The Problem of an Affluent Society

Deborah C. Tyler, in an article at the American Thinker entitled The Psychology of a Post-scarcity Society, claims that rather than the scarcity of needed resources, it is their very abundance that is driving the current deviation in politics and morals.  Indeed, it seems that rather than be grateful that they no longer have to do constant work to stay alive, our entitled population is lashing out.

When the struggle to sustain existence in a world of scarcity is replaced by affluence so absolute that even the incompetents, the ill and the lazy are all able to survive thanks to handouts from government and private sources, the results are far from the paradise imagined by materialists...

I agree with Tyler's assessment to a certain degree. I remember the stories my father and grandfather told of their struggles in the 1890s through the Great Depression era in America. Because I am firmly grounded in history, and in the deprivation that characterized the lives of those living in the past, I can look at the luxuries I have today, and be grateful for them.  It is this lack of gratitude that I believe drives what Tyler calls "lifestyleism."

Now, I am grateful to God for the abundance he has given me.  But if you simply can not believe in God, everyone should be at least grateful to the other people in society that made these things available.  You should also be grateful simply to be here.  After all, with abortion legalized up until birth, we should be grateful that our parents chose to have us.  And we should all be  grateful to the many industrialist and inventors for bringing to market the wonderful things we enjoy today.  We really do have it good compared to our parents, and even more so to previous generations.  And, yes, they did it to solve a particular problem and make some money, but that is how capitalism works.  We should not fault them for needing to do what we also need to do: earn enough to live.

However, I do agree that the problems today are not problems of a scarcity of resources, but rather a lack of spiritual training and growth.  In other words, a moral problem:

The definitive documents of religious and secular law in America – the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and the Constitution -- were given by God and Godful men in divine presence to bring compassion and justice to the seemingly eternal struggle for existence. These documents are not purposed to guide people through adventures in identity and lifestyles. The Bible and Constitution have had to be abused and broken to extract excuses for such perversions as the right to lifestyle abortion and sexual expression posing as the touchstones of freedom.

It is a cliché to observe that contemporary left-wing politics is a mental illness characterized by fantastical thinking and obsessive hatred. Leading Democrats are recycling monstrous and disastrous policies of the past such as infanticide and centralized government command economics as “social justice” solutions. The widest plank in the Democrat platform emits the stench of burning hatred for our President and contempt for the voters who elected him. This political madness is the distilled ideology of the religious, moral and psychological declines that have accompanied post-scarcity lifestylism. Religious conviction, sanctified lifespan marriage, the ideal of abstinence outside of marriage, loyalty and courage in defense of the nation, self-regulation of varieties of consumption are all ancient, rigorous challenges in the service of survival in conditions of scarcity. These essential components of mental health have become fustian notions in a society where there is no challenge to survival, no material need to curb addictions, and a comforting delusion that it falls to somebody else to defend home and nation. It is the nature of the mind to crave justification and a sense of superiority in one’s viewpoints, however harmful they may be. This is why we hear so much pandering ignorance about “socialism” though it has never been less necessary than it is today. This is why smug elites wrap themselves in contempt for “organized religion,” romanticize drug abuse (especially cannabis), and hate the deplorables who love America, take responsibility for their own armed defense and still try to follow Judeo-Christian moral ideals.

The ultimate problem, I am convinced, is that lacking a belief in a higher power, people have become convinced they are themselves god. Narcissism drives the lifestyleism, which in turn creates all these pathologies we see around us. Yes, it is caused by our affluence, but it needn't be that way. If we are consciously grateful for what God has done for us, we will see that we in turn need to do for others. When we are thinking of others, we are not thinking of ourselves, and we may just work our way out of the pathologies plaguing our society.

Please go read Deborah Tyler's think piece, and do indeed think about it.