In praise of Thrift
20 September 2007 by jaksoul
In a week of deepening financial gloom, the announcement of the UK iphone launch seemed more a reminder of how quickly the perceptions of things can change than the bright glimpse of technological utopia promised in january. Maybe it’s me, preoccupied as I am by house hunting and wedding planning, but money just doesn’t seem to stretch that far in London these days, everyone seems to have money-but none of it seems belongs top them.
It’s not that I don’t love beautiful things, or have suddenly become immune to the sensual delights that good food/clothes/geeky shit can bring, it just seems to me that these things have moved from the periphery of life to become an unhealthy focus. Just look at the aimless losers, spending all day arguing over technology brands on blogs and forums- like that shit means anything.
What happened to buying things for the function, with form an intrinsic, but secondary, factor ?
And I love Apple-I love (some) of what it represents-it’s unrelenting quest for usability and greater interaction between software and hardware.
But I don’t need it.
And thrift has been replaced in our culture (so poorly) with the needless excess of disposable fashion and landfill consumerism. It will make us better people if we can live within our means, better able to deal with the storms that this week’s financial upheavals may well be the start of.
And that iphone won’t tempt me (too much) in November (hopefully), and one day when it’s comes free with my contract it will be both beautiful and practical and, most important of all, bring me a greater, deeper joy.