11. "RE: Isn't materialism at the root of violence?" In response to In response to 9
>It is at >the root of, and I am not shy about using this word, the >anti-capitalist rejection of private accumulation to deplore >any kind of society that tells those without any significant >ownership of anything that to be fully human, they must >consume like a Rockafeller.
Red alert!! Commie on board.
Only joking. I believe there is a valid distinction between capitalism (good) and the monopoly stage of capitalism (bad) in which we live. The latter has ushered in consumerism and its effects upon identity.
>Edit: and by materialism let us not be confused with the >materialism that I do endorse. Ie, dialiectical and historical >materialism. The tenet that all the exists is physical in >nature and that ideas are products of our interactions with >the material world.
I would contend that all which exists is linguistic in nature. Is it possible for individuals to understand the physical world outside the its meaning as defined by the language we use? For example, without the connoted meaning imported by language, a diamond becomes no more than shiny stone..