The Anti-Consumer Protocol
How to Break the Shackles of Stuff
Gm Gents.
We live in a culture predicated by stuff. Owning stuff, taking care of said stuff, showing off stuff. Stuff has become a source of meaning, a status symbol, a reason to work harder. Everybody knows a guy (or is a guy) whose phone background is a moodboard of stuff. A yacht, a watch, a mid-level sports car. Material goods somehow made their way to the top of the value chain.
The funny thing is stuff has become exponentially less meaningful. Mass consumerism and global supply chains have made luxuries once accessible to the elite now ubiquitous. Leasing a sports car and a 5 figure watch is less a sign of status and more a sign of financial illiteracy.
Luxuries have become accessible to the masses, while core necessities have become unreachable to a vast majority. Single-income household? Good luck. Owning a house by 30? Death sentence of a mortgage. Everybody's been too busy buying Labubus and Dubai Chocolate to realize they'll never own a home or support a family.
What I'm trying to point out here is: traditional sources of fulfillment and purpose have been replaced by stuff. It fills the void previously occupied by vocation, family, faith, and community. You buy stuff you don't need to impress people you don't like, which keeps you working jobs you hate. This my friends is what we call the rat race.
We're all stuck on this nihilistic flywheel: We feel something is missing in our life so we buy stuff to fill that hole but all it does is distract us from finding the true solution. Material goods are the SSRIs of the material world: It masks symptoms enough to take away the pain, but doesn’t solve the problem. Here’s the thing though, the pain is there for a REASON. Feelings of emptiness, void, and desire are your brains way of saying “DO SOMETHING”. And its never been easier to stuff this signal with noise.
Stuff Moves your Goalposts
Nothing will derail you from your life mission more than stuff. One of my friends told me he wanted to move to New York to pursue standup but was having trouble taking the leap. I asked him whats holding him back and he literally said (im paraphrasing here) he liked his furniture and couldn't bring it with him. This guy gave up his dream for a COUCH. A fucking Wayfair sofa.
So not only does stuff hold you back, it takes you down the wrong path. Let me give you an example: Sensitive young man has a dream of owning an animal rehabilitation center. Knows that he needs to make money to do that so he starts a marketing agency. Moves to Miami and starts making money, starts buying nice apartment, chrome heart jeans, and entry-level sports car. Before he knows it, the goalposts have shifted. He's no longer driven by paraplegic animals but rather whatever clothing brand some industry plant is wearing at Club Space. Bro is living it up. 800 square feet in Brickell, Nice clothes, Labubu collection, he can't give this up now! But he's still not fulfilled. Obviously its because his apartment doesn't have a balcony and his neighbor just bought a nicer Porsche.
Talk about an absolute SUCKER. This fool! He was motivated by Andrew Tate to escape the matrix only to end up in the literal script for the Matrix. Are you really this gullible? Can you not see that you're being played like a fiddle? I'm telling you right now, no amount of clothes, bottle service, or Labubus will make up for that hole in your heart. For the void you feel when you're left to your own devices. You are climbing up the wrong mountain my friend. And the only way off of it is to base jump down.
The Less You Need, the Richer you are
I'm telling you right now, no material good will make up for meaning, adventure, and purpose. Most people take a lifetime to realize this. You're smarter than that. But I don't want you to take my word for it. Experience it for yourself.
I want you to speedrun to your material goals. Maybe its a nice apartment, a car, cool clothes, a Tibetan Mastiff. Acquire it, enjoy it, but ask yourself, "is this what I'm truly searching for?". One of two things will happen: The answer is yes and you are simply somebody driven by material status (doubt it). The answer is no and you can remove the desire from your brain. The people that can't comprehend how they'd feel if they didn't have breakfast yesterday would probably say "but Noah, me like big shoebox in sky! Rolex go bling bling!". To which I ask the recruitment of your abstract reasoning faculties. Entertain the nuance that something can be enjoyable, desirable, and worth acquiring, without being a primary driver of your life.
I like cool stuff. I have a boat, guns, dirtbike, various supplements and peptides. But I bought all of these on my own accord. If nobody knew I had these, I'd still own them. Can you say the same about your stuff? Would you really own those ugly ass jeans if they didn't come with the name brand clout? Would you drive that German automobile if nobody ever say you in it? Find the things the answer is yes to, and get rid of everything else. But even with the meaningful stuff, you need to put it in its place.
The Thing-Prison
Stuff should be very low on your hierarchy of needs. Everything I own I'd be willing to give up tomorrow. I spent 3 years with all of my belongings in a suitcase for this reason: Stuff is a trap. When you have the stuff, you can't imagine life without it. You're constantly thinking about it, wondering if you should use it, worrying about losing it. But once you let it go, you realize that it wasn't that important in the first place. Your attachment to things is no different than a childs attachment to a stuffed animal. That animal is the world to them, they can't imagine life without it. Until it gets lost, then they don't think about it ever again. This is thing-prison, and you're Michael Scofield.
Reverse Retail Therapy
They call it retail therapy, because like all therapy, it doesn't work. The same people that make you feel like shit are the people selling you stuff that allegedly makes you better. Its all one big club, and you're not in it. I implore you to practice inverse retail therapy. An