A man stands on the stage, comfortable in his white, middle class upbringing, unperturbed by the diversity of the world around him. He tells you to sell your stuff, really, it just owns you, and go travel, do something more valuable than keep up with the Jones'. The stuff is temporary, he says. Then again so is travel, we all come back to our jobs, unless you can manage to quit and travel forever, but who can afford that? Who can afford a vacation in the first place? Who has accumulated enough stuff to sell it? He's comfortably making assumptions about our financial wellbeing. Like nothing more than a month of nothing but travel, but I get two weeks, and that's it, then it's back to work. I can't afford to take a year off and just go to every continent, can't leave my sister behind like that, or my parents, I mean maybe I could, but where would it leave me? What are our responsibilities?
The man gets a round of applause and everyone walks away thinking how they'd love to travel, how the stuff does own them - hasn't everyone seen Fight Club? - and that if only they could afford the money and time it takes. Perhaps another day.
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