Materialism Versus Morality
“Man is by nature a social animal and he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is self sufficient, must either be a beast or God.”
The above thought provoking statement is of Aristotle, the famous Greek Philosopher. It means that man is a gregarious animal and can not claim to have no linkages with the society. With the fast changing thought patterns, we have come a long way from Aristotle’s time, where the above statement seems to be of little or of no relevance to the highly materialistic world of the twenty first century, where man seems to be no less than commodities, having price for each and everything. It seems that man is a material being rather than a social being in the face of today’s scenario.
A social man is he who is by nature sociable, and has the caliber to get along with even the most grueling situation, which he/she confronts while in the society. His existence is ephemeral when he fails to abide by the laid down norms, values and human virtues, which distinguishes human society from that of beasts.
Likewise, human beings for their existence have to inculcate some moral values within themselves and among their brethren to ensure that they be sociable. Such moral attributes may be honesty. Truthfulness, kindness, generosity, sympathy, discipline, altruism etc. it is these moral values that add meaning to the society and are the responsible factors for the standard of life, while materialism adds standard of living in the society.
The present day world is highly materialistic and the ever-increasing craze for money and matter at the cost of moral value has engulfed the whole society lock, stock and barrel.
With the growing industrialization and liberalization,” Eureka’s” in almost everything has brought to the more sophisticated and advanced foreign as well as indigenous goods which every one hankers after greedily. There is none who can claim that the materialism has not affected him in any way. Hardly can we come across such a case. It would be really hard to digest if one says so, both for you and me simply because we are all surrounded with facetious goods.
Human beings are not complacent with the fulfillment of basics, but after having fulfilled them comes no end to it. Everybody at present is busy feathering his own nest by hook or by crook which often jeopardizes moral and ethical values.
It was infact known from the beginning that man’s wants are unlimited, so he tried to satisfy them as early as possible. The market flooded with artificial goods further added fuel to fire by widening the gap between income and crave for goods. This marks the turning point and a man chooses different scores to satisfy his compelling but suppressed desires. The avarice for power, prestige, money etc. are closely interlinked with one another which end up in money making endeavours. Money has become the modern God to which everyone worships, throwing morality to the wind. High paid jobs are more preferred by the vast majority of the students. Can anyone be detached with the sinister effects of money? No none.
In the case of money and material crave the famous Economics’ law, the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility fails and acts contrary to the law, so far as money is concerned. Man is mad after money as it helps him to amass material belongings. One can not be morally upright while being materialistic, and vice-versa. The mania of excess money has squeezed humanistic approaches and has made us misanthropes, stoic and egomaniacal in our efforts to fulfill the mad mania.
It has been the root of many social evils like, flesh trade, child prostitution, brothels, drug trafficking, Arms smuggling, black money making, profiteering and hoarding which have hit the core of the society.
The youths are well aware of the present day political and administrative condition of India. Our country is replete of such examples, which are immoral and inhuman. The scamsters and many bureaucrats who sit on the heap of illegal assets feign ignorance of their having a finger in the pie. Such people are really drag on our country and society.
But wind seems to blow in the opposite direction. The country of more than 1 billion people has seen through their eyes the double faced leaders for a pretty long time and now wait for a favorable strike. Our society has almost given up those moral virtues of which sometimes in the past we used to be proud of and considering India as the guru of foreign countries in ethics and moral teaching. But at present it is nowhere unfortunately.
The need of the hour is to create awareness amongst the youths, who are the future architect of India to concentrate upon the gist of all learning, in building up and keeping moral and ethical identity intact. The youth power is the biggest reserved power and considering this there is a need to channelize this power for the up gradation of society. An educated person may well understand the present state of affair and he can contribute a lot in the task of nation building by developing a sound and audacious character. A famous saying goes-
“Wealth is lost, nothing is lost
Health is lost, something is lost”
Character is lost, everything is lost.”
Therefore, wealth should be there but it should be a means always and not the ends. We should be master not servant; for money can buy bed not sleep, food but not taste, house but not home. So money acquired in haste is a waste indeed.
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