McMansions as Secular Mausoleums

Many years ago, I noticed something odd about the homes of people living in western countries in general and USA in particular. While most people do reside in medium to large condos or houses which are full of things, they are ‘people deficient’. But what do I mean by being ‘people deficient’ and how is this different from uncrowded? Well.. let me explain. As many of you know, the homes of people in poorer countries are almost always overcrowded and deficient in things. Therefore as living standards in those countries rise, they usually move into in bigger homes with more objects and things. However there is a point when the amount of space per person will isolates them in their own bubble. In other words, there is a point where the extra space per person has zero to negative utility and people act accordingly. However, we don't see this occur in western countries, especially the USA.

There is a strong cultural preference in the West to isolate oneself from other people and the rest of the world. Furthermore, this preference is not limited to certain social classes and is indeed the default behavior of people in those countries. It seems that no house is large enough for them. However unlike the mansions of rich people from previous eras, these houses often have no more than 1-2 residents. For example- it is not uncommon for a well off older couple to live in a large house with lots of things outside the city limits even if they have no kids and jobs which require a 45-minute commute, each way, to their place of work. My point is that it simply does not make sense for people to commute long distances and work their asses off just to afford a large and luxurious house that they hardly live in. So why do people do that anyway? What makes them prefer and strive for such an irrational choice?

In my experience, most obviously bizarre human behavior can usually be explained by belief in some form of religion or ideology. As many of you might have noticed- poor people in this country often support supposedly 'free market' economic policies which pauperize them because the ideology offers the false promise of unlimited prosperity. It seems that a strong desire to believe in a dream or delusion will often override any rational considerations, until the charade cannot be continued. Nor is such behavior new, since even ancient Egyptians of average means spent a lot of resources and effort on proper mummification and other preparations for the afterlife. They even built necropolises (large and ornate cities of the dead) to house their dead.

The idea that life after death is possible might seem absurd to a rational person in any era, but religious beliefs of many ancient civilizations were based around this ideas. While we can certainly understand the desire to live forever, this alone cannot explain the ridiculous amount of resources spent on preparing and housing the dead in their afterlife. Only a complex and sophistic religious-type ideology can make the majority of people go along with something as ridiculous as mummifying and housing the dead on an industrial scale. In the case of ancient Egypt- a complicated web of religion, mythology, social beliefs and institutions perpetuated this absurdity. So how can this example help us understand why most people in western countries prefer to live in large houses with many things but almost devoid of human presence?

To an external observer, the housing preferences of people in western countries would suggest an autistic personality afraid of the external world or interactions which might disrupt their carefully arranged world. But what are these people afraid of? The world has become progressively safer over the last 100 years. Injury or death due to violence and strangers is so infrequent in West that it is now a rare aberration, rather than the norm it used to be for most of human history. So why spend so much effort isolating oneself from other human beings? I believe the answer to this question lies in studying the predominant religion of our era- namely, the idea that accumulating money for its own sake should be the ultimate goal of living. While people in previous eras were as greedy and obsessed with money as those today, they did so in order to enjoy the good life. There is a reason why all those castles, mansions and palaces of yore were full of people beyond those who owned the place.

Money was something to be spent on things and services to make life more fun and you cannot party by yourself. Therefore the abodes of the rich from previous eras were full of people and life. Today the homes of rich and middle class are full of inanimate things and emptiness because the secular religion of our era dictates that making money for its own sake is the only purpose of life. It seems that contemporary western culture frowns on people spending money to have fun- debauched or not. The main message seems to be that people should keep on working and acting busy to justify their income rather than spend it and have fun. You might have noticed that there is also a secular version of heaven where old people can supposedly enjoy their "golden years" after retiring from their jobs. Hence large suburban houses should be seen as the functional equivalent of the elaborate Egyptian burial complexes. Both modern suburban houses and Egyptian tombs were built at great expense to house people in their afterlife. For ancient Egyptians, afterlife started after you were physically dead. Today, afterlife starts after your retirement. At least, ancient Egyptians were far more upfront about the nature of their beliefs than contemporary people living in the West.

What do you think? Comments?