Selections from Chapter 9. Materialism Is Pandora’s Box.
or
The Occurrence Equivalence of the Violations of the Moral Axioms with Materialism and with Each Other
|
Symbol |
Description |
|
M |
Materialism |
|
To |
Schoolyard bullies, children as family despots, etc. |
|
Ť1 = Ğ1 |
Excessive procreation due to narcissism or fear of infant mortality |
|
T1 = G1 |
Excessive procreation for other reasons, which are discussed elsewhere in this chapter |
|
T2 = G2 |
Cruelty to animals and wanton destruction of animals and plants |
|
T3 |
Man’s traditional domination of women |
|
T* |
Man’s domination of man and forms of tyranny other than To, Ť1, T1, T2, and T3 |
|
Go |
Inadvertent environmental damage including accidental pregnancies |
|
Ğ1 = Ť1 |
Excessive procreation due to narcissism or fear of infant mortality |
|
G1 = T1 |
Excessive procreation for other reasons |
|
G2 = T2 |
Killing animals and plants wantonly |
|
G3 |
Unnecessary industrial pollution |
|
G* |
Excessive consumption and other energetic costs of materialism |
|
Fo |
The falsely stated “I love you”, romantic flattery, etc. |
|
F1 |
Self-deception, double-think, narcissism, etc. |
|
F2 |
Superstition |
|
F3 |
Dishonesty in business |
|
F* |
“Manufacturing Consent”, false indoctrination of children, controlled media, etc. |
|
S* |
The concept that subsumes wealth, power, and negotiable fame |
The following passages indicate the role of materialism as a cause of excessive procreation. Symbols in the text are explained in the table (above). The headings in the Table of Contents indicate the form of the complete proof for which one can read the entire chapter at http://dematerialism.net/ops.htm.
Five motives for excessive procreation in violation of the Token Theorem, which permits every person to replace herself or himself, are (i) narcissism, (ii) fear that not all will live, (iii) cheap labor to promote family wealth, (iv) hope for support in old age, and (v) to spread rapidly a racial plurality, a religion, ideology, culture, or general system of “family values”, often superstitions and myths, to which the violator of the Token Theorem is committed, dedicated, or enthralled – or at least wishes others to be committed, dedicated, or enthralled. Accidental pregnancies will be treated as though they were simply another form of inadvertent environmental destruction. Presumably, inadvertent pregnancies can be eliminated by a combination of education, indoctrination, and science all unfettered by superstition.
The first reason, narcissism, for having more children than is morally valid is very likely to disappear (at least as a reason for having children) in a society free of materialism (M) and materialistic propaganda (F*), which is occurrence equivalent with materialism. This was discussed above and will be taken up again below. Moreover, when a beloved child dies the parent’s grief is not diminished by the survival of another child, therefore the motive for having more children to ensure against such a tragedy may be assumed to be narcissistic as well. Most of this can be corrected by early childhood training, which is certain to go forward in a society that does not prevent it or counter it with materialistic propaganda designed to ensure a readily available surplus labor supply to account for the cycles of boom and bust inherent in all market economies according to Norbert Weiner’s Cybernetics [3].
*******
It is not difficult to see that excess procreation to provide oneself with cheap labor or to support oneself in one’s old age is occurrence equivalent with materialism and F*. The case of excess procreation to spread belief systems is a little more subtle, but it should be recognized that when no person can dominate another by any means and when dissent is easily expressed and is protected, authoritarians, for example, will not require strength in numbers but will be able to make their case easily without such drastic methods, which would tend to undercut their ideas anyway. Either free debate will defeat those who might dissent from the views expressed here or these views are incorrect, in which case, hopefully, they will never be adopted.
Since many people will elect not to have children and not to pass on their tokens to people who wish to have additional children, the population will shrink toward an optimal density. If someone is motivated to have additional children intentionally for some reason other than the reasons specifically named, we can only hope that this mistake will be compensated for by people who do not reproduce. Early childhood training, non-puritanical sex education, and rational propaganda in the absence of F* should mitigate this difficulty if it exists. In addition, many materialistic practices require engaging in falsity two of which are covered in the next two sub-sections. (Clearly, industrial pollution of the type G3 is not something one would want to tell the truth about.)
********
It was easy to prove directly that G1 ( = T1), G3, and F3 are occurrence equivalent to M. Their relationships to the other social evils are evident. The relations between traditional male dominance T3, materialism M, authoritarian falsity F*, hierarchical dominance T*, and excessive procreation G1 and Ğ1 including accidental pregnancies G0 are somewhat complicated. Regardless of any appearances to the contrary, the evils of traditional male dominance, especially general societal attitudes that were engendered by traditional male dominance, are still operative and as destructive as they have ever been – even if a woman be president of the United States.
Thus, in this essay, traditional male dominance does not refer to instances of men dominating women directly only (or to women dominating men in reaction to the former), but to a societal attitude that lurks in the background of every relationship whether men or women are actually exercising power over one another or not. Thus, the desire of men to continue the male line so as to perpetuate their name (Ğ1), the asymmetry between our attitudes toward men seducing women and women seducing men (a partial cause of accidental pregnancies, especially among unmarried people), the generally conceded view that under some circumstances war is an appropriate response to social disorder (F* if and only if T* if and only if G*), the pedestrian desire to exercise power or authority over other people by dint of physical strength, political position, or economic hegemony (T*) – all of these and more can be laid at the feet of traditional male dominance.
The difficulties of establishing exact occurrence equivalences between traditional male dominance and other social evils accounts in part for the viability of theories that seek to establish traditional male dominance as fundamental, e.g., Feminism. Clearly, though, in a non-materialistic world whatever societal attitudes persist concerning gender, it will not be possible for men to hold women in economic bondage nor in domestic slavery. Conspicuously missing in this analysis is a subject parallel to sexism, namely, racism, which will be considered next:
Compiled May 20, 2013
Thomas Wayburn, PhD
Houston, Texas