Liberating Humanity from the Oppression of Materialism

From people’s collective mental and physical labor comes increased economic potentials. In an equitable society, this ideally results in increased purchasing capacity for all. When I made this point in past Crisis and Transition articles, I got pushback from readers Betsy Robertson and Robert Bolman, who are concerned about increased consumption in an economy that’s using resources unsustainably. I get this. We’re already using resources at a rate that would require 1.7 Earths to sustain. Under capitalist consumerism, increasing people’s purchasing power will only accelerate resource depletion.

But resource depletion isn’t the only damage being done by consumerism. In addition to depleting the earth, consumerism is depleting the human spirit, and the consequences are equally devastating. This is an underappreciated facet of the polycrisis.

False Ideology of Materialism

For a great many in the world today, oppression arises from the false ideology of materialism. They become oppressed by the dogma of consumption, believing that if they can acquire or consume more, then they will be happy. Is this not an oppression?

Materialism oppresses the human spirit. It makes people feel disheartened, depressed, disassociated from the power of their spirit. They are told, in effect, “Buy something more; consume.” Following this cultural norm, they assume the identity of a consumer.

But what is a consumer? What depth of the human heart is fulfilled by consumption? Consumers become like hungry ghosts, never fulfilled. Their families are broken. The extended families, the communities, even the nuclear families, are broken. They become lonely. An emptiness develops in the heart, a hollowness, and this oppression leads to the diminishment of their human spirit.

Materialism is a great affliction that oppresses millions of people. It’s been an affliction of the West that has now spread to the East. Consumerism cannot satisfy the human heart. It is a false ideology. It oppresses virtually the entire planet, and the large multinational corporations want to keep people in this state of oppression.

Rallying the Human Spirit Through Spirituality

But emerging beneath the wave of materialism is a rallying of the human spirit to new ways of thinking. Spirituality, in particular, has direct relevance to ending the oppression of materialism, because a main theme of the spirituality of today lies not only in achieving personal realization but also in answering the call to action for the suffering human society. There is in this expansive spirituality both the path to divinity and the call to care for and to love all beings.

When living beings are treated with disrespect, when living beings are oppressed, exploited and humiliated — all for the benefit or greed of a few — it is an offense to spirit. For each living being is ultimately a manifestation of the cosmic entity. So none should be harmed. The harming of living beings causes psychic imbalance in the world.

It is natural for human beings to love each other, to love other creatures, to desire to be close, to desire connection. In these connections, the boundaries of “I” and “mine” are dissolved, and one feels a completeness of one’s spirit. When one laughs in spontaneous joy with one’s friends and loved ones, one feels the connection of spirit; one experiences that the sense of separateness is lost.

When a person enters into deep meditation, they inwardly experience the feeling of that union. Upon coming back into the world that feeling of connection must be brought into their life, into their relationships with other living beings. No man or woman is an island to live their life alone without the community of fellow beings. All living beings are a part of a whole. Together they share this world.

Restoring the Balance

When so many living beings suffer unwanted pains and sorrows and are exploited for the greed of others, this creates imbalance in the world. Balance is destroyed and disharmony occurs in the society. The result of this disharmony is alienation, separation.

As the society becomes more entrenched in disharmony, the wholeness of community is destroyed. The fabric of the society is destroyed, leaving many people with much suffering and unmet needs. In this state, meeting the genuine needs of human beings is not what drives the values of society. What drives the society is the ideology of greed and consumerism, so just a few can be very wealthy at the expense of the many.

But this oppression of materialism will not endure. Already, the awareness that materialism is not working is growing. In the West, the ideology of materialism has been around longer and the poison of it has been ingested and the sickness is being felt. In the East it is still popular because it is new and fascinating, and its hidden poison has not been as fully felt.

But in the West, people are sick with the poison. This poison has destroyed communities; it has destroyed homes and families; and people find themselves lonely, displaced, unhappy, restless. They are now beginning to look around and see what they lack. In the West, the ideology of materialism is losing its status.

In the coming time, we will likely see capitalism becoming less popular. It will grow in disfavor because people in the West feel the sting of what they have lost. In the East, as of yet, the sting is not fully felt; but it will come there too.

People feel unsettled, and they realize something is needed. They realize they have lost something very precious. In response, we see that there are many who now want to gather together to find solutions and build community. The movement that is developing in this way is as yet small. But as times get harder, it will only grow.

This is what lies in humanity’s future, because this movement expresses our fundamental urge to restore balance in human society. The pendulum that has swung to one end, impelled by an ideology that breeds great imbalances in society, will now swing the other way. There will be much receptivity to this movement, and this receptivity will grow.

Nuclear Revolution

So, it is time to bring forward a life-centered ideology based on connection with life and spirit, to bring forward this counterbalance to the defective materialist ideology and the ills it has created. Receptivity will grow to the notions expressed in such a spiritually based, life-centered ideology.

According to the analysis of historical dynamics in PROUT philosophy, there are three forms of revolution. First is palatial revolution. This type of revolution occurs when there is just a change in the political regime but with no substantive change of the society’s institutions or ideology. There may be changes of president, but does this end the oppression people feel? It does not, for the oppressive ideology remains in place, the lifestyle remains in place, so the fundamental problems still exist. It is not a true revolution.

A second type of revolution is pyramidical revolution. This occurs when an enlightened leadership initiates a wave of transformation in the society. It comes from enlightened leadership, and then it inspires the people. But is there any enlightened leadership to inspire the people to overthrow the oppression of materialism? No, the present leaders all support and stand with capitalism and its materialist ideology. So, pyramidical revolution is not a viable way to end our oppression.

The third type is nuclear revolution. In nuclear revolution, a deep cultural and ideological shift is brought deep into the hearts of the people, and then political change comes as a result.

Nuclear revolution doesn’t start with political change; it causes political change. Political change comes because the hearts and minds of people begin to want more meaning, and that compels them to mobilize. So when the time is right, if there is hope and a vision of a way forward, then the people rush towards it.

Liberating the Human Heart

Most people have embraced the self-centered ideology of capitalism; society has taken it to heart. But this is not working out well for them. People are hurting, and many are now looking for solutions to their pain. The human spirit cannot be suppressed for long. It is beginning to react to being mired in materialism. One more thing to consume, to experience, to wear — this does not satisfy the human heart’s desire for expansiveness. It wants to feel that moment of transcendence, whether it is in human relations, in connection to the natural world, or in deep meditation. The human spirit wants to expand; it wants to feel love; it wants to know itself.

What happens when the fundamental nature of humanity dampened? Depression becomes pervasive, because the human spirit is oppressed. What is the solution? It is to unfold the human spirit in interconnectedness and wholeness.

People are beginning to seek this, and the movement in this direction is growing. At present, it is found mainly among disgruntled intellectuals or in alternative communities. In the West, the poison of materialism is most acute, and they are ready to seek change. Inevitably, it will spread to the East as well.

We are entering a time of great transformation. There will be struggle; there will be suffering. But great and positive things can and will happen. People will become more connected to each other, more connected with the natural world, and more connected with the entity which binds all life together in love. A bright future awaits humanity.