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FOLLOWING THIS INTRODUCTION are some personal thoughts from
some of our community members of Miracle River.
Just what is “Affluenza”? It is a pernicious killer disease (epidemic
of stress, debt and insatiable lust for “stuff and things”—affluence +
influenza). Thank God, we of Miracle River are not affected by the
buy/consume syndrome as those all around us: we live a sacrificial life,
simple and free from the lust for “stuff and things” that puts one in the
prisonhouse of debt FOREVER!
The infamous “Jones Family”, the ones Americans have all been
trying to keep up with for years, are even facing very hard times in these
hard times.
Is an outbreak of “Affluenza” sweeping your area afresh and anew?
or are your neighbors just “hanging on til the going-on comes on”?
The symptoms of “Affluenza” are “swollen expectations” and “hyper-commercialism”, like the slick trash you see on your one-eyed devil, your
devilvision, I mean television. You see the ads everywhere . . . all over
America, an ugly sight for sore eyes! Other obvious symptoms are
“brain rot and heart trouble, shopping fever, credit-card mania, a rash of
bankruptcies, fractured and hurting families, chronic stress, social scars
and endless exhaustion”. This is “Affluenza” . . . China style!
There is no doubt about it, Americans are sick, dying, even rotting in
their recliners, too stressed out and exhausted to relieve their bloated
bladders and compacted bowels. This “stuff and things” disease is a
serious malady; with over-consumption and materialism, Americans are
headed to an early grave in a Wal-Mart shopping cart. Communities all
across this nation are nothing but junkyards for “stuff and things”. Our
environment—physical, social, and spiritual—are polluted beyond help
by the materialistic lifestyle. Our “consumer friendly” culture is glutted
with worthless trash from all over the world, especially junk from China.
“Voluntary simplicity”, meaning the general principle, is one of the
greatest cures for “Affluenza” . . . along with, and above all, a daily Gos-pill (the Gospel of Christ).
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[The term “Affluenza” and some of the following information was adapted from a
documentary (not by ACMTC) aimed at exposing this horrible disease.]
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