Material Wealth and Worshipping the Idle
Posted on August 9, 2004
Filed Under Consumerism |
In an article entitled Buyer’s Remorse, Daniel Akst discusses American materialism. The comments that follow the article are just as interesting as the article.
If guilt and materialism are two sides of a single very American coin, it’s a coin that has achieved new currency in recent years, as hand-wringing and McMansions vie for our souls like the angels and devils who perch on the shoulders of cartoon characters, urging them to be good or bad.
When America As We Know It was being founded, settlers came from Europe, where social status was based on class and heredited from an individual’s father. The Land Of Opportunity gave its inhabitants a chance to move above their station in life—or deny any station—by acquiring wealth. Eventually this resulted in massive financial debt, both individual and political.
Material Wealth was apprently the theme for the weekend. According to a news report, President Bush sat with his family (and with a community of very wealthy people) in church and listened to a sermon on the obligation to part with one’s possessions, as doing such “sets us free.”
Another article, The Virtue of Idleness, the topic is the Puritan Work Ethic that developed after the Industrial Revolution and is now the basis of our economy. This article tends to focus on the virtues of being completely idle to stimulate thought and creativity. Surely there should be a happy medium. The author believes that the idea that it is healthy and natural for human beings to rise up from bed early in the morning is a myth.
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