Rejecting materialism is humanities only hope

Hello. My philosophical input has been waning as of late so I decided to make a contribution.

If humanity would like to begin moving in a better direction as an entire species than we need to begin rejecting materialism and mainstream culture and get back to thinking about things that really matter like each other.

I personally believe that if we don't do that we are doomed to experience our own extinction as an inevitable probability.

We need to see the togetherness that binds us on a fundamental level and begin to live the experience of understanding that everything is one giant cosmic being living in everything everywhere.

That's the true future.

Amen brother/sister/fellow human being.

To avoid turning my reply into a colossal ramble, I'll attempt to sum up how I feel with: WE ARE MEANT FOR SOMETHING BETTER than trying to have the fastest car, coolest house and biggest T.V.

I don't have all the answers, nor will I ever claim to. However, one thing I do know, is that simply put from a silly commercial I remember seeing, "that's not how this works, it's not how any of this works".

We are failing one another with the grotesque obsession of who has the shiniest toys.

I'd trade my current life for one where I use my natural/God given skills to play my part in a society where everyone looks out for one another, and focus on what really matters in life. Alas, the world I live in has grown far too large for such a place to exist...

a reply to: seaswine

WE have to start the trend.

It's not so much rejecting materialism as it is rejecting our emotional and mental triggers that stimulate the desire for material wealth. When people start to see their vanities as detrimental to emotional and mental well being they will naturally become dispassionate towards materialism.

Persuasion is the key. If you, or anyone for that matter can conceive of a truth that touches humanity at its core and express it appropriate enough to persuade peoples hearts and minds towards it then you will be on the right track.

The problem is that not many people have found the truth and lived it long enough to gain a great enough understanding as to enable one to awaken the hearts of an emotionally detached society. The greatest men in history have discovered this but we have become too many generations removed since the last.

Find the best course and live by it and by your integrity alone will you be able to change the course of history.

Yes, absolutely. Materialism and Capitalism are constructs of personal focus and success only. It serves no other value but to place yourself above others, and it prevents the progression of humanity at a whole.

What's really worrisome is just how convinced most people are that 'that' is how you need to live and survive. Some people are so totally fixated on needing to have a hot car, big house, huge finances that there is simply no convincing them there's a better way.

I'm afraid I have no idea how this mentality can be changed

a reply to: Ghost147

It's monkey brain in control of everything, it's all instincts no real thinking involved. It's chimps trying to mate with other chimps and that's it.

a reply to: onequestion
You are spot on. It is our survival instincts and squirrel mentality that is ruining whole societies and in turn the world. I believe we are due a massive evolutionary jump and it wont be physical.
Our whole nature is changing to a more socialist 'take responsibility' and assist our fellow human being. As well as be guardians of the whole of life on earth, including earth herself.
It is changing and some of the more advanced are already moving mountains behind the scenes to break the anti humanist, selfish, control freaks in power at the moment.
From little acorns grow large and fruitful Oak trees.

a reply to: Ghost147

What's really worrisome is just how convinced most people are that 'that' is how you need to live and survive. Some people are so totally fixated on needing to have a hot car, big house, huge finances that there is simply no convincing them there's a better way.

Agreed it goes even further than that the people who desire these things actually think others that do not have something wrong with them....

To the OP ...

I'm not sure the problem is materialism itself, maybe more that self esteem has become so systematically chipped away that people seek self validation through the accumulation of material things and forgo endeavours that are much deeper and more rewarding as a result.

Real men don’t eat quiche. Real economists don’t ask questions about happiness. The economy pumps out goods and services, all of which create jobs and incomes. There is no value judgment in such a statement, no view of what constitutes the good life. Even to invite such a question of an economist is to risk ridicule. The task of economists – a value-free quasi-science – is to make sure that as little as possible gets in the way of turning inputs into more outputs.

If having more no longer satisfies us, perhaps we’ve reached ‘peak stuff’
www.theguardian.com...

It seems we have reached the era of peak stuff. Where buying more and more and having more no longer satisfies people. How many cars, computers gizmos do people actually need, if there's a big gaping hole in people's lives that can't be filled with material possesions

Yes yes,
Cars and iPhones are the reason people treat each other horrible.
The world was a peachy eutopia before material things.

a reply to: MagnaCarta2015

Indeed the psychology is major player...

For some reason your comment made me think of pokies we have here....wen you win you need to play more to win more,when you lose you need to play more to win your money back......lose lose is all i get from it yet millions cannot help themselves....

a reply to: onequestion

We are (as a society) far too materialistic. We have also gotten our priorities totally out of whack. And maybe I'm just backwards, but it seems to me that rather than reject materialism and other negative objects (and objectives), we need to put our effort into embracing higher values. One has to let go of something to embrace something new. If we could focus on higher and better values, the more materialist and negative would fall away....

We need less superstitions and more rationality.....superstitions are getting people massacred and children burnt alive....

I have to resist the urge to want more things. I don't want to want more things. I'm down to "if you get a new chair, you must give away an old chair". New bedsheets -- give away old bedsheets.

I'm ashamed to Admit how many closets of clothes I have. I am Imelda Marcos. But I'm trying to do better. I don't want to be that way.

a reply to: onequestion

Nothing is stopping you from rejecting materialism.

I do agree that some people are consumed by materialism though, but materialism isn't all that bad. Everyone desires to have some of the finer things in life. We all have since the beginning of time.

We all have different priorities. Some people like cars. Some people like houses. Some people like jewelry. Some people like clothing. Some people like it all. None of us have the right to tell others what they can or can't enjoy. Yes, some people put too much of their self-esteem and ego into material goods, but there is nothing we can do about that.

originally posted by: MagnaCarta2015
I'm not sure the problem is materialism itself, maybe more that self esteem has become so systematically chipped away that people seek self validation through the accumulation of material things and forgo endeavours that are much deeper and more rewarding as a result.

I'm not totally sure this is accurate. Yes, we can see a direct correlation with the need for expensive goods and a persons self esteem, however, they don't become mega-consumers because their self esteem is low, rather, they drive to get more and more goods because they are taught that's what is needed to be a respected person, and that thought is what creates that inferiority complex.

In the end, it's the existence of the mentality that "we must have a giant house" "we must have a million dollar bank account" "we must have expensive cars" that is the direct cause of feeling inferior to those that have those things.

It's an illusion.

...,,I'm afraid I have no idea how this mentality can be changed"...

Poverty and debt usually changes everything.

a reply to: onequestion

While I am coming to agree with your proposition, I presently believe that rejecting materialism as a society is nigh onto impossible because human beings seem to be hard wired to judge one another on the basis of what they possess. If you're car is bigger, newer, better than Joe Bleaux's car, then you are presumed to be a better, more intelligent, more industrious, than Joe Bleaux. That's kind of b.s. because all it means is that you have a higher car note than Joe, but.......its the perception that matters.

And that's a big part of the problem, people are incredibly easy to manipulate in terms of their views and humans are hard wired to be competitive, (its a survival thing). So the mavens of Marketing can always stir the emotion of jealousy.

What I'm experiencing, even here in the little village I live in is an incredible, nigh unto awesome, rise in the level and occurrences of expressions of outright HATE. Hate is really on the rise and it seems to becoming much more intense. I'm seeing neighbors who've been friends for years suddenly at each others throats and threatening one another with bodily harm and in some cases extinction by firearm. So no, I don't see people coming together in peace and recognition of their commonality. I see them hating one another and transferring that hate onto people who befriend someone they hate. And that is something that's actually happened to me of late.

a reply to: Ghost147

Interesting. I agree with a lot of that especially regarding the need to be respected.