A Weak Justification

 

Mr Ryan McMaken tries to justify the current hyper-commercialized economic order with the following:

 

 . . .

 

This state of relative plenty is all thanks to the so-called “consumer economy” itself, which is nothing more than a process that delivers what the great mass of the population needs and desires. Residents of the industrialized world need no longer worry that a bad harvest will lead to starvation, or that a flood will lead to permanent destitution.  With industrialization and the proliferation of markets comes “luxury.” But what exactly constitutes luxury remains utterly relative.

 

Nonetheless, it is no coincidence that modern concern over an “excessive” amount of goods and services often leads to demand for taxes, regulations, central planning, and other efforts to force us all to return merely to what is “necessary.” The “Green New Deal” and the “Great Reset” are but two examples. Thanks to all this “consumerist” luxury, the story goes, we’ve ruined the environment, our culture, and even our own families and lives.  

 

Like the aristocrats of old, today’s ruling class believes only they can be trusted with controlling access to the fruits of human industry. Otherwise the ordinary folk might use these fruits unwisely or for politically unacceptable ends. But you can rest assured the ruling class will take a healthy cut of the pie in return for its “services.”  The impulse to control all this is clearly an old one. Christmas merely offers the elites and their friends another opportunity to berate the public for its “excess.” 

 

But if the intellectuals and aristocrats of today are so concerned with the impact of consumer goods on virtue—nowadays defined perhaps as the level of one’s “wokeness” and fondness for social democracy—let them teach by example. Let the New York and Washington elite give up their posh vacations, their private jets, luxury cars, and their second (and third) homes. Let the intellectuals donate their university salaries to others.

 

Until then, you’ll find me wrapping Christmas presents.

 

--https://www.newswars.com/the-great-reset-vs-the-true-meaning-of-christmas/

The underlying argument is terribly weak and reminds one of children who want to wriggle out from under their parents’ command that they behave themselves properly:  ‘But so-and-so is doing it, so why can’t I?’  Just because the Elite are behaving irresponsibly with regard to possessions doesn’t mean that it is okay for the lower classes to act the same way.

Our standards for how to conduct our lives are not relative to other individuals, cultures, etc.  They are determined by God Himself.  The Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, whose Holy Nativity we are celebrating for the next 12 days, teaches us to pray only for ‘our daily bread’ (St Matt. 6:11).  St Paul likewise admonishes us:  ‘But godliness with contentment is great gain’ (I Tim. 6:6).  ‘And having food and raiment let us be therewith content’ (I Tim. 6:8).  The life and teachings of the Holy Apostles and all the Saints of the Holy Orthodox Church down through the ages to the present day testify that simplicity of life is better than luxury because it helps us to focus our attention on the permanent things that are above rather than getting bogged down in the things below that pass away.  One of the hymns to St Mary of Egypt (+522) says it this way:

 

The image of God was truly preserved in you, O mother, / for you took up the Cross and followed Christ. / By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh, for it passes away; / but to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal. / Therefore your spirit, O holy Mother Mary, rejoices with the Angels.

 

--https://www.oca.org/saints/troparia/2018/04/01/100963-venerable-mary-of-egypt

 

(The life of this God-pleasing icon of true and fervent repentance may be read here:  https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2018/04/01/100963-venerable-mary-of-egypt)

In addition to this is the unseen environmental cost of our ‘consumer culture’, including huge toxic lagoons and mountains of discarded, obsolete electronics:

https://www.dw.com/en/the-invisible-waste-behind-our-laptops-and-smartphones/a-55947860, link via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/

We need less smug self-justification for our excesses (whether by the Elite Titans of Industry or the plain folk) and more humility, repentance, contentment, and generosity by all those in society.  Then perhaps we will see the rise of an economy that can properly be called ‘Christian’.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!