You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: I and Thou: The Dynamics of Self in a High Tech World
Thoughtful piece. You're right: materialism - would a better term be "hedonism"? - is pushed hard by our mass-consumer society. And yes, it's had gloomy side effects. One not often discussed is, lots of folks find it really hard to ask for help.
In pioneer days, the supposed age of individualism, there was a lot more community spirit. The old barn-raising has lots of similars in other hard-living communities. Back in the old days in Newfoundland, there was a community wood-chopping: the men in the village would go out to the forest and chop down trees for winter firewood.
Or perhaps hedonistic materialism. When Buber speaks of material he uses it only to indicate that we can only experience things rather than relate to them, so in that context, when I say materialism I don't necessarily mean it in the common parlance, only to point out an abstract relationship.
Another incidence of community spirit... during the "great depression" when people had considerably less- they gave more. I forget where I saw the study, but during periods of prosperity, charity seems to shrink. Another interesting aspect of human nature.