Nigerians And The Diderot Effect

This week on women’s Corner, we are going to discuss our insatiable desire to acquire new things. This syndrome is called the DIDEROT EFFECT and it’s common to all humans but most especially on us women.

The syndrome was named after a French philosopher and essayist, art critic and writer best known for co- founding and editing The Encyclopedie, called Denis Diderot(1713-1784).He compiled and edited The Encyclopedie with Jean Rond d’Alembert.

Although Diderot was famous for his works, he was not a rich man so at the age of 52, when his daughter, was about to get married, he didn’t have enough to provide a reasonable dowry. Lunch smiled on him when Catherine The Great, Empress of Russia, heard of his financial distress and offered to buy his personal  library from him for £1000(approximately $150000 today). She also made an arrangement with him whereby he could still keep the books and be in charge of the library. She also paid him upfront for his services.

Suddenly, Diderot had excess money than he had expected and after paying his daughters dowry, he bought a new scarlet robe for himself.

He felt his new robe was so beautiful that all his other possessions became drab and faded compared to it. He felt the urge to buy some new things to match the beauty of his new robe.

– He decorated his home with beautiful sculptures and a better kitchen table.

– He replaced his old rug with a new and better one from Damascus

– He bought a new mirror, new leather chairs and changed so many other things in his house.

He kept buying things until he went back to being poor.

Dennis Diderot eventually observed and wrote an essay titled,” Regrets on Parting with my old Dressing Gown”

It is these reactive purchases of his that have become known as The Diderot Effect.

The Diderot Effect states that “obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral  of consumption which leads to more acquisition of new things. The human want is insatiable and as a result, we tend to buy things that our previous selves never needed, to

feel happy or fulfilled. Our natural inclination is to accumulate. We rarely look to downgrade, to simplify, to eliminate, to reduce. We always want to add to what we have. We love to upgrade, build on. In the words of sociology professor Juliet Schor, “The pressure to upgrade our stock of stuff is relentlessly unidirectional, always ascending”.

It is a matter of concern that even with the state of the economy, our politicians desires to acquire new cars, furniture, houses, furniture and side chicks, is still unrelenting. They have advised us to buy bicycles but they don’t mind being escorted by twenty or thirty state of the art SUV’s that run into millions of thousands of dollars. Even the females amongst them are not exempted.

A visit to any market in Lagos State will educate one that the Diderot effect still holds sway in many families in Nigeria. For us women, it works this, when you buy a new dress, you need a new shoes and bags to match. You also may need a new hairdo , new earrings and other jewelry in order to stand out, especially if the new dress is being worn to a new occasion.

We cannot grow and develop as a nation if we continue with our consumption tendencies.

According to James Clear, a writer, we can stop the Diderot Effect in our lives by applying a few simple rules and discipline to our lives.

(1) Live a carefully constrained life by creating limitations for us to operate within.

(2) The more we restrict ourselves, the more resourceful we become. Our economy can help us in this. Things are so expensive that this should not be too difficult to do.

(3) Whenever you buy something new, give away an old one away.Also try and restrict yourself from buying something for a month or two.

(4) Realize that wanting is just an option your mind provides, not an order you have to follow. Let go of always wanting things.

(5) Teach yourself to fill your life with optimal things like devotion to God, charity works, volunteering to help older people, widows and children etc.

We will conclude by quoting Diderots conclusion in his essay on his effect” poverty has it’s freedoms, opulence had it’s obstacles.

Until next week, do write in and tell us your opinion on The Diderot Effect.

Yours in the struggle.

Chinwe Ifezulike-Odita.