Anyone watch this?
I saw an older archived thread on Yelp where people just said, “ewww gross”. I get that sentiment, but I think it might be massively important, because it shows what happened in our culture of excess and how we were led down a certain path where specific people make tighter bonds with “things” or “objects” than with humans. It also highlights our culture of consumption… it’s funny to watch the show and see it go into a commercial for “BIG LOTS” and two yuppies yammering “WE NEED MORE STUFF WE NEED MORE STUFF”.
I think a lot of people don’t like the show because it hits so close to home…. that we want to cultivate and keep “stuff” as part of our identity.
It fascinates me, unlike reality show garbage. I don’t mean to suggest hoarding is like normal consumption. It is something likely genetic, and is a manifestation of some general disorder; OCD, etc. My thoughts though, were that some people were scared or disgusted by the show because it hit home with our culture’s mindless consumptive tendencies…. not that the majority of therapy shopping or stupid trinket purchases mean one is a hoarder. There are serious, and obvious, mental issues there…. it just seems to make us culturally revisit how this sort of thing happens. The trauma to create this into being has got to be significant….. people not trusting humans and rather trust inanimate objects because “those objects never leave me” type of stuff.
I just find it fascinating, but more of a philosophical exploration of modern tendencies of want and desire in consumerism, rather than the exploitative nonsense that most reality tv show puts out there.
This is endlessly interesting to me.
It reminds me of the Fugazi line “You are not what you own”
It is fascinating, sad, scary, and creepy at times. It is amazing seeing all these seemingly normal people all of a sudden freak out because someone is trying to throw away a calendar from 7 years ago, or expired meat from 4 years earlier.
What are your thoughts?