Last night, walking home, I saw a trio of young boys (9 or 10, maybe?) walking along, each with a styrofoam fast-food container full of catsup-covered fries. My quick judgement was they each had a serving of fries too big for their stomachs, but I understood the urge to have one’s own order all to oneself.
Regardless of the validity of my judgement (perhaps the servings were just right!), it led me to wonder about how universal this experience is.
I recall being young, and how important it was to have my own things. Sharing’s great, but having your own serving or toy can make you feel more individual, independent, or adult. Hand-me-down’s are understandable, but you’d rather have your own that’s unique to you; it’s tied up with your sense of identity, maybe. Even as a grown-up, I’m inclined to buy a new “something” for myself rather than have someone else’s used things, even if “refurbished,” although economic circumstances are highly influential in this decision process.
But, how much of this is a universal human urge? How much of it is influenced by a culture that highly values newness and ties identity to material posessions? As a young person, do you sense the need to have your own things because you see it as something adult figures value? Or are these innate urges that modern marketing merely magnifies? Does this urge go all the way back to our ancestors who may have valued the tools and supplies that served their survival in an uncertain world, and looked to cling to them and defend them from loss, damage or misuse?
As our species faces ever more pressing issues of sustainability, and (hopefully) questions the deep assumptions of capitalism, can we find ways to encourage and magnify the also human urge to share resources wisely and efficiently? Is there a possible world where three young boys out on the town decide to get just one large serving of fries to share rather than each purchasing their own? (Or is that actually pretty common in many places, and I’m limited by only seeing one example, with these boys, in this city, in this part of the world?)
