Part Four – What resources do we have to help us kick our addiction to materialism?

The Yearning For Balance report prepared for the Merck Family Fund in the US in 1995 reached four important conclusions. 

1. People “believe materialism increasingly dominate(s) life crowding out  a more meaningful set of values centred on responsibility, family, and community.”

2. ‘That “lust” for material things lies at the root of family breakdown and crime.’

 3. ‘That rampant consumerism is destroying the natural environment.’

 4. That ‘they can see materialism is corroding society and themselves, but are too fearful to change their behaviour in any significant way’.[1]

 To change we need increase our faith in change and reduce our fear of change.

 Alain de Botton suggests we can draw on significant philosophical, psychological and spiritual resources to increase faith in change and reduce fear of change.

 Reason – A Philosophical Resource For Change.

 ‘Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgments of those we live among’. [2]

In The Affluent Society (1958) the economist John Kenneth Gailbraith said; ‘People are poverty stricken whenever their income, even if adequate for survival, falls markedly behind that of the community. When they cannot have what the larg-er community regards as the minimum necessary for decency; and they cannot wholly escape, therefore, the judgment of the larger community that they are indecent.’ [3]

 ‘The approval of others could be said to matter to us for two reasons: materially, because the neglect of the community can bring with it physical discomfort and danger; and psychologically, because it can prove impossible to retain confidence    in ourselves once others have ceased to accord us respect. It is in relation to this second consequence that the benefits of a philosophical approach emerge…’[4]

 ‘The honour code suggested that what others think of us must determine what  we think of ourselves – that every insult, whether accurate or not, must shame us’.[5]

 ‘Philosophy introduced a new element to the relationship with external opinion. One might visualise “reason” as a box into which all public perceptions, whether positive or negative, would first have be directed in order to be assessed, and then sent on to the self with renewed force if they were true, or ejected with a shrug of the shoulders if they were false. Thanks to “reason”, our status could be settled according to intellectual conscience, rather than the whims of the market square.’ [6] 

 We should not worry about the number of people that despise us, but their reasons for doing so. Marcus Aurelius said in his Meditations (AD 167), ’Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying any-thing that deserves to be despised.’[7]

 ‘Having watched Socrates being insulted in the market place, a passer-by asked him,  ” Don’t you worry about being called names?” “Why? Do you think I should resent it if an ass had kicked me?” replied Socrates.’ [8]

 Epictetus said in his Discourses (AD.100), ‘It’s not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgments; and these I carry with me. These alone are my own and can’t be taken away.’ [9]

 Restraint – A Psychological Resource For Change

 There are two ways to raise our self esteem. ‘On the one hand we may try to achieve more; and on the other, we may reduce the number of things we want to achieve’.[10]

 The American psychologist William James says ‘By greatly increasing our pre-tensions, adequate self-esteem is almost impossible to secure.’ However, “to give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them gratified”.’ [11]

 ‘There are two ways to make people richer: to give them more money or to restrain their desires. Modern societies have succeeded spectacularly at the first option (giving people more money) but, by continuously inflaming appetites, they have as the same time helped to negate a share of their impressive achievements’.[12]  ‘A sharp decline in actual deprivation may – paradoxically – have been accompanied   by a continuing and even increased sense of deprivation.’[13]

 ‘Every time we seek something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted  as rich, however little we may own. The most effective way to feel wealthy may not to try to make more money. It may be to distance ourselves – practically and emotionally – from anyone we consider to be our equal who has become richer than ourselves. We should concentrate on gathering around us (not bigger companions, but) smaller companions, next to whom our own size will not trouble us.’ [14]  

 Story – A Spiritual Resource For Change

 There are two types of meta-stories in our culture – one type that increases our anxiety about being poor, and another type that reduces anxiety about being poor.

 Three Anxiety-Inducing Stories About Being Poor

 1. The Rich Are The Givers In Society

 The Capitalist story posited two classes: the entrepreneurs and their employees. The entrepreneurs became rich because of the creative risks they took with their capital. The employees start out poor – and they stay poor – because they take no initiative.[15]

Bernard Mandeville wrote ‘He that gives most trouble to his neighbours and invents the most otiose manufactures is, right or wrong, the greatest friend to society’.[16]

 2. Status Does Have Moral Connotations

 One version of the Christian story suggested that there was a one-to-one correlation between status and virtue. Thomas P. Hunt wrote a bestseller in 1836 entitled The Book Of Wealth: In Which it is Proved from the Bible that it is the Duty of Every Man to Become Rich. ‘Godliness is in league with riches. We see the wicked prosper only occasionally. In the long run, it is only to the man of morality that wealth comes’. p86

 3. The Poor Are The Takers In Society

 The story of evolution was about a struggle for survival and the survival of the fittest. ‘The deaths of the poor were beneficial to society as a whole, and therefore should not be prevented by government interference’.[17] The magnate, Andrew Carnegie, said ‘Neither the individual or the race is improved by alms-giving. Those worthy of assistance seldom require assistance. The really valuable men of the race never do.’ [18]

Three Anxiety-Reducing Stories About Being Poor

 1. The Poor Are The Givers In Society                          

 The medieval story posited three classes – the clergy, the nobles and the peasants.

The peasants were poor. But they were recognised as the foundation of society.[19]

The poet, Hans Rosenplut of Nuremberg, reflected the view of the times when he wrote in 1450 ‘If there were no peasant, our lives would be in a very sad condition.’[20]

 2. Status Has No Moral Connotations

 The Christian story suggested that there was not a one-to-one correlation between status and virtue. After all Jesus Christ the saviour was himself a poor carpenter.[21]

And Jesus said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. But woe to you that are rich, for you have already received your reward.’Luke6:20,24

3. The Rich Are The Takers In Society

 The Socialist story posited two classes in society: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The proletariat were poor because the bourgeoisie stole the profit from their labour.[22]  Karl Marx said to the bourgeoisie, ‘You may be a model citizen, and even have the odour of sanctity to boot, but you are a creature with no heart in its breast’.[23]p72    

 If we want to kick our addiction to being rich, we must set aside stories that induce anxiety about being poor, and let the stories that reduce our anxiety  nurture our soul.

 

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[1] p14-15 Clive Hamilton Growth Fetish                      

[2] p15 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[3] p196 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[4] p126 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[5] p120 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[6] p121 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[7] p122 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[8] p120 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[9] p119 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[10] p56  Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[11] p56 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[12] p62 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[13] p45 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[14] p62 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[15] p75 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[16] p76 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[17] p87 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[18] p89 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[19] p67 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[20] p69 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[21] p70 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[22] p72 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety

[23] p72 Alain de Botton Status Anxiety