THE 21^st CENTURY MATERIALISM

Dr. K. Thirupathi Reddy

The 21^st Century is to be considered as materialism or Materialistic way of life in the world. At present it has spread to nooks and corners of the world. It has penetrated to all continents of the world. New nations from continents like Africa, South America and Asia have adopted new materialism. Now there is no more gap between the East and West. Further the gap is reduced a lot among developed and developing countries as far as materialism is concerned. There may not be any sancity for the known adage “East is East and West is West”.

Materialism and Globalisation

There is a close affinity between materialism and the present globalisation. Globalisation is linking all the traditional societies and modern societies and also linking different people together in the world. The impact of globalisation is seen more on poor and developing countries. The globalisation process has reduced the varied differences and in its place increased the new thoughts and ideas among the people of the third world. But at the same time it has further reduced the distance between ideas, life styles and way of thinking etc. No doubt it has increased the political awareness among the people of the new nations. Further the globalisation process has increased competition among the people and the nations to surpass each other in economic materialism. At present every nation is a part of this global unit without any exception.

What is Materialism?

Man was attracted towards materialistic way of life in the middle of the 20^th century at the cost of human values. Everybody and every society is thinking in terms of materialistic amassment. Irrespective of geographical frontiers and regions etc., people want to amass more and more wealth, comforts and new facilities, at the cost of moral and other human values and principles. And at the same time the rich nations do not want to share their economic prosperity with the have-nots. No person is thinking about his neighbour and his own society. Everybody wants to prosper for himself or herself at the cost of others. This selfishness led to misunderstanding and differences and ultimately led to violence and crime in the society. The gap is increasing even between the rich and poor nations too. They do not want either to share the wealth or prosperity or the new technology developed recently. The new nations have blindly adopted western commercialism.

Indian Context

The west recognises that the Indian subcontinent represents East. We cannot think or imagine the status of the philosophical East minus India. Further it stands for values, based on the age old Vedas which provide presently in all spheres of world knowledge. Generally speaking about India, is undoubtedly speaking about spiritualism or spiritual knowledge etc. From times immemorial India has been representing spiritualism and upholding righteousness and stands for dharma. The foreigners see India as a treasure house for spiritual knowledge. This country has influenced world nations in recent times for its rich traditional heritage and culture. Now their entire focus is on India to seek real knowledge and truth etc.

That was India’s past glory. The Indian people, the intellectuals, political elites unfortunately have forgotten its past glory and its spectacular achievements, in all most all spheres of knowledge. At the turn of 20^th century, we ourselves are belittling our nation’s greatness whereas the others are at times seeking solace from us. It indicates some sort of dichotomy between the spiritual India and modern India. Unhesitatingly we can say that there was a diversion or perversion in her attitudes, and practices. It stands no more for the same exalted position. It is losing its glitter. Further we are in no way better than other world nations. Our society, our polity, our culture, our heritage and our spiritual wealth has also exhausted a lot. The maladies like corruption, the caste and class systems, race, region and religion etc. are ruining the nation due to degeneration of our nation society. Hence it is no more considered to be a homogeneous society. It has already given up the paragons of Sanathana Dharma and is also compromising with value system. In place the materialism and western commercialism is ruling the roost. At this juncture we are looking towards the West for the so called materialism due to our varied short comings which have started appearing recently.

Implications

The present world is divided into two blocs and the nations are divided and for that matter the societies are further divided over materialism. Due to the impact of materialism the modern man’s role in 21^st century is complicated and has led to various problems. Further due to the gulf between rich and poor it creates more and more societal tensions and misunderstanding among the nations and the people.

Undoubtedly there is a tremendous materialistic progress alongwith scientific and technological innovations in the recent times. These new achievements did not reduce the poverty and differences in the world and in their outlook. On the other hand they increased tensions and animosities amongst the societies etc. Materialism and all around scientific development on one side and human values on the other side are vertically falling apart. What is needed at this crucial juncture is striking a harmonious balance between these two extremes. Otherwise the human progress will certainly collapse ignominiously. The fear of mass destruction due to the notion of war is there in the minds of people of the nations. Man has to balance these forces judiciously to gain further prosperity in 21^st century but not to kill his own human race.

Conclusion

To conclude, It is the responsibility of every society and every nation to protect our globe against future nuclear catastrophe. Man has not given up his hatred against others, beliefs such as religion, culture and traditions etc. He has to develop tolerance and reciprocate towards other groups and societies in the present world. Basically, man has to share his wealth and ideas with other fellow beings. Otherwise the same old happenings may recur despite the tremendous development man has achieved at the turn of 20^th century. It is the basic duty of all of us to protect ourselves along with our environment from further genocide that may take place at any time.

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