Now that I’m finally back down to my playing weight, I can tell on myself: I was a bad boy on Thanksgiving. To steal a couple of my own (old) jokes, the way I ate, I was lucky the universe was expanding. They say no man is an island, but I came close. It was sheer gluttony!

Of course, what I ate was a mere snack compared to what I devoured at the Thanksgiving dinners of my youth. But that was then and this is now.

Gluttony is defined by the dictionary as “excessive eating and drinking.” But, metaphorically speaking, just about anything one does in excess is gluttonous.

Gluttony should not be confused with greed, which is an “excessive” desire to acquire wealth or material things. Everyone is greedy. That is what motivates people to produce better goods and services for others. They know that to the extent they do so, they have a good chance of being financially successful.

Gluttony, on the other hand, is self-indulgence. It is a lack of self-discipline. It is yielding to your desires even when you know it is not in your long-term best interest to do so.

We all know of famous billionaires who are driven to succeed but are not self-indulgent. Some, in fact, practice moderation to such an extent that they don’t seem to live much better than the average person.

When I was a young man, I reveled in gluttony. Not just when it came to food, drink, and … well, other things … but entertainment as well — plays, musicals, concerts, parties. I was even gluttonous when it came to sports. I never wore my ball cap backward or painted my face with my favorite teams’ colors, but I indulged myself in agonizing over their trials and tribulations. I was a sports glutton.

Thankfully, at some point in time, I grew up and came to realize that I was a slave to entertainment and a material lifestyle. Now, don’t get me wrong. Entertainment, in moderation, is a healthy aspect of life. And material things make life more enjoyable and more comfortable. But in excess, they can make one feel … well … gluttonous.

While it’s self-evident that the United States has become a gluttonous culture, this excessive craving for entertainment and material objects didn’t begin yesterday. It’s been evolving for decades, as evidenced by the words of Erich Fromm in The Art of Loving, written clear back in 1956:

Man overcomes his conscious despair by the routine of amusement, the passive consumption of sounds and sights offered by the amusement industry; furthermore by the satisfaction of buying ever new things, and soon exchanging them for others. …

Man’s happiness today consists in “having fun.” Having fun lies in the satisfaction of consuming and “taking in” commodities, sights, food, drinks, cigarettes, people, lectures, books, movies — all are consumed, swallowed.

The world is one great object for our appetite, a big apple, a big bottle, a big breast; we are the sucklers, the eternally expectant ones, the hopeful ones – and the eternally disappointed ones.

Our character is geared to exchange and to receive, to barter and to consume; everything, spiritual as well as material objects, becomes an object of exchange and of consumption.

Even Jdimytai Damour, a giant of a man (6′5″ tall and 275 pounds) who was a temporary worker at a Walmart in Valley Stream, New York, was no match for the gluttonous appetite of man. Forming a human tidal wave of consumption, Christmas shoppers pushing their way into the store the day after Thanksgiving consumed his life because he couldn’t get out of their way fast enough.

Of course, they didn’t set out to kill him. They were simply fixated on saving a few bucks on some goodies Walmart was offering at discount prices. Imagine: In the midst of a collapsing economy and faced with the prospect of a dramatically lower standard of living, they were so addicted to a life of gluttony that they swallowed up Mr. Damour’s life in their haste to indulge themselves.

I hardly need to point out that I am a hard-core, free-market capitalist. As such, I believe that a deflationary depression is a good thing for the economy because it shakes out excesses. It exposes the lie of artificial wealth. Above all, it calms the soul, tempers our gluttonous instincts, and causes us to refocus our priorities.

Periodically, I have to remind myself (usually as a result of impulsive, gluttonous behavior on my part) that I’m a much happier person when I practice temperance in all things (except, perhaps, when it comes to the cause of liberty). Refusing to yield to my gluttonous instincts makes me feel in control. It makes me feel strong. It’s like an investment in my self-esteem.

Remember — technically speaking, there is no such thing as adversity. Adversity is just a word we use to describe a fact (or set of facts). What’s important is how we react to it.

If a lower standard of living motivates you to practice moderation and self-restraint, a difficult economic time can turn out to be a proverbial blessing in disguise. At best, it may motivate you to connect — or reconnect. And being connected is worth far more than any material plaything money can buy.

I hope that what I have said here will help you think about how you’re going to handle the difficult economic times ahead. Always keep in mind that you have free will, which means that you can choose to find both business and personal opportunities that will not be visible to those who are focused on what they believe they are entitled to. Such people are likely to have a difficult time accepting the reality that the Age of Gluttony is coming to an end.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Human Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can comment below, or trackback from your own site.