>
>Is there anyway of getting a free-market without having to live in a
>consumer culture? Is this spiritual hollowness just the price we have to
>pay
>for being adequately fed, clothed, and housed?
>
I think the problem isn't being adequately fed or clothed, but that
capitalism treats being adequately fed or clothed as quality itself.
Look at it this way: human beings do not live to be fed and clothed. we do
not wake up every morning saying "I can't wait until I am fed and clothed
today". rather, being fed and clothed is a way of prolonging our lives so
that we may pursue other things....and while the names of these things may
vary (power, fame, enlightenment), they are usually summed up by Pirsig's
Quality (different types, albeit, but quality nonetheless.)
The porblem is, capitalism refuses to acknowledge that food, clothing, or
their more famous counterpart, money, are the means to assuring a free
pursuit of Quality, and say that money is Quality. Money is all there is.
The greed and "consumer culture" people are now perceiving as bad is simply
people realizing that money is not Quality. People work hard their entire
lives, become rich, and find themselves strangely unfufilled; something is
missing, and that something is Quality. As people gradually wake up to this
fact they turn on Capitalism as a system as the problem. I know; I very
eagerly wished to tear down the entire system for most of my life.
if anything, Capitalism is an effective means of distributing food and
clothing; thus, it allows people more freedom with which to pursue Quality.
We should be careful, however, not ot confuse Money with
Quality....remember, the Taoists, some of the first philosophers to come
across Quality, gave up all their monetary earnings when becoming monks for
a reason: when trying to find out just what Quality is, Money just gets in
the way.
--dan barrett
-- Daniel Barrett - dannydangerously@hotmail.com http://www.idrive.com/masao/web/welcome.htmlsearching for the answers in life is like sticking out your foot and tripping yourself. --
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