As a teacher of English it is still fascinating to learn new words...stuff-lust is the latest one - I came across it yesterday while I was reading about the Black Friday shopping spree and the trampling ( killing ) of a Wal-Mart temp worker on Long Island the day after Thanksgiving at 5:00 in the morning.Another word I learned some time ago is road-rage and it suddenly dawned on me that there is an underlying connection between these two nouns.
"Stuff - lust" ( die Lust nach Zeugs ) describes the desire to get or buy more THINGS and "road-rage" ( im Verkehr in Rage sein ) refers to the anger and frustration that occurs within you when another driver doesn't conform to the way you would like that traffic situation to be...and there too - killings have taken place - all based on and triggered by road-rage.
What then seems to be causing these two conditions? Both are centered on and created by a fictitious sense of self - like: if only I had this flat screen TV (i.e. from Wal-Mart ) on my wall before Christmas I would and will be a 'better' or at least a happier person than I am now....road-rage happens when I base my fictitious sense of self on the amount of horse power or the dimensions of my car...like: watch out - don't stop me now - I am driving an Audi 8 and I am entitled to a high-speed driving style on any lane not just the very left one!! and especially so when I drive up the three lane hills of the Bielefelder Berge.....in both cases I am trying to derive my sense of self-worth from an object: the flat screen TV or from my powerful car - what a strange world!!
Why am I writing about this? I am thinking about my daughter and my students and their attempts to establish their sense of self through MORE...how do they go about defining who they are?As their parent and teacher I of course encourage them to pursue and to succeed in their schoolings - in other words: to pass their Abitur.And there is nothing wrong with this - except: what if my daughter and my students derive their sense of self from this endeavor as in: I have now passed my Abitur - I am therefore more 'complete' now - I am thus a different or 'better'person than my friends - whose schoolings stopped a long time ago etc. etc.
If they searched for their selfhood in this dimension they would do so on the same level where stuff-lust and road-rage manifest themselves...so the real question is:what school subject ( Schulfach ) would allow my daughter or my students to hear and be exposed to a different message or method of finding out who they really are or where to look for an answer in this daunting quest??
