12> Accessories

By definition, an accessory is an object with a secondary, supplementary or subordinate function. There are accessories for our cars and houses; accessories for pets, gardens and activities, such as going back to school or going on vacation. There are accessories for us, like a tie strap or a pin-back button. And those are relatively inexpensive, if we compare them with the close to 150 billion dollars generated by jewelry sales back in 2006 (probably closer to 200 bil today). Our capitalist society is hyper-accessorized: what does that mean? How to justify this obsession with objects of secondary function? Is it that we are all set with necessary objects, objects of primary function, and that is why we set our eyes and open our wallets to objects of secondary function? How to differentiate between both categories, though? Is a Panama hat in the tropics an accessory or a primary object? Will Mandela consider his Makorotlo an accessory? I am sure that a person with 50 pairs of shoes in her closet does not consider them accessories either (I once met someone who claimed she had 250+ pairs). The question is one of necessity versus excess, that is: buy it; use it a few times; give it away or throw it away. Accessories may be prized possessions and that is dandy; the problem is when they are mere disposable, momentary possessions. Excess is so integrated in our lives, we can’t detect it anymore.