Adam Phillips In Excess Analysis

The age of excess is upon humanity. Long gone are the days where one must scavenge or hunt for food, protect themselves and their family or tribe from beasts and the elements, and perpetually realize one’s impermanence; their existence at the mercy of all threats found in the harsh wilderness of days past. Today, one lifts themselves into their hefty metal transportation device and traverse a complex network of terraformed pathways all the way to a sustenance station, where food is not a possibility, but an obligation. The idea of living in a cave is laughable, when most live in large somewhat individual fortresses, complete with the ability to change the internal climate with minimal movement of one’s hand. Most don’t ponder their mortality, and many taunt the
Indeed, this life is unrecognizable from the best one could hope for ten millennia ago. The difference not lying as much within the change in our biology, but the change in our access to necessary resources to the point where the question isn’t if one can obtain it, but if one is utilizing it to a dangerous extent. There are many important lines used in Adam Phillips’ essay ‘In Excess’, but one above all else, to me, truly encapsulates the systemic issue of excess in our society today: “nothing makes us more excessive than excess” (6). While the accessibility to such a magnitude of unnecessary items and resources certainly does not help, one’s excess is contagious to those around them. One can spend hundreds, if not thousands, on grossly gratuitous apparel, that serves no purpose but to convey one’s excess to anyone who chances a glance. There is no shortage of ways one can show off the results of their excess. In fact, I’d wager to say it’s more difficult to find a way one is incapable of showing excess in an aspect of their life. I myself have no deficit in experiences with