As individuals and as a global society, we face some seemingly difficult social and issues these days. One generalization about the things troubling the world at present is that materialism is causing much of the ills being experienced in our global community. Systems such as capitalism emphasize on amassing the highest profits at the lowest cost and (many times) even if such measures will negatively affect the environment, human lives, or other barriers to attaining higher profits. A recent study showed something that in hindsight seems quite obvious…that low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem. Such frightening conclusions have lead to the striving towards a postmaterialist world.
A shift to postmaterialist values will likely gain momentum as people, governments, and corporations take the following steps:
- Face the implications of population and consumption growth for pollution, climate change, and environmental destruction
- Realize that materialist values make for less happy lives
- Identify and promote things in life that matter more than economic growth
- Understand and experience the nature of the oneness and interconnectedness of all things and people
As the Czech poet-president Vaclav Havel once said, “If the world is to change for the better it must have a change in human consciousness”. We must discover “a deeper sense of responsibility toward the world, which means responsibility something higher than self [or the ego]“. Close and supportive relationships are a key element in an individual’s well-being, not a new car or some other material possession. One of the benefits that was illustrated in a previous blog entry entitled The global economic crisis as a positive event, was that less focus on material possessions is occurring and more focus towards interpersonal relationships and experiences which no along with those close relational ties. The states of consciousness such as peace, love, and happiness can be achieved more often and for greater periods of time when human beings understand that a postmaterialism world that will ensure a sustainable and survivable future is the best path to take at this critical decision point in humanity’s timeline.
The issue is not materialism, rather the valuation associated thereto. All concepts and attributions applied to material objects need adjustment. Consciousness and the appreciation thereof must greatly exceed in value the concepts derived there of.
Always with much Love and appreciation of you as an aspect of source as our brother Jesus Christ and all others who trod the path of perfect peace.
I greatly welcome your communication with a depth of yearning that is not readly communicated in word.
john
[...] of one’s living spaces and environment can elevate one’s self-esteem and decrease the level of materialism felt by a person. Again, like with the previous elements discussed, the power is within us to make [...]