Materialism:
Research
By Anthony W. Antolic
12/22/07
Source: Ishizaki,
Yasunori, Letter from the Editor-in-Chief , Japan Close-Up, November
2007 Issue, Page 03
“Economic
growth has continued now for an unprecedented five years. But all we
hear is sorry stories like, 'it is hard to actually experience the
economic growth. Incomes are down. The countryside is impoverished.
The number of suicides
up dramatically. It sounds like we are
in the depths of a depression. Why aren't we aren't we actually
experiencing growth in our lives” (Ishizaki, 3)?
This is an extraction from a
Japanese Magazine showing that we as middle class Americans are not
alone in our financial frustration. So why aren't we experiencing
growth in our lives? According to Yasunori Ishizaki, the Editor-in
Chief of Japan Close-Up:
“One reason
is that the numerous periods of economic growth that Japan has gone
through in the past, have all been at least 10%, but this time it's
only 2-3%. In the same way that might be easy for a person with 20
points to get 50 points, but it's not easy for someone with 90 points
to get 95, for a fully advanced nation like Japan it is next to
impossible to achieve double digit growth” (Ishizaki, 3).
With prosperity come an addiction
called Materialism. This sickness makes the person believe that they
can not go through life with out acquiring the next big thing. In a
world of capitalism mankind tends to feel like he has something
missing in his life. That which is missing is a relationship with
God.
Not unlike other addictions,
Materialism tends to force the person to choose between the important
things such rent, food for the persons family, or buying the newest
best products on the market. Furthermore, the person will get driven
further and further away from God's will in the person's life.
A prime example to show the evils
of Materialism in todays social and economic landscape, is Christmas.
This year a young woman got so caught up in the madness of the buying
season, that she had spent all of her money before she could buy food
for her and her 3 year old son. So she called on her brother, who had
not been working for over a year, and asked him to buy food for her.
So her brother agreed and took her shopping. He spent the last money
he had, so his nephew could eat. All the while her brother knew, he
would not eat again for a week. His act, his sacrifice, is the
embodiment of the spirit of Christmas.
For it is on this day that God
gave us his humility. It was on this day he came into our world, as a
mortal infant. His life would become a sacrifice in both how he lived
it and how he would die. However, the sin of capitalism has corrupted
the Lord's birthday, and turned it into a reason to capitalize on the
empty lives of all those who have become addicted to Lucifer's most
dangerous weapon against humanity.
Materialism teaches people that
they can find the peace and salvation they seek through the
acquisition of worldly goods. Like any addiction, Materialism is only
a quick fix. The high is only fleeting and the coast of getting there
could be much greater than most wish to face.
Jesus destroyed the his Father's
temple when he found that it had become a market place. Well I say to
you, that by taking God out of Christmas, and replacing him with
Capitalism and Materialism, that we have only proven to destroy his
temple, yet again.
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