potential.
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. But I do think it serves to be cautious about which things you attach to and how. Conscious identity-making is usually better than accidental (or attributed).
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
After being on RF so long, I think it is ringing true gradually and unfortunately.
Oh yeah. Quite a lot of truth.
Generally speaking, ownership brings with it the constant need to choose among neglect, care or some combination of both. As those choices add up, one's life is very much shaped by that which one owns.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
There is certainly nothing wrong in owning anything, its just when we let that which we own control our lives, that it becomes a problem.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
They only add up if you keep piling up what you own.
Yes but only if you are attached to those things.
It is true that if one considers himself to be the owner of something, it is always accompanied with a fear of losing it and it is more if one values that possession and is attached to it, thus increasing the fear and insecurity and a feeling of being owned by that possession.
So , with Bks and Islam as well , we substitute ownership with trusteeship and with this comes accountability, so now I am not the owner any more but a trustee who has been given to use and enjoy the possession for a limited time,this considerably reduces attachment to that object and the associated fear and anxiety and at the same time more care is directed towards the maintenance and well being of what one is being trusted with.
But if the stuff owns us, then it's a slave to us.
Vicious circle, eh.
Yes. One of the principles of magic is something to that effect. It's expressed as a principle about power more generally - specifically pertaining to knowledge. The common saying that knowledge is power is double edged: knowledge brings its bearer power, but the thing known also then gains power over the bearer. It is the same with material possessions. Everything we come into contact with influences us, without exception. One could also express it as a principle of ecology, a discipline where the relationship between organism and environment is a highlight of focus. For better or worse, such lessons from ecology (or of magic) are not a focus of my culture and thus get lost or ignored. My people grossly underestimate the impact of the environment on individuals, preferring their individualistic "lone gunslinger" narratives.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I suspect most people don't understand the crux of this concept until/unless they acquire a significant amount of "stuff."
allfoak
Alchemist
The need to "own" is based on fear.
To have what we need is based upon responsibility.
Akivah
Well-Known Member
Yes. Ownership bring along the responsibilities for those objects. That means they need to be physically secured, insured, and maintained. A person need to expend their time, money, and effort to protect their assets. So one could make an argument that this effort is the objects exerting their ownership on us.
Akivah
Well-Known Member
That introduces the concept of 'when is enough, enough?"
This resonated with me.
It's also terrifying, when you really think about it. Some of this idea is reflected in the triad I created in my signature about minding your stories. Mind the stories you tell yourself, mind the stories you listen to, mind the stories you tell others. What you put in your head - and those of others - profoundly shapes who and what the world is to us. When we're aware of that, we can weave the tale in the way that fits our values. Often, we are not so mindful.