Buy What You Need

The whole world is selling you something.

It’s in IKEA floor plans and checkout lines and the way they herd you past impulse items.  It’s in the way the lead character in your favorite show sets his glass down with the logo facing you. It’s in every Facebook post.

Buy me! It doesn’t matter if it’s a desk lamp or Coca-Cola or the perfect family life. It has very little do with where you are and everything to do with human nature.

Buyer meet seller.

It happens at the base of the Great Pyramid. It happens in the shadow of the Coliseum. It happens from the moment you enter Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.  The same guy is there, selling you the same selfie stick.  My friend, my friend. I have what you need!

The world is a way easier place to navigate once you see through that sales matrix.  It becomes easier to say no. Recognizing the manipulation incenses me.  It makes me feel like they think I’m dumb. It emboldens me to say no. The more bullshit I sense from a salesperson, human or otherwise, the more indignant I become.

You can become so indignant in fact, that you’ll hunker down and refuse to buy anything more than you need.

And that’s where the freedom is.

It’s a pessimistic outlook regarding human nature but it’s effective, and it will keep you from spending all your vacation money on the first guy selling tours when you walk out of the subway.  We’re not here for them.

We’re not here to buy what they sell. We’re here to buy what we need to make our particular journey an easier, more enjoyable one.

And no one knows what those things are but us.

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