Minimalism: A Documentary on the Important Things

Minimalism: A Documentary on the Important Things. (2016). [DVD] USA: Kino Lorber on Netflix.

Influences in society section

• 'So much of our life is lived in a fog of automatic, habitual behaviour. We spend so much time on the hunt but nothing ever quite does it for us. We get so wrapped up in the hunt that is makes us miserable.' - link well to Bauman's Identity Theory
• People can have everything they're meant to have but they can still be miserable on the inside 'There was a gaping void in my life' - Ryan Nicodemus He talks about how he tried to fill this void with stuff with consumer purchases 
• 'I was spending money faster than I was making it trying to buy happiness'
• 'I was living pay check to pay check. But I wasn't really living at all'
• Western society is experiencing the best standard of living in history
• Biological based delusional craving for more - its an auto responsive to keep animals alive but in todays world it creates a disconnect - it is a human condition from the birth of our creation to always feel restless
• 'It's why lottery winners are miserable' 'It's why home owners have 2 car garages - the first car brings joy and utility, the second car comes because we tire of the first 
• We are encouraged to maintain the addiction through technology and information (food) (technology of gluten free food)
• There's an illusion of what our lives should look like, whether it's advertising or social media. It's this illusion that our lives should be perfect - have this as opening line to introduce others from section
• We see advertising as 'yard sticks' of where we should aim to be - link to health obsessed celebs
• There is an immense amount of dissatisfaction trying to live a certain way to what we idolise to be
• Advertising has polluted and infiltrated culture - it's in our movies, it's in our TV shows, it's in our books, it's in the doctors, it's in taxis - it's the person sat next to you in the bar who may have been placed there by an alcohol company 
• This concept is not new - it has been sold to us for 100 years or so for these companies to make money - they want us to believe that we really need these things.
• Every year that passes theres more stimuli, there's more things
• 'We are too materialistic in the every day world and we are not at all materialistic in the true sense of the word'