Human emotion of wanting " i want it" does it ever stop? What do we truly want?

Hi All,

So just doing a bit of contemplation and my mind crossed the thought of wanting something not really needing it but wanting for whatever conscious or unconscious justifications you may come up with, is it hardwired into our minds as a human in this day and age or culture? Are you aware of it in whole ? Example lets say you have a fixed sum of 5000 a week forever how long would your list of stuff you would want to get and how would it lead to more stuff to get . what do we really want ?

Your thoughts Cheers.

a reply to: TheJesuit

Sadly our wants will always be just out of reach of our income . But hey , lets not kill of dreaming just yet .

Now i dream of having 5 grand a week .

a reply to: TheJesuit

The only thing I want is the winning powerball. I have everything else I need in life, including love and happiness - which my powerball cannot buy.

My powerball can however buy a 2016 AMS Nissan GTR producing a record breaking 1800hp at the wheel, all the while remaining street legal - leaving Ferraris, Lambos and Veyrons in it's wake.

I want that powerball I tells ya - I will probably feel this way until I:

a) Die
b) Win the powerball.

Cheers

a reply to: Sublimecraft

Perhaps when We win that Powerball We can take Your GTR down to My Boat .

Due to the nature of modern society, I would venture a guess that the vast majority of people, deep-down, desire money. Not necessarily because they are materialistic, but because they want life to be less stressful and more enjoyable.

I think what most people want is that one something that fills the void in their soul.

Of course most people try to fill their voids with shopping, drugs, alcohol, sex, stealing, eating... I could go on and on.

The net result is a short term satisfaction that commonly ends up in such things as guilt or buyers remourse, etc. Only to be repeated again and again.

But my opinion is all those are not recognised by the individuals and they never look hard and deep within to what really is missing from their life.

i think for the most part we are pressured into thinking we need stuff.
Look at commercials, they centre around the notion that "if you buy our product your life will be as awesome as this!"
And we buy into that illusion.
We have ourselves to blame for it, we think that things give us a sense of fulfilment.
whenever i get the urge to buy something i don't really need (that happens more often than i will admit) i start calling some friends to go out for a few glasses of wine, and eventually the realization arrives that the thing i wanted could not buy this moment i'm having.
I try my best to connect any purchase with some kind of emotional response, like "what emotions will this bring into my life if i buy it?" if the answer is "none" then it's time to close the website and go for drinks.
the last thing i bought that i am happy with is a mini projector by LG, every night me and my lady cuddle up and have our own "home cinema"
So i guess i am at a point where i kinda understand where happiness is...but i rather not take up the 5000 offer just to play it safe

Most media, print and television, is geared around selling us things. Marketers talk about "lifestyle" all the time, like we all have to have one!
Endless "reality" TV shows showing the trashy rich and famous (celebrities too are another creation of the marketing men) is also meant to install a sense of aspiration in us to crave what we don't have or cannot afford. Of course, that has led to the enormous credit boom as well.

In short, we are bombarded with marketing material 24/7/365 in the never ending marketing and consumerism world that has been created. People have become shallow and driven by greed and the pursuit of money and aspirations of celebrity lifestyles, that they realistically are never going to attain. That too leads to sadness and depression, but hey, the marketing men and corporations can sell us some drugs to solve that feeling of inadequacy too!

originally posted by: TheJesuit
Hi All,

Salaams.

wanting for whatever conscious or unconscious justifications you may come up with, is it hardwired into our minds as a human in this day and age or culture?

Both. Most if not all animals investigate things that capture their attentions. Some investigate things through smells, small bites, or the such. Others simply grab it, run off with it, and fiddle with it to see if it has a purpose for them. Many cats, dogs, birds, monkeys, and raccoons are like this.

Humans do a glorified version of this. We desire things that capture our senses and things that capture our imaginations. Consumerism just exploits this instinctive drive to attain things.

Are you aware of it in whole ?

Umm, I guess?

Example lets say you have a fixed sum of 5000 a week forever how long would your list of stuff you would want to get and how would it lead to more stuff to get.

Sorry, but I'm incredibly ambitious; like Chingiss/Genghis Khan ambitious. I'm trying to end world hunger, all forms of involuntary homelessness, all racism & bigotry, and purge all negativity from the world. $5,000 a week is just a stepping stone towards reaching my goals. Unless you meant 5,000 new soldiers, 5,000 pounds of gold, or 5,000 new land deeds a week, of course. Then we can talk

Though to be fair, a guaranteed $5,000 USD/week forever could be used for many ways too. But it wouldn't quench my thirst at all.

What do we really want?

Everyone is different so that's hard to answer. But most people seem to want a place where they feel accepted, a mate (or mates), and the ability to fulfill their dreams, whims, and needs.

Seems to me that wanting "stuff" in lot of people becomes less important if you stop watching commercials and as you get older and/or wiser. It also seems less important to my son's generation than it was to mine.

Don't get me wrong. You still want some stuff, but the drive for it just gets a lot less intense..almost to the point where you start to want to divest yourself of this stuff that you realize is weighing or has weighed you down.

So yes. I'd say it stops.

I want the security of knowing I will have a roof over my head. The security of knowing the food I require for my particular medically necessary diet will always be available to me. The security of knowing my medications will always be available to me, and within my means to acquire. I want some music to listen to. Some friends to talk to who understand and accept me. The promise of the occasional new experience, even if it's just a sight I've not seen. I want to avoid severe pain and suffering. I want to love and to be loved. I want to live and let live. I want a few knickknacks that harken to my nostalgia & fond memories that can greet me every day when I wake. I want to feel some sense of connection to something larger than myself, even when I am alone.

And at the end of that thing we call life, I want to pass away peacefully and without severe pain or suffering as well. (Dignity is irrelevant to me. I just don't want to suffer, mentally or physically.)

That's my list of wants in totality. Peace.

Twice in my life I have "walked away" carrying my worldly possessions in a bag
No better feeling in the world than to want only what you need

If you need vast wealth and power to achieve your goals then so be it
There is nothing wrong with wanting such things only in the intention to which you use them

Yet we are conditioned to want things which are of no use to us
But everything comes at a price even the things which we regard as free

Unfortunately the richer nations have become throw away society's based on fad and fashion
Valuing worthless things

People should never be placed above material possessions

We come into the world with nothing but our soul and leave with nothing more than soul

a reply to: TheJesuit

We want peace; the exhale of good conception; agape; all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).

We want to see/feel that we have reproduced good concepts/good conception, yet we have been tricked into believing that obtaining material assets are said production, when it's not - it's not about the body - it's not about materials - it's about seeing the spirit conceived.

We eat to feel the release of desire.

Oh, there are plenty of things I think I might like to have, but then again, I am fully aware that I don't need them. I have the things I need at the moment - my family, my relative health, the ability to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter.

Yeah, I don't have the fancy clothes, top of the line car, house with curb appeal or lots of space, but I don't need those things. No one really does. We just think we do, and if someone aspires to them, there is no harm in it so long as they don't lose their sense of perspective on what's really important.

Greetings- That is part of "The Trap".. You'll only want 'it' until You get it and then it is a wanting for something else. Look at folks that can buy anything they want, are they more happy/content than You? Aren't they still 'wanting'?

The Tao Te Ching teaches Us that accumulating too many things takes more of our most valuable asset, 'time'.. The time it takes to polish it, the expense to insure it, the time worrying about it.

Gandhi was happy and He had a stick and a robe.

Rhetorical query: Would You rather die with $1M in debt, or $1M in the bank?

Doesn't Mr. Buffett, Mr. Gates, et al. still try to make a buck? Are they any happier than You? Is the person who dies and leaves a fortune to a cat any less/more happy than the next Self?

I'd opine that each little 'wish' would be replaced as soon as You acquired the first 'wish'. As soon as one 'want' is taken care of onto the next 'want'... More important question: What do You NEED?

Like locust....

namaste

I want financial piece of mind. Bills paid on time. Food and gas when I need it, not when I can afford it. Simple things.

That and a Mini Cooper JCW

I am generalising here, but: Greedy humans will never be satisfied... It must be hardwired into our makeup or developed throughout our childhood... Our youth are essentially provided for by parent/s or guardian/s and therefore develop very little understanding of the effort it takes to obtain things or the true value of those things...

I knew a lady who was born into money
Had her own private plane
Married to a world famous rock star
She confided that she was deeply unhappy
Her money could buy anything she required
But it could not satisfy her soul

Mainstream Media manipulates people into "wanting" something,, but behind it all, the MM is itself run by people who also have "wants" (profits/market share etc)... In the end (in its most simplest form) it all boils down to an endless cycle of greed and selfishness, and every year another generation of human "robots" enter the workforce with higher aspirations than their predecessors and a greater dose of cutthroat ambition... ((Evolution))

Resource acquisition is natural but we're the weird species who can accumulate far beyond needs and into greedy wants. We can also swing to the other extreme and neglect basic needs. The common themes are confusing wants with needs and being able to bypass instinct with higher thought. I think it's part of our potential that is expressed in maladaptive ways in some cultures and individuals. Oh well we are a tinkering species.