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walkitoutAnother thing I have been thinking about, since I realized this Bad Belief (“I have to extract every possible bit of value from everything I own”) existed is, not just, wait, why don’t _I_ believe this Bad Belief (I really, really, really aggressively don’t, and it has led to some extremely bizarre confrontations/conflict/negative interactions with people I care about and respect). I have (had?) a related belief: things have value when they are being used. So if I wasn’t using something, the Good thing would be to get it to someone (anyone, really, but there’s another better / worse axis here, too) who would use it. (The better/worse axis is variable — could be, whoever has the greatest need for it. Could be, whoever will get the _most_ use out of it. Etc.)
Honestly, this is also quite exhausting. It’s not a great thing to believe either. But my belief — value comes _from_ use, runs in the opposite direction of the Specialness comes from Not Being Used, and the Specialness comes from Not Being Used is an amazingly pervasive characteristic in our society. And I am also trying to work out the interaction of these two structures with the above and previously described Bad Belief. And I think I finally got it. If you have thing that you don’t give to someone who can use them, and you do not use them yourself and you participate in the I Must Extract Every Possible Bit of Value from everything I own nonsense, then having a lot of things around you that you are not using _means you have a lot of special_.
I mean. When you lay it out like that, hoards of shiny gold and silver and lapis and otherwise beautiful stuff really hits different. If you just have hoards of tools and building materials and so forth, you have established that you have a lot of special, but a lot of people who aren’t participating in one or all of these beliefs will just go, but why. But if it is bright and shiny, the consumption is aesthetic and often instantaneous upon view, so having _that_ hidden away Makes Sense to non participants who then try to grab it and sell it. But of course, it’s only special if it’s not being used.
Which. Wow.
Honestly, this is also quite exhausting. It’s not a great thing to believe either. But my belief — value comes _from_ use, runs in the opposite direction of the Specialness comes from Not Being Used, and the Specialness comes from Not Being Used is an amazingly pervasive characteristic in our society. And I am also trying to work out the interaction of these two structures with the above and previously described Bad Belief. And I think I finally got it. If you have thing that you don’t give to someone who can use them, and you do not use them yourself and you participate in the I Must Extract Every Possible Bit of Value from everything I own nonsense, then having a lot of things around you that you are not using _means you have a lot of special_.
I mean. When you lay it out like that, hoards of shiny gold and silver and lapis and otherwise beautiful stuff really hits different. If you just have hoards of tools and building materials and so forth, you have established that you have a lot of special, but a lot of people who aren’t participating in one or all of these beliefs will just go, but why. But if it is bright and shiny, the consumption is aesthetic and often instantaneous upon view, so having _that_ hidden away Makes Sense to non participants who then try to grab it and sell it. But of course, it’s only special if it’s not being used.
Which. Wow.