We’ve made wanting things into a moral failing.
Want a nicer car? You’re materialistic. Want recognition at work? You’re vain. Want your ex back? You’re pathetic. Want to be rich? You’re shallow.
But here’s what I notice: the people who shame desire the most still want things. They just want different things. The monk who’s renounced material possessions? He wants enlightenment. The minimalist who owns twelve items? She wants simplicity. The stoic who claims to be above it all? He wants inner peace.
They’re not less human for wanting these things. They’re more human.
Desire is what separates us from rocks. Rocks don’t want anything. They just exist. We exist and we want. We imagine better futures. We reach for things that don’t exist yet. We suffer when we can’t have what we want, and we suffer when we get it and it disappoints us.
This is the human condition. Not a bug in our programming. The feature.
Yes, some desires make us miserable. The endless scroll for status. The hunger for things that can’t satisfy. But the solution isn’t to stop wanting. It’s to want better things. Or at least to want honestly.
I’d rather live in a world of people who admit what they want than people who pretend they’re above wanting anything at all.
At least the first group is telling the truth.