From last night's bullshit: Thoughts on Hermes and consumerism
It truly is amazing what you can say that starts shit on the internet. Its also amazing the way two people can twist everything you say around until you sound like the biggest asshole on the planet.
It started when I made an innocent comment that, while I won't argue that Hermes is a god with connections with technology and the internet, I don't believe that he shares a lot of our culture's attitudes about consumerism and the technology craze (that often gets projected on Him anyway). By the end of it, not only am I projecting my bullshit on to Him, but my attitudes don't come from my own experience (of Him or of life in general) but something I consciously adopted to be oh so cool and appear ever so much above everyone else who doesn't live exactly like me. For those of you here who know me better than they do (as in beyond one or two posts on a single topic) I'm sure this is old news to you, am I right? :-P
That's the part that had me wanting to put my fist through a wall (or two people's heads) last night. I grew up around fucking snobs, that is not a demographic I have any tolerance for whatsoever, not those who have and think that makes them better nor those who don't have and think that makes them better, it doesn't fucking matter. The only thing in my life I have consciously adopted is a strong desire to not be that asshole that looks down my nose at people based on stupid shit that doesn't matter. I certainly like to think I do a pretty good job of that, hell I've been called a lot of four letter words before (most of which I'll happily own up to) but for that one this would be the first time. Not that I'm taking their ridiculous opinions of me very seriously, you know now that the anger has died down.
Still, I do have further clarifications in my head, and since its pointless to try and explain shit to anyone that seems determined to poo poo and dismiss anything they don't like (and besides, I'm supposed to be swearing off internet drama), I figure I would share it instead with the people here that don't have their heads up their butts.
Like I said, I don't argue Hermes' connections with technology or the internet, although I do think that it gets made a little too much of sometimes. I don't think its his defining characteristic, I don't think its the basis by which you judge who really knows him, and I definitely don't agree that the best possible depiction of him in the modern world is yapping on a cell phone with his face glued to a computer screen. Yes, perhaps you don't know Hermes very well if you don't see his influence in these areas (as I once heard it put during an overall annoying internet conversation), but I'd also say that if you know him *primarily* as god of the internet, if you really think that's where the essence of Hermes lies, sorry but I'd have to say you're the one that doesn't really know him.
No, I don't think he shares a lot of our attitudes in our technology obsessed culture, namely the if I can own it I should and the move to make it so that you never have to really interact with the real world ever again.
For the first, one example close to my own home, push to talk phones. Does that technology have a use? Certainly, I hear they are very useful if you're, say, working at a construction site and you need to communicate with people but its naturally hard to hear in that environment. But does your average person really need to own one of those? No. And yet shit tons of people do. Especially when I was living in the ghetto, literally everyone had one you'd think they were giving them away for free on the street corners. Man, those fucking things were the bane of my existence for a long time there, and it will probably be a long time before that irritating chirping sound stops flipping the kill everything switch in my brain. Really, its bad enough that I have to sit on the bus next to an asshole screaming into a cell phone about oh my god can you believe what she did like they are the only person there (or like the public transportation rules posted right above their heads don't expressly forbid it, but when the hell have you ever seen someone with a cell phone obeying rules not to use it in a particular locale, you're too fucking important for rules), now I get to hear the other end of the conversation too. Oh joy. So now you get to be twice the inconsiderate asshole you would be otherwise (and though I'm not focusing on it, I highly doubt Hermes approves of the general lack of consideration this craze seems to inspire in people), all thanks to a device that you have no fucking need to own.
This next I'm going to say pretty bluntly (even as I suspect I'm preaching to the choir), there is something profoundly pathetic about not being able to go five minutes without being online. And I say this as someone whose primary social outlet is the internet, I fully admit I'm on here more than I probably should be (more than I would be if I was better adjusted, didn't have the introversion and trauma problems). Still, I do get off the internet every now and then, sometimes I'm even off for hours at a time. And you know what, when I am off, when I'm out with my girlfriend or other friends, drinking coffee or wandering around or whatever, I'm not thinking to myself "Man, I wish I could check my email right now." I'm too busy enjoying the real world to think about that.
I will likely never understand why so many people want to have a device that allows them to be able to be on the internet every second of the fucking day wherever they fucking are (and which can preferably be carried in my pocket). I don't understand why so many people honestly think that they need it, I mean really what are you doing on the internet that is so fucking important that you can't wait until you get home? Though it is just one example among many of shit I don't get that people do, it is one that irritates me the most, especially when I see people wanting to depict Hermes as that douchebag that can't get off the computer.
For the most part, I'm not willing to tell people that they are wrong about something when it comes to their impressions of the gods (which is not to say that I don't think people are wrong sometimes, nobody is that open minded; I just keep it to myself generally), but I'll make an exception here. If you really think Hermes is the kind of guy that can't survive without his wireless devices, approves wholeheartedly of loafing in front of the computer for days on end, spends more time looking down at a blackberry than he does interacting with the world around him...you're wrong, you're dead fucking wrong and you clearly have the most shallow, one sided understanding of him possible. That image does not in any way fit in with his character as shown in myth, cult practice, experienced by the vast majority of his modern worshippers.
I do think Hermes perfectly approves of technology as a means to make life easier, or to open new avenues (like the internet making it possible to meet people you otherwise never would have). That doesn't mean people don't take it too far, or that the deities that oversee those areas approve of the people that abuse it. Which brings us to the consumerism part of the argument.
Despite the arguments from those who don't know me as well as they'd like to imagine, I come by my lack of materialism quite naturally; I've never been interested in own a shit ton of stuff merely for the sake of owning it. I have very few interests and hobbies and only one of those, my love of story telling, has led me to own non essential to survival technology (computer, television, video game consoles). That I grew up without a lot of money and in general was always very late to the game as far as technology went, going without long past the point everyone else had one, may have played a part in that. That I grew up in an upper class area where you were judged by the label on your clothes and what sort of car you drove rather than on the weight of your character (lucky for them, as most of them didn't have much as far as that went - the town was actively trying to drive out middle class residents and are having an unnecessary mall built because they don't want their children to have to go to school with poor kids, to give you some idea of what I'm talking about), keeping in mind that as I said we didn't have a lot of money, probably plays a part in that as well. Its certainly not an affectation I developed so that I and all my douchebag friends can sit around and feel superior to everyone else (I hang out with assholes that hate everyone, including themselves, damn it!).
I spent my life around people that towed the commonly followed line, people that go out and get high paying (or as high as they can get) careers so they can have all this money to buy all this stuff, and it yet they hate their fucking lives. My father had a pretty good career and a far better retirement that could very well classify him as upper class now whether he'll admit to that or not, and that job turned him into a miserable asshole with a hatred of people that often crosses into bigotry; over twenty years I listened to him bitch about how much he hates his job, everyone he works with everyone he comes into contact through it, he started counting down the days to his retirement five years in advance and during that whole time the bitching only intensified. He used to be a real fun guy, now I can't stand to talk to him half the time. I haven't noticed having money anymore makes him happy, he's just selfish and paranoid about it again to the point where its unbearable to talk to him (he knows the rest of his family doesn't have money so I think in his mind this means we all would want his money if we knew he had it, so he downplays or outright lies about how much he makes and tries to come off like he's just as poor as the rest of us, like we're all fucking blind and stupid, gods I don't care about your money I don't want your fucking money and I'd quietly go move under a bridge before I ever asked you for help; though I have to say, when you've bought yourself a top of the line bicycle or several thousand dollars while your young children get everything second hand including clothes from the kind of store where you pay by the trash bag full, or when you sell your old car to your pregnant for the second time daughter whose just been laid off her job and her husband working at Starbucks to support his family at fucking blue book value and make them pay the fucking sales tax (which drained all their savings, although its still better than what he thought it would be, he thought they'd have to get a loan) because man this economy is just so hard on everyone and I simply can't afford to give you a discount even though I just bought a brand new car with fucking cash and just now picked up a nice new summer home on a whim, poverty just sucks doesn't it...at this point you're just being a fucking selfish asshole). He's probably the worst case but its not like my mother, or anyone else in my family really fared any better. I know that contributed a lot to my current attitudes, that is not what I wanted my life to end up as, I was miserable enough in my childhood the hell that I was going to spend my adult life miserable too.
According to these people, there is no problem with consumerism, there is no social pressure to conform with everyone else (that ends with high school apparently and after that everyone is tolerant of individualism - which just tells me you are not nearly as out of the ordinary as you might think you are), people spend all their lives working for the money to stock pile this shit because it genuinely makes them happy. Were that really the case, you'd think we'd live in a culture of ecstatically happy fucking people, right? Oh wait, no we don't; for the large part, people in this culture are angry and depressed. Though I'm sure no one thinks that might partly be because they sink most of their lives into working unsatisfying jobs so they can afford to buy all this allegedly necessary stuff (or struggle with living beyond their means to keep up with trends). Oh wait...
I've also known a bunch of people that downsized their lives, left a high paying white collar job for something else (or opened their own small business, or started making a living off their art, etc.), did pay as much as the old job did but it was something more fulfilling to them, and freed up more of their time than they once had to do things they wanted to do. Its more than possible to reorganize your life so that you can live comfortable and do and have what you really want.
Somehow saying that Hermes is about necessity, whatever you need to be comfortable and happy (as opposed to excess), I am apparently denying any connection Hermes has to monetary gain (yes, thank you for reminding me of his connections to the marketplace, thieves and gamblers, I just converted yesterday and I like had no idea). Because like I have a relationship with Hermes and he helps me get money, so you are just totally wrong there.
I don't know this woman so I'm not going to judge what her relationship with Hermes is or is not, my policy has always been to take a statement at face value until I know more about you to judge, I'm not going to change that just because she pissed me off (the other woman seems to only be familiar with Hermes from mythology, so not paying attention to that here). So he helps you earn money, whoop-dee-do. Guess what, he's done that for me, too. He got me a job when I needed one, and when my health problems made it clear I couldn't keep working, he arranged another source of income for me. Whether you claim him as a patron for whatever reasons you have and he hangs around because Hermes is a friendly sort or if you are one of the seemingly fewer people he has strongly owned, that he would help out in this area is not a big surprise (especially if he owns you, most gods whatever their connections to money usually do something to provide for their people, the poor or overworked do not tend to make the best tools). It also, if you notice, does not in any way take away from what I said.
Really, for someone who continuous to throw ancient Greek cultural values in everyone's face even though that's not what we're talking about (and if we all agree that ancient culture does not equal modern culture, that those factors back then are not in play now and hence the gods may well not feel the same way under current circumstances, how is this some irrefutable proof that we're all doing it wrong?) you'd think we'd keep in mind things like balance and moderation, that even if something is a good thing it can be taken to extremes that are not healthy. Or we could apply that to saying that living only to work to buy useless shit does not translate to OMGZ money is EBIL!!!! The material world is evil too (?) and we should all like totally go live in caves or some shit (when I do go to live in a cave, it won't be because money is evil).
Thanks to Hermes' guidance, I live a comfortable life; I'm not wealthy by any one's definition, but I'm comfortable. Renee and I have little in the way of bills (though in the case of not having to pay electric that was pure luck, or Hermes such as the case may be :-)), Renee had a job that allowed her the time to do the things she wanted, and because we're careful about where we spend our money we do seem to have more of it to spend on things we want and to have some fun with than a lot of other people do that make a lot more than us. I never wanted to be wealthy, I wanted to have enough to pay the bills, keep those bills at a bare minimum, and be able to focus on things that will make me happy. And I have that. So I don't have a lot of the things other people do, I don't miss it either. And Renee and I seem to be a lot happier than my father who does have the money, or my mother that admits she pretty much lived her life according the what the standard handbook says and she's never been happy with her circumstances not for as long as I can remember.
And I run into plenty of people that think I'm doing it wrong, because I don't have money and I don't have a career I must be miserable. My old boss once went on for hours about how I need to be a home owner and renting forever is just stupid, she didn't seem to be hearing that I don't see the financial benefit of owning a home I need to pay to maintain myself, and pay taxes on it and pay a mortgage, and even if there was one it doesn't make up for the fact that it would make it difficult to impossible for me to pick up my shit and move should I decide I wanted to which is one freedom I know I need to have to be happy, I'd be willing to take the cut to keep it. But that goes against the standard American lifestyle that says career-home-family. For these people that seem to think there is no social pressure to live a certain way and have certain things, just try and tell people you're not interest in any one of those three givens and watch them jump all over you. People that willingly downsize their lives, get lesser paying jobs and cut expenses only because they want to tend to be seen as nuts by everyone else; that they are doing what they want to do now doesn't quite make up for the fact that they won't have money, the only thing you should care about apparently.
And there is his connections with the market place, which I know I haven't addressed yet but certainly haven't denied. Important to remember there that he plays both sides of that game, and this is one of the areas where its good to keep in mind he's not the harmless sprite some portray him as; he's not always nice or fair, in a lot of these places he governs (marketplace, gambling, thievery) people get screwed over. He knows how the system works, the job of that business is to convince people to buy something, to either make it something you need or just make it sound like something you need, they are only trying to get your money it doesn't matter to them. So the idea that this connection would turn Hermes into some wide eyed consumer who falls in love with every shiny new thing he sees, or would toss a perfectly fine cell phone right over his shoulder because that one there is five minutes newer and has some new application that isn't really necessary beyond the purdies (the idea that there are people out there who just piss money away like that seriously makes me want to go out and start shooting people). Honestly, I think he'd be a lot fucking smarter than that. I think he would want you to be smarter than that, and not get sucked into every sales pitch and buy every new thing that comes into existence.
So yeah, I never fucking said Hermes had no connection with commerce, just that he's not the poster boy for acquiring money and possessions merely for the sake of doing so. I also didn't deny a connection with technology, just again the owning something just because I can and, worse by far, never being without those devices like they are a fifth limb (he's a highly adaptable and versitale traveler, do you really think he wouldn't laugh his ass off at someone rendered next to helpless before your iphone stopped working). Gods usually do govern something in such a way that even its most negative expression gets covered under their influence, but that doesn't mean that's what they encourage in people.
I've always known Hermes as a god of freedom from obligation, think about what you're doing and why you're doing it and if you really want to form a tie there. That I kept stressing words like necessity and happiness seemed to get lost as people took what I said and dove off the deep end with it. I actually have met people that are happy spending most of their lives in high paying white collar jobs, that are genuinely made happy with their money and the stuff they can buy with it. And if that is something that genuinely makes you happy (and I won't pretend to understand it, then again I don't understand wanting to be a corporate executive, don't understand wanting to be a stay at home mom, and most people don't understand wanting to live like I do but so what?) then have at it. But the thing is, despite that our culture is built around collecting money and possessions for the sake of doing so, I don't know of too many people genuinely made happy by doing so; again if this worked we'd have a culture of very happy people. And if this wasn't about a deeply ingrained cultural pressure about what we all *need* to be doing, you probably wouldn't have this trend of people sinking into debt because they are living beyond their means trying to maintain some illusion of a lifestyle they can't afford. Really, in what universe is that not a major problem?
I've known him as a god that wants you to really think about what you're doing, even in areas of commerce. I hear that in the back of my head every time I'm thinking about buying something: is this something that you need to have, are you willing to take on the obligations to have this, to take the losses in other areas, is it really that important? How are these bad (or un-Hermetic) questions to ask before making some major purchase, or tying yourself to a job that will likely suck away most of your time and energy to maintain a lifestyle other people have dictated is a sign of success? He's a god of fucking wisdom after all! When he met me and I had been living under the impression that there was only one path in life (honestly, where do you come to the belief that social pressures do not exist? what rock are you living under?), the one that sucked all the joy out of my family and that I knew was not what I wanted to be, he didn't tell me to go and do it anyway because money and stuff is all that matters to him. He told me to live how I wanted to, he helped show me how it was possible, that you don't need to be swimming in cash to be comfortable and happy. I mean really, was Hermes thought to be living in a mansion and driving a porsche? No, he fucking doesn't, he travels everywhere, he wanders the road and crashes on his father or uncle's couch. He does what he wants to do, and that doesn't appear to be stockpiling money and possessions for the sake of doing so and letting everyone else think he's so cool and successful (how image fits in with him I won't understand), having that freedom seems to be more important than that. That he presides over the liminal moment of exchange, the communication skills between those who want to make a sale and those who want a better deal, does not equal wealth for its own sake. I've never experienced him as a god that will make you a billionaire but one that will help you get the money that you need so you can focus on what you really want in life. If that's amassing more wealth, again fine, enjoy yourself. But if its some other pursuit, maybe something you can't or aren't likely get paid for so you were told it was a waste of time, well that's good too. I've found I'm happier focusing my life on my religion and my writing, even if it means I can never afford a BMW, and you know what he's encouraged that every step of that way (and I don't think its just because its him I'm serving either).
If anything I said here doesn't make sense or you want a clarification on something, really feel free to actually ask me about it (since I'm planning an essay on it for the devotional I shall one day write, I could use it probably). You don't need to jump to the worst possible conclusion, spin your head around on your shoulders and spew bile at me. I'll answer your question best I can.
It started when I made an innocent comment that, while I won't argue that Hermes is a god with connections with technology and the internet, I don't believe that he shares a lot of our culture's attitudes about consumerism and the technology craze (that often gets projected on Him anyway). By the end of it, not only am I projecting my bullshit on to Him, but my attitudes don't come from my own experience (of Him or of life in general) but something I consciously adopted to be oh so cool and appear ever so much above everyone else who doesn't live exactly like me. For those of you here who know me better than they do (as in beyond one or two posts on a single topic) I'm sure this is old news to you, am I right? :-P
That's the part that had me wanting to put my fist through a wall (or two people's heads) last night. I grew up around fucking snobs, that is not a demographic I have any tolerance for whatsoever, not those who have and think that makes them better nor those who don't have and think that makes them better, it doesn't fucking matter. The only thing in my life I have consciously adopted is a strong desire to not be that asshole that looks down my nose at people based on stupid shit that doesn't matter. I certainly like to think I do a pretty good job of that, hell I've been called a lot of four letter words before (most of which I'll happily own up to) but for that one this would be the first time. Not that I'm taking their ridiculous opinions of me very seriously, you know now that the anger has died down.
Still, I do have further clarifications in my head, and since its pointless to try and explain shit to anyone that seems determined to poo poo and dismiss anything they don't like (and besides, I'm supposed to be swearing off internet drama), I figure I would share it instead with the people here that don't have their heads up their butts.
Like I said, I don't argue Hermes' connections with technology or the internet, although I do think that it gets made a little too much of sometimes. I don't think its his defining characteristic, I don't think its the basis by which you judge who really knows him, and I definitely don't agree that the best possible depiction of him in the modern world is yapping on a cell phone with his face glued to a computer screen. Yes, perhaps you don't know Hermes very well if you don't see his influence in these areas (as I once heard it put during an overall annoying internet conversation), but I'd also say that if you know him *primarily* as god of the internet, if you really think that's where the essence of Hermes lies, sorry but I'd have to say you're the one that doesn't really know him.
No, I don't think he shares a lot of our attitudes in our technology obsessed culture, namely the if I can own it I should and the move to make it so that you never have to really interact with the real world ever again.
For the first, one example close to my own home, push to talk phones. Does that technology have a use? Certainly, I hear they are very useful if you're, say, working at a construction site and you need to communicate with people but its naturally hard to hear in that environment. But does your average person really need to own one of those? No. And yet shit tons of people do. Especially when I was living in the ghetto, literally everyone had one you'd think they were giving them away for free on the street corners. Man, those fucking things were the bane of my existence for a long time there, and it will probably be a long time before that irritating chirping sound stops flipping the kill everything switch in my brain. Really, its bad enough that I have to sit on the bus next to an asshole screaming into a cell phone about oh my god can you believe what she did like they are the only person there (or like the public transportation rules posted right above their heads don't expressly forbid it, but when the hell have you ever seen someone with a cell phone obeying rules not to use it in a particular locale, you're too fucking important for rules), now I get to hear the other end of the conversation too. Oh joy. So now you get to be twice the inconsiderate asshole you would be otherwise (and though I'm not focusing on it, I highly doubt Hermes approves of the general lack of consideration this craze seems to inspire in people), all thanks to a device that you have no fucking need to own.
This next I'm going to say pretty bluntly (even as I suspect I'm preaching to the choir), there is something profoundly pathetic about not being able to go five minutes without being online. And I say this as someone whose primary social outlet is the internet, I fully admit I'm on here more than I probably should be (more than I would be if I was better adjusted, didn't have the introversion and trauma problems). Still, I do get off the internet every now and then, sometimes I'm even off for hours at a time. And you know what, when I am off, when I'm out with my girlfriend or other friends, drinking coffee or wandering around or whatever, I'm not thinking to myself "Man, I wish I could check my email right now." I'm too busy enjoying the real world to think about that.
I will likely never understand why so many people want to have a device that allows them to be able to be on the internet every second of the fucking day wherever they fucking are (and which can preferably be carried in my pocket). I don't understand why so many people honestly think that they need it, I mean really what are you doing on the internet that is so fucking important that you can't wait until you get home? Though it is just one example among many of shit I don't get that people do, it is one that irritates me the most, especially when I see people wanting to depict Hermes as that douchebag that can't get off the computer.
For the most part, I'm not willing to tell people that they are wrong about something when it comes to their impressions of the gods (which is not to say that I don't think people are wrong sometimes, nobody is that open minded; I just keep it to myself generally), but I'll make an exception here. If you really think Hermes is the kind of guy that can't survive without his wireless devices, approves wholeheartedly of loafing in front of the computer for days on end, spends more time looking down at a blackberry than he does interacting with the world around him...you're wrong, you're dead fucking wrong and you clearly have the most shallow, one sided understanding of him possible. That image does not in any way fit in with his character as shown in myth, cult practice, experienced by the vast majority of his modern worshippers.
I do think Hermes perfectly approves of technology as a means to make life easier, or to open new avenues (like the internet making it possible to meet people you otherwise never would have). That doesn't mean people don't take it too far, or that the deities that oversee those areas approve of the people that abuse it. Which brings us to the consumerism part of the argument.
Despite the arguments from those who don't know me as well as they'd like to imagine, I come by my lack of materialism quite naturally; I've never been interested in own a shit ton of stuff merely for the sake of owning it. I have very few interests and hobbies and only one of those, my love of story telling, has led me to own non essential to survival technology (computer, television, video game consoles). That I grew up without a lot of money and in general was always very late to the game as far as technology went, going without long past the point everyone else had one, may have played a part in that. That I grew up in an upper class area where you were judged by the label on your clothes and what sort of car you drove rather than on the weight of your character (lucky for them, as most of them didn't have much as far as that went - the town was actively trying to drive out middle class residents and are having an unnecessary mall built because they don't want their children to have to go to school with poor kids, to give you some idea of what I'm talking about), keeping in mind that as I said we didn't have a lot of money, probably plays a part in that as well. Its certainly not an affectation I developed so that I and all my douchebag friends can sit around and feel superior to everyone else (I hang out with assholes that hate everyone, including themselves, damn it!).
I spent my life around people that towed the commonly followed line, people that go out and get high paying (or as high as they can get) careers so they can have all this money to buy all this stuff, and it yet they hate their fucking lives. My father had a pretty good career and a far better retirement that could very well classify him as upper class now whether he'll admit to that or not, and that job turned him into a miserable asshole with a hatred of people that often crosses into bigotry; over twenty years I listened to him bitch about how much he hates his job, everyone he works with everyone he comes into contact through it, he started counting down the days to his retirement five years in advance and during that whole time the bitching only intensified. He used to be a real fun guy, now I can't stand to talk to him half the time. I haven't noticed having money anymore makes him happy, he's just selfish and paranoid about it again to the point where its unbearable to talk to him (he knows the rest of his family doesn't have money so I think in his mind this means we all would want his money if we knew he had it, so he downplays or outright lies about how much he makes and tries to come off like he's just as poor as the rest of us, like we're all fucking blind and stupid, gods I don't care about your money I don't want your fucking money and I'd quietly go move under a bridge before I ever asked you for help; though I have to say, when you've bought yourself a top of the line bicycle or several thousand dollars while your young children get everything second hand including clothes from the kind of store where you pay by the trash bag full, or when you sell your old car to your pregnant for the second time daughter whose just been laid off her job and her husband working at Starbucks to support his family at fucking blue book value and make them pay the fucking sales tax (which drained all their savings, although its still better than what he thought it would be, he thought they'd have to get a loan) because man this economy is just so hard on everyone and I simply can't afford to give you a discount even though I just bought a brand new car with fucking cash and just now picked up a nice new summer home on a whim, poverty just sucks doesn't it...at this point you're just being a fucking selfish asshole). He's probably the worst case but its not like my mother, or anyone else in my family really fared any better. I know that contributed a lot to my current attitudes, that is not what I wanted my life to end up as, I was miserable enough in my childhood the hell that I was going to spend my adult life miserable too.
According to these people, there is no problem with consumerism, there is no social pressure to conform with everyone else (that ends with high school apparently and after that everyone is tolerant of individualism - which just tells me you are not nearly as out of the ordinary as you might think you are), people spend all their lives working for the money to stock pile this shit because it genuinely makes them happy. Were that really the case, you'd think we'd live in a culture of ecstatically happy fucking people, right? Oh wait, no we don't; for the large part, people in this culture are angry and depressed. Though I'm sure no one thinks that might partly be because they sink most of their lives into working unsatisfying jobs so they can afford to buy all this allegedly necessary stuff (or struggle with living beyond their means to keep up with trends). Oh wait...
I've also known a bunch of people that downsized their lives, left a high paying white collar job for something else (or opened their own small business, or started making a living off their art, etc.), did pay as much as the old job did but it was something more fulfilling to them, and freed up more of their time than they once had to do things they wanted to do. Its more than possible to reorganize your life so that you can live comfortable and do and have what you really want.
Somehow saying that Hermes is about necessity, whatever you need to be comfortable and happy (as opposed to excess), I am apparently denying any connection Hermes has to monetary gain (yes, thank you for reminding me of his connections to the marketplace, thieves and gamblers, I just converted yesterday and I like had no idea). Because like I have a relationship with Hermes and he helps me get money, so you are just totally wrong there.
I don't know this woman so I'm not going to judge what her relationship with Hermes is or is not, my policy has always been to take a statement at face value until I know more about you to judge, I'm not going to change that just because she pissed me off (the other woman seems to only be familiar with Hermes from mythology, so not paying attention to that here). So he helps you earn money, whoop-dee-do. Guess what, he's done that for me, too. He got me a job when I needed one, and when my health problems made it clear I couldn't keep working, he arranged another source of income for me. Whether you claim him as a patron for whatever reasons you have and he hangs around because Hermes is a friendly sort or if you are one of the seemingly fewer people he has strongly owned, that he would help out in this area is not a big surprise (especially if he owns you, most gods whatever their connections to money usually do something to provide for their people, the poor or overworked do not tend to make the best tools). It also, if you notice, does not in any way take away from what I said.
Really, for someone who continuous to throw ancient Greek cultural values in everyone's face even though that's not what we're talking about (and if we all agree that ancient culture does not equal modern culture, that those factors back then are not in play now and hence the gods may well not feel the same way under current circumstances, how is this some irrefutable proof that we're all doing it wrong?) you'd think we'd keep in mind things like balance and moderation, that even if something is a good thing it can be taken to extremes that are not healthy. Or we could apply that to saying that living only to work to buy useless shit does not translate to OMGZ money is EBIL!!!! The material world is evil too (?) and we should all like totally go live in caves or some shit (when I do go to live in a cave, it won't be because money is evil).
Thanks to Hermes' guidance, I live a comfortable life; I'm not wealthy by any one's definition, but I'm comfortable. Renee and I have little in the way of bills (though in the case of not having to pay electric that was pure luck, or Hermes such as the case may be :-)), Renee had a job that allowed her the time to do the things she wanted, and because we're careful about where we spend our money we do seem to have more of it to spend on things we want and to have some fun with than a lot of other people do that make a lot more than us. I never wanted to be wealthy, I wanted to have enough to pay the bills, keep those bills at a bare minimum, and be able to focus on things that will make me happy. And I have that. So I don't have a lot of the things other people do, I don't miss it either. And Renee and I seem to be a lot happier than my father who does have the money, or my mother that admits she pretty much lived her life according the what the standard handbook says and she's never been happy with her circumstances not for as long as I can remember.
And I run into plenty of people that think I'm doing it wrong, because I don't have money and I don't have a career I must be miserable. My old boss once went on for hours about how I need to be a home owner and renting forever is just stupid, she didn't seem to be hearing that I don't see the financial benefit of owning a home I need to pay to maintain myself, and pay taxes on it and pay a mortgage, and even if there was one it doesn't make up for the fact that it would make it difficult to impossible for me to pick up my shit and move should I decide I wanted to which is one freedom I know I need to have to be happy, I'd be willing to take the cut to keep it. But that goes against the standard American lifestyle that says career-home-family. For these people that seem to think there is no social pressure to live a certain way and have certain things, just try and tell people you're not interest in any one of those three givens and watch them jump all over you. People that willingly downsize their lives, get lesser paying jobs and cut expenses only because they want to tend to be seen as nuts by everyone else; that they are doing what they want to do now doesn't quite make up for the fact that they won't have money, the only thing you should care about apparently.
And there is his connections with the market place, which I know I haven't addressed yet but certainly haven't denied. Important to remember there that he plays both sides of that game, and this is one of the areas where its good to keep in mind he's not the harmless sprite some portray him as; he's not always nice or fair, in a lot of these places he governs (marketplace, gambling, thievery) people get screwed over. He knows how the system works, the job of that business is to convince people to buy something, to either make it something you need or just make it sound like something you need, they are only trying to get your money it doesn't matter to them. So the idea that this connection would turn Hermes into some wide eyed consumer who falls in love with every shiny new thing he sees, or would toss a perfectly fine cell phone right over his shoulder because that one there is five minutes newer and has some new application that isn't really necessary beyond the purdies (the idea that there are people out there who just piss money away like that seriously makes me want to go out and start shooting people). Honestly, I think he'd be a lot fucking smarter than that. I think he would want you to be smarter than that, and not get sucked into every sales pitch and buy every new thing that comes into existence.
So yeah, I never fucking said Hermes had no connection with commerce, just that he's not the poster boy for acquiring money and possessions merely for the sake of doing so. I also didn't deny a connection with technology, just again the owning something just because I can and, worse by far, never being without those devices like they are a fifth limb (he's a highly adaptable and versitale traveler, do you really think he wouldn't laugh his ass off at someone rendered next to helpless before your iphone stopped working). Gods usually do govern something in such a way that even its most negative expression gets covered under their influence, but that doesn't mean that's what they encourage in people.
I've always known Hermes as a god of freedom from obligation, think about what you're doing and why you're doing it and if you really want to form a tie there. That I kept stressing words like necessity and happiness seemed to get lost as people took what I said and dove off the deep end with it. I actually have met people that are happy spending most of their lives in high paying white collar jobs, that are genuinely made happy with their money and the stuff they can buy with it. And if that is something that genuinely makes you happy (and I won't pretend to understand it, then again I don't understand wanting to be a corporate executive, don't understand wanting to be a stay at home mom, and most people don't understand wanting to live like I do but so what?) then have at it. But the thing is, despite that our culture is built around collecting money and possessions for the sake of doing so, I don't know of too many people genuinely made happy by doing so; again if this worked we'd have a culture of very happy people. And if this wasn't about a deeply ingrained cultural pressure about what we all *need* to be doing, you probably wouldn't have this trend of people sinking into debt because they are living beyond their means trying to maintain some illusion of a lifestyle they can't afford. Really, in what universe is that not a major problem?
I've known him as a god that wants you to really think about what you're doing, even in areas of commerce. I hear that in the back of my head every time I'm thinking about buying something: is this something that you need to have, are you willing to take on the obligations to have this, to take the losses in other areas, is it really that important? How are these bad (or un-Hermetic) questions to ask before making some major purchase, or tying yourself to a job that will likely suck away most of your time and energy to maintain a lifestyle other people have dictated is a sign of success? He's a god of fucking wisdom after all! When he met me and I had been living under the impression that there was only one path in life (honestly, where do you come to the belief that social pressures do not exist? what rock are you living under?), the one that sucked all the joy out of my family and that I knew was not what I wanted to be, he didn't tell me to go and do it anyway because money and stuff is all that matters to him. He told me to live how I wanted to, he helped show me how it was possible, that you don't need to be swimming in cash to be comfortable and happy. I mean really, was Hermes thought to be living in a mansion and driving a porsche? No, he fucking doesn't, he travels everywhere, he wanders the road and crashes on his father or uncle's couch. He does what he wants to do, and that doesn't appear to be stockpiling money and possessions for the sake of doing so and letting everyone else think he's so cool and successful (how image fits in with him I won't understand), having that freedom seems to be more important than that. That he presides over the liminal moment of exchange, the communication skills between those who want to make a sale and those who want a better deal, does not equal wealth for its own sake. I've never experienced him as a god that will make you a billionaire but one that will help you get the money that you need so you can focus on what you really want in life. If that's amassing more wealth, again fine, enjoy yourself. But if its some other pursuit, maybe something you can't or aren't likely get paid for so you were told it was a waste of time, well that's good too. I've found I'm happier focusing my life on my religion and my writing, even if it means I can never afford a BMW, and you know what he's encouraged that every step of that way (and I don't think its just because its him I'm serving either).
If anything I said here doesn't make sense or you want a clarification on something, really feel free to actually ask me about it (since I'm planning an essay on it for the devotional I shall one day write, I could use it probably). You don't need to jump to the worst possible conclusion, spin your head around on your shoulders and spew bile at me. I'll answer your question best I can.