I think people are trying to fill a hole that can't be filled with material goods.

Hombre, I completley appreciate the message that you are presenting here. What I'm having trouble with, however, is the word Bulimia and what it conures in my mind. All I can think about is the eating disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, which people just call bulimia or say she/he is bulimic. I had a good friend who would fall under this label, so I guess in addition to hearing your message, I had this other association. Just thought I'd share that with you.

Ellen is so right... The hole grows, things grow, but still emptiness.

Rebb

I thank you for your optimism that tells us there is still hope and the world is well. What I wanted to say is that often people can't control themselves and does not know when or how to stop doing something. Mary,would you ask your husband how he finds you when you sit at the desktop of your computer? Wouldn't bulimia poke her nose there too?No offense intented. Hombre

"Some of us have remained intact and sane."

Yes I do agree with you.

My blog concerns the large majority of uneducated people around the world.You can notice them just in your immediate neighborhood,how most of them are trapped and behave when confronting these things.Educated people ,thanks to their studies seem to have more control over their lives and even if they fall victims of a pathological behavior,they are smart enough to be aware of it and hence search for a solution.

First, one subtle (or not so subtle) effect of excessive demand and consumption is the loss of taste in all senses of the word. The devoured object is gulped down without pleasure, without the chance to savor it, often secretly and always uncontrollably, so fast one can't even remember the eating.  The bulimic ceases to care if the food in his or her mouth has a nice or a terrible flavor. Quality is unimportant. Thus much of what our modern societies produce is trash, since anything better takes time to create, time to find the needed craftsmanship, genius, artistry, none of which is appreciated. The loss of taste results in further loss of judgment, the inability to teach the next generation what is good and what is not. Art forms are lost, veneration for anything old or classical (what should be saved when all is consumed?). The other half of bulimia, after the gluttony, is the purging. When one thinks of this purging in the context of your metaphor, the implications are equally terrifying. Not only do we ravenously demand and consume incredible quantities of everything, we expel it from ourselves violently and contemptuously. That which was popular today, will be not worth retaining tomorrow, and its rejection will be arbitrary, tumultuous and complete. Thus our societies suffer faster and faster cycling of trends, fashions, generation gaps. Finally, the net effect of bulimia is starvation, because the consumed is rejected before it can nourish. We do not enjoy what we partake of, but must yield it to the dysphoric compulsion to eat it yet again. We crave spiritual truth and seek it in all manner of self-help guides and TV programs and videos, but cannot keep it within. We are chained in the underworld like Tantalus, ravenous, but unable to feed ourselves what we desperately need.