In 1943, Norman Rockwell created a series of oil paintings called Four Freedoms, inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address outlining four universal human rights that all countries must protect.
Freedom from Want depicts a family sitting down to a traditional Thanksgiving meal. In that moment, the family wants for nothing. They look happy and healthy, seated around a beautifully appointed table in a cheerful room, waiting excitedly for a humongous turkey to be served. It’s a scene that many of us can relate to.
This wholesome picture was actually controversial in war-torn Europe, where families were rationing food and dodging bombs; they couldn’t imagine the kind of freedom that Rockwell depicted. To be sure, there are still people in our own country who want for the most basic of needs.
The picture is beautifully executed, but it’s the title which is so poignant to me.
So many of us are fortunate to have the luxury of sitting down with family and friends to enjoy a nice meal and some time together. We have all the things we really need, yet so many of us want more.
Earlier this evening, the night before Thanksgiving, I had to make a trip to Walmart to buy a vegetable peeler. I was assigned two apple pies for Thanksgiving, and my peeler had disappeared.
When I arrived at the store, I found that the closest entrance seemed to be blocked off with yellow tape. I grumbled to myself, thinking something was wrong with the entrance and I would need to walk across to the other one. Then, I saw another shopper come out of the store and wind his way through the corral, and I realized Walmart was preparing.
Inside, plastic-wrapped stacks of “deals”, not to be sold until Thanksgiving, lined the aisles. I saw cheap (in both senses of the word) pots and pans, cheap furniture, cheap clothes and cheap toys. I saw workers cleaning the floor where displays had been pushed away to make more room near the cash registers. This year, shoppers will burst through Walmart’s doors at 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
When Roosevelt and Rockwell used the term want, they didn’t mean Beats by Dre, Xboxes, iPads, clothes emblazoned with brand names, and whatever hot toy is this year’s fad (I wonder where last year’s bargain Furbies are now?). But the family who spends time together on Thanksgiving enjoys two freedoms: the freedom from wanting what they need, and the freedom from “needing” what they want.
Freedom is not lining up on Thanksgiving Day to be driven like frenzied cattle into a crowded store to load up on junk that we want.
Freedom is not being forced, either by an employer or by circumstances, to work a retail job on a holiday because consumers and corporate bosses want.
Freedom is not working long hours for little pay in a factory in China making frivolous things that consumers want.
Why are people who have what they need, and more, making themselves slaves of want, and dragging others down with them?
In 1943, Norman Rockwell believed that Freedom from Want was epitomized by having food to eat, a home to gather in, clothes to wear and time to spend with loved ones.
Why, in 2014, is that not enough for just one day out of the whole year?
Wow. I know I’m reading this late but bravo! I’m associated (unfortunately and fortunately) with a retailer on a large scale. The nice thing about my big box store is that we still don’t open on thanksgiving 🙂 Im totally on your side regarding time, freedom, wants, needs, etc. Definitely ready to rid myself of a career that still supports consumerism. Thanks for hitting the nail on the head and really covering more than even the last few decades 🙂
Thanks so much for reading, Todd! Kudos to your employer for staying closed on Thanksgiving. This disregard for real human relationships and the emphasis on “stuff” is a slippery slope, and I’m afraid if we don’t speak up, there will be no going back. Christmas will be next.
I’m just seeing this now, and boy, does it hit the nail on the head! Really, really well-said.
Thanks so much, Amy!
Great perspective. At what did it become social acceptable to attract people in cattle herds to the super-centers for a bunch of stuff they don’t need? This Christmas we’ve scaled way back. A big ole turkey like the one in that picture is about all I need. 🙂
Thanks, and good for you! It seems like things have been changing very, very rapidly over the past several years. I think the internet has a lot to do with it–consumers have come to expect that they can get what they want whenever they want it at a cheap price. I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better (stores will open on Christmas), but retailers will overstep their bounds and consumers will become indifferent to the never-ending sale opportunities. Eventually sales gimmicks won’t pay, and the pendulum will swing back again.
Enjoy the holidays!
I 100% agree. There is something wrong with our society that this practice seems normal. Thanks for the insightful post.
Thanks for reading, Lisa!
I’m late to the game as well, but what a really great post. Want sucks. If you think about it, people just think they want all of that crap. What they really want is deep and good relationships with the people they care about. Love and be loved.
Maybe want is a substitute for our lack of relationships? I think of my own family. No one lives within 500 miles of each other and it sucks. I still resent my mother a bit for moving away from the family for no good reason. I digress.
If I think of all of the different parts of my extended family, the most well adjusted ones are those with the best relationships with other family and friends. No coincidence there.
Thank you for reading, and I guess you’re not really late since this is still the most recent post 🙂 Yes, I definitely know people who fill their lives up with stuff instead of building real relationships. Sometimes the stuff is for themselves, and sometimes they’re buying gifts for people out of a feeling of obligation and pressure rather than true care and understanding. I think the driving force behind it all is insecurity. I come from a long tradition of dysfunction, so yeah, I’ve seen it.
Just reading this now but oh is it ever so relevant still. My eyes have become awakened fully the last few years to the consumerism culture we live in. It is so hard trying to fight against it when it surrounds you. By the excessively large houses being built next door, friends, family—it has its grip on so much. To your point, the internet seems to have perpetuated this driving need to “want want want.” Thank you for sharing your wisdom. It’s nice to know we’re not alone!