Advertising tries to stimulate our sensuous desires, converting luxuries into necessities, but it only intensifies man's inner misery. The business world is bent on creating hungers which its wares never satisfy, and thus it adds to the frustrations and broken minds of our times.
-Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979), Lift Up Your Heart, 1942
Sheen's powerful words explain our society so well. Today, research has proven that people buy and buy and buy to make themselves happier but in truth, while "converting luxuries into necessities," they are actually intensifying their "inner misery." Businesses strive off of "creating hungers" or making and selling products that will be bought just because another family (the Joneses) bought those products therefore making themselves seem better than everyone else because they have more. Sheen's quote reflects and emphasizes the pain of our societies over consumption but slightly pushes towards the realization that over consumption will not end because of the business world.
Too true. How many of us consider our cell phone a necessity?
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