materialism

“The idealism of the 1960s was yielding to the materialism of the 1980s, a new preoccupation with the navel-gazing, ego-stroking life,” Grynbaum writes.

"All our basic needs are taken care of. It is clean and peaceful – the children can play basketball or go swimming after school. We don't need shopping malls or all that materialism."

When it comes to materialism, nothing quite beats a 1990 production by Cal State Long Beach given in the Queen’s Salon of the Queen Mary.

But it also explores new themes, including the clash between Western materialism and Eastern spirituality, particularly Buddhism.

In an era of peak materialism, there’s something about giving an experience instead of an object that really appeals to me this gifting season.