Slaves To Our Stuff

In many places around the world, but mainly, or course, America, consumerism is at an all time high (even with the recession, we still be more then most other countries in the world) and it has begun to take a tole on society. Ivan Illich says that "in a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy." I personally agree with him. If we are not addicted to shopping, and buying, and owning....stuff, then we are constantly comparing our stuff to the stuff of others. Their shoes, their coats, their hair and how they've died it, their fake nails, and their backpacks. We fail in comparison to "they" and shoot out hatred and jealousy from every pore, aiming our discontent toward the "they"s that have more then us. Our stuff has consumed us, and has motivated us, to the point that we have become brainwashed, slaves to the stuff that rules society.