"Materialistic attitude is the only cause of degradation of values in the society"--does this sound valid???...how far can you agree with this concept presented by a class of 'intellectuals'???
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Nope, does not sound valid based on information presented here, I cant agree, I would ad laziness in somewhere a lot of materialism comes about as a way to enable more laziness , and laziness is like a drug, very addictive and if you stop doing it there can be serious withdrawals.
Value can be measured in how hard someone is willing to work for something and that is for good reason. Value can be the difference between right and wrong, materialistic attitude is one of many undesirable products of laziness where people must have incentive to get off the couch or out of their chair or in some cases even out of bed. If you hold a value to something you should be willing to work for it for free regardless of material gain.
you took it to a difrent level of discussion....but actually i was talking about values-ethics-morals....moral values....
For me, becoming materialistic is a result of selfishness and apathy. When we value ourselves too much we tend to desire the things that we don't own and make ways in order to get what we want. Materialism is destructive especially if we get thing in wrong ways.
Becoming materialistic is certainly both harmful and destructive as you have said. However irregardless of this the western world as a whole is only becoming more and more materialistic as time passes, this is very worrying for our future.
You say worrying but I disagree. Materialism is what makes the world of commerce go around. It's the distribution of wealth and by wealth, I don't mean riches, just the money that everyone has in their pockets that is burning through and wanting to buy something which starts the cycle all over again.
Well, I still think it's worrying. I think that people have their priorities vastly out of order when they're wiling to undergo physical or emotional harm (be it in the form of dangerous/damaging work or undue emotional stress) for money. And unfortunately, commerce, which is a common thread between the people in our society, seems to encourage people to do just that.
To say any single item is "the only cause" of degradation is far too simplistic. Also, the assumption that our society is in a state of degradation is overblown, IMO. In my society, at least, we treat women and minorities better than we have for centuries, for example. In many ways, we aren't degrading, although obviously we are in others. It's a mixed bag, but there isn't necessarily a consistently downward spiral, and there isn't any one cause for any of it.
Agreed wholeheartedly. There's plenty wrong with this place besides materialism.
It would be really fun to go through a few "chicken and egg" paradigm scenarios with the faults of humanity. Which came first guys, jealousy or greed?
In the case of women and minorities, who apparently should be pleased that they're treated "better" now, which comes last, degradation or condescension?
one thing should be cleared that --"materialistic attitude"--i mentioned here is not the atheist outlook...because their are millions of atheist who care, who value human lives and who are not ravenous for material things,.(iam one of them)...... it's the money hungry attitude iam talking about, the outlook which turns a human into an animal and due to this materialistic attitude the present world system is moulded in such a way that human lives are turned inferior to market and money....there are countless example of wealth of the rich built on the miseries of the poor....people value credit card more than human lives.....we count the numbers and it makes the headline but we dont think for a second befor disgracing humanity.......the money hungry "market friendly" capitalism has turned human into consumer item leading to modern day slavery......values and morals are long forgotten words...
Don't worry, we're all in agreement that atheism has nothing to do with materialism. Even realism doesn't seem to be an essential core value for atheists, though it is for me.
As a matter of fact, I've seen more money hungry people involved in churches than in any other avenue of my life.
But still, I think materialism is a symptom of the degradation of the human spirit, not a cause. Once our humanity is taken from us, we cling to what's left, and in the case of the affluent societies especially, that's the artificial value of money and the things it can buy.
The money hungry attitude can ruin several lives and can degrade morality of the people affected by it. gladly, there are still people out there who value morality, love, goodness, selfishness and humility more than money.
Being materialistic can contribute on the degradation of values since it can mean being selfish and some will do all ways even bad ways just to acquire what things they want. But I think that there are other factors that could lead to degradation of values aside from it like being arrogant and boastful.