MATERIALISTIC MADNESS.(Brief Article)

THERE IS NOTHING intrinsically ennobling about poverty, just as wealth is not necessarily corrupting. But a culture that sees everything in materialistic terms has forgotten the lesson of King Midas and created a world where sensibilities are coarsened and blunted, and where madness in rationality's clothing reigns supreme.

It is the kind of madness where a good father, instead of being admired for the successful upbringing of his children, is pitied because he is poor; where his children, because they can't have a television or video in their rooms, or can't gratify every passing whim, are supposed to be somehow diminished. The kind of madness where everything precious is analysed, explained away, and finally commodified: where people are judged not on who they are but on how much they earn; when prostitutes are described as "service economy providers" and mercenary soldiers can claim damages for not having been allowed to kill people; when deciding to have a child becomes a matter of a tax return, the preciousness of human life is denied, computers presented as identical to minds, nature mocked and pushed away, earth seen as expendable, imagination impoverished. In such a world, is it surprising that the only approach to the scourge of drug addiction seems to be more of the same superficial damage control, or to tidy it all away in neat hygienic shoot-up rooms, where a good clean "product" could be provided, well-regulated and taxed by the state? Why not, after all? It's only the logical end point of our marvellous materialistic world, and the dealers are true examples of successful niche marketers.

Of course, people who are already addicts must be helped, in a compassionate and generous manner. But what of prevention, of protecting more people from falling victim? If you see everything in materialistic terms, if you capitulate to the commodification of everything and consider heroin addiction to be merely another "lifestyle choice" and not the product of a deep sense of worthlessness and emptiness; if you refuse even to consider the spiritual and moral vacuum into ...