Dear Friends,
It seems to me, no one is more of a materialist… than a materialist. The obvious double entendre is that the word materialist, means both someone who believes in a strictly mechanical universe, and someone who loves stuff. Socialists, progressives and communists are both kinds of materialist. They believe in a mechanistic universe while, not shockingly, are materialists in that they love stuff. There couldn’t be a more materialist ideology than socialism. It excludes all other aspects of humanity, to focus on one… economics. Which is the material production, distribution and use of the goods of society. Ignoring our spiritual side. Creating a nihilistic, incomplete and arrogant view… leading to an unbalanced society. We all know about people who are unbalanced. How much more dangerous an unbalanced society?
There are many schools of thought as to the nature of the universe, is it mechanistic, spiritualistic or idealistic? Atheists believe the universe material, mechanistic and rationally ordered by chance. The religious believe the universe is spiritual, a mere winnowing ground for the real world to come, if you will. The Platonist believes the world we live in, is a reflection of a superior, more real world. There are many more interpretations of the “world.” None of them provable by empirical testability. All of them based on belief. Nevertheless, all believing their interpretation is the “right” one, the others, the imaginings of lunatics. No one is more susceptible to this trap than the materialist. They have convinced themselves, theirs is the “rational” choice. Being rational it must be forced on everyone.
Most of us are material girls. We love our stuff and we want more stuff. Collectors, who amass huge quantities of culch, are the avatars of the materialist mindset. Even the most ardent collector however, cannot hold a, still in its original packaging 1900 world’s fair commemorative candle, to a materialist. A materialist has no other god before material. Even love, amazement and joy, are explainable by mechanistic forces. In their mechanistically ordered universe, everything is culch, clutter and curios, because everything can be reduced to material, mechanism and forces. Meanwhile, you or I may love our bicabrac, but we infer there are things that supersede the material. Love of family, pets, friends, neighbors, etc… and the humility to recognize there is more to the universe than we are able to know.
Socialism is an atheistic moral system, that claims legitimacy, based on its plan for the “rational” distribution of the goods of society. Since the progressive at heart doesn’t believe in anything beyond what his or her senses, (science) can detect, they are limited in their understanding of the universe. While the scientific method has been immensely useful, it cannot answer every question. This realization alone is a step too far for the socialist, communist or progressive. Materialism leads inevitably to nihilism, due to the materialist’s skepticism of purpose, meaning and transcendence to life. Preferring the hedonistic fearful life of a rabbit. Maybe that is why socialist’s are so outraged, by the wealth of those who have worked for it, yet demand unearned opulence for themselves.
When confronted with a complex question… the answer is usually complex. The universe clearly has a mechanistic side to it, and something else, as suggested by quantum physics, the enigma of life, and human consciousness itself. The correct attitude to stuff is similar. We need our stuff, it is what makes us human, but we also need to consider, it is just stuff. That leap of understanding, that stuff is just stuff, allows one to see past the materialistic version of the world that progressives, socialists and communist preach. Life is more than stuff. Stuff helps us live, tools, but is not the wharp and whoof of our existence. Those that think it is, the socialists, progressives and communists… materialists, take it to the extreme and believe stuff is everything. No wonder they are so unbalanced.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
