Response to "I'm Beat"

I didn't want to just do this as a comment, in case you never saw it.

While reading your post about the idealism of youth and the materialism of the older generation, I was reminded of this speech given by Shawn Miller (a current history professor at BYU) about learning and knowledge. This, along with two other articles I had to read for my Historian's Craft class motivated me to make that powerpoint presentation of inspirational quotes, which is really cheesy and slightly tacky, but I was so pumped about learning. Haha.

Anyways, I think that there is an antidote to materialism, even when we are forced to be materialistic (buy a house for our family, go on vacations; I guess that is not a requirement, but what I'm getting at is that later in our lives we will probably spend more money than we do now and buy some things at stores besides the DI). Worded eloquently by Shawn Miller:

"Seeking knowledge also can be an effective antidote to worldliness. We invest a great deal in the acquisition of stuff. Companies bombard us with slick, relentless propaganda as to why we must have their stuff, and we judge an individual’s success by their stuff’s sheer quantity and supposed quality."

"But consumption never was creativity. . . . Stuff beyond our basic needs does not liberate . . . . Consider the overall investment of your time. You have to shop for stuff. You have to clean, maintain, and organize stuff. You lose stuff. You look for stuff. You polish stuff, secure it against theft, trip over it, recharge it, upgrade it, accessorize it, pack it, move it, unpack it, insure it, fix it, and eventually sell, trash, or bequeath it. . . . Very much unlike stuff, knowledge has few such liabilities. Knowledge does not depreciate but grows deeper, stronger, and more valuable with each use. Unlike stuff, knowledge has neither mass nor volume and does not take up any space outside the bounds of our cranium. Unlike in the accumulation of stuff, in getting knowledge you will never have to build a three-car garage on the side of your head. Your mind has no upper limit of mega-, giga-, or terabytes. ... Also unlike stuff, knowledge can be given to others without diminishing our stock."

Now don't you feel like making a PowerPoint on that?