By Sheldon Greaves

This post appeared previously in Unexpected Leisure, 02 February 2011

The imperative to keep up with the Jones’ has driven many a consumer to spend beyond their means.  Purveyors of stuff, particularly expensive stuff know this and pitch their wares accordingly.  As a culture we have seen an entire set of standards developed and imposed on us to dictate what we buy and why we buy it.  There is quite a bit of truth in the idea that people do not buy what they want or even what they need, but what they are told to buy.

Many run-of-the-mill range of consumer goods are there to be bought rather than seen.  But other purchases constitute an investment that the buyer hopes will pay off in a social coin that implies moving up in the world.  The luxury items do this, of course, but so do smaller things such as spending money in venues where the big spenders and the “in crowd” squanders money.

This kind of physical ostentation is nothing new; it is a form of posturing as old evolution.  We are just seeing that and other psychological quirks involving resource instincts utilized in deliberate, calculated ways to push our quest to be taken seriously into overdrive.  This raises some interesting questions.  If Madison Avenue can dictate what constitutes ostentation, could we ordinary folk not do the same? Maybe we can make our own decisions about what is significant or interesting about a person.

My big beef with the advertising industry as a whole is that they frequently take the position–subtly implied–that your life is really lame but would not be lame if you bought their products.  They are purveyors or industrial quantities of manufactured discontent, which is a lousy basis for purchasing decisions.  I wonder if this constant stream of information that implies that your life sucks is in part responsible for the epidemic of depression in this country.

But I digress.  What constitutes healthy ostentation?  Excessive competence, kindness, honesty and trustworthiness. The ability to make do grandly with less. Staying well-informed in spite of a crippled news media. Inward serenity and the ability to raise hell for a good cause that really is a good cause.  The ability to express oneself well in writing or music or art.  You’ll notice a pattern here; these are things that are intrinsic to the individual.  If you stripped away every other external thing, you still have prodigal excellence wrapped within the person. Such a persona does not come without effort, or cost.  But the result is better for all and does not feed the counterfeiters of contentment.