Materialism and its Discontents II

Because of its phalanx of coercive methods, both cruel (e.g. dogmatic scientism and a public educational policy keeping spirituality out of schools in the west, and outright denial of religion in communist regimes) and gentle, (endless entertainment and the burgeoning pharmacology field) the second influence materialism wields over human intelligence is a rampant self-deception throughout all branches of the human sciences about human nature. This allows its believers to live in denial of the life-threatening effects of breathing the noxious “miasma of materialism”. (The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986:590) These fumes, so spiritually toxic, so fetid, foul, and putrid, are so heavy they can explode with a single spark.  Lack of true self-knowledge, yet believing, nonetheless, that one has self-knowledge, is self-deception at its worst.  It deludes the mind into believing the illusion is real.  This self-deception is the origin of most mental illnesses today, generated and given insubstantial form by what the document calls “a groundswell of anxiety and discontent, much of it only dimly conscious of the sense of spiritual emptiness that is producing it.”(One Common Faith: 6) 

We read earlier that Baha’u’llah called the materialist order of His day “lamentably defective.”  The House of Justice elaborated His meaning when they wrote in their 1985 document, The Promise of World Peace: “Flaws in the prevailing order are conspicuous in the inability of sovereign states organized as United Nations to exorcize the spectre of war, the threatened collapse of the international economic order, the spread of anarchy and terrorism, and the intense suffering which these and other afflictions are causing to increasing millions. Indeed, so much have aggression and conflict come to characterize our social, economic and religious systems, that many have succumbed to the view that such behaviour is intrinsic to human nature and therefore ineradicable.”

The Bahá’í International Community at the United Nations, guided by the House, stated in their October 1995 message, Turning Point For All Nations: “With respect to social issues, likewise, grave problems persist. While new levels of consensus have been reached on global programs to promote health, sustainable development and human rights, the situation on the ground in many areas has deteriorated. The alarming spread of militant racialism and religious fanaticism, the cancerous growth of materialism, the epidemic rise of crime and organized criminality, the widespread increase in mindless violence, the ever-deepening disparity between rich and poor, the continuing inequities faced by women, the intergenerational damage caused by the pervasive break-down of family life, the immoral excesses of unbridled capitalism and the growth of political corruption—all speak to this point.” (Baha'i International Community, 1995 Oct, Turning Point For All Nations)

But the House of Justice, again following reasoning that goes back as far as the earliest known statements of any Manifestation of God, explained that these outer and visible flaws flow from a fundamental misconception of human nature as inherently selfish, aggressive and competitive, and it is this false belief that really torpedoes any hope for an enduring improvement of human affairs: “With the entrenchment of this view, a paralyzing contradiction has developed in human affairs. On the one hand, people of all nations proclaim not only their readiness but their longing for peace and harmony, for an end to the harrowing apprehensions tormenting their daily lives. On the other, uncritical assent is given to the proposition that human beings are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive and thus incapable of erecting a social system at once progressive and peaceful, dynamic and harmonious, a system giving free play to individual creativity and initiative but based on co-operation and reciprocity.

As the need for peace becomes more urgent, this fundamental contradiction, which hinders its realization, demands a reassessment of the assumptions upon which the commonly held view of mankind's historical predicament is based. Dispassionately examined, the evidence reveals that such conduct, far from expressing man's true self, represents a distortion of the human spirit.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The Promise of World Peace)

            Then they state the root of all defects in any system built upon this false belief and paralyzing contradiction: “Most particularly, it is in the glorification of material pursuits, at once the progenitor and common feature of all such ideologies, that we find the roots which nourish the falsehood that human beings are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive. It is here that the ground must be cleared for the building of a new world fit for our descendants.

“That materialistic ideals have, in the light of experience, failed to satisfy the needs of mankind calls for an honest acknowledgement that a fresh effort must now be made to find the solutions to the agonizing problems of the planet. The intolerable conditions pervading society bespeak a common failure of all, a circumstance which tends to incite rather than relieve the entrenchment on every side. Clearly, a common remedial effort is urgently required. It is primarily a matter of attitude.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The Promise of World Peace)

“The time has come,” the document goes on, “when those who preach the dogmas of materialism, whether of the east or the west, whether of capitalism or socialism, must give account of the moral stewardship they have presumed to exercise. Where is the "new world" promised by these ideologies? Where is the international peace to whose ideals they proclaim their devotion? Where are the breakthroughs into new realms of cultural achievement produced by the aggrandizement of this race, of that nation or of a particular class? Why is the vast majority of the world's peoples sinking ever deeper into hunger and wretchedness when wealth on a scale undreamed of by the Pharaohs, the Caesars, or even the imperialist powers of the nineteenth century is at the disposal of the present arbiters of human affairs?” (The Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The Promise of World Peace)

Whatever benefits the materialist order and era has brought to humanity, and there are both material and intellectual benefits, as the document, One Common Faith, points out: “Clearly, materialism’s error has lain not in the laudable efforts to improve the conditions of life, but in the narrowness of mind and unjustified self-confidence that have defined its mission.” (p.10)

What makes materialism—i.e. the interpretation of reality backed by science, the goals which this interpretation sets, and the social system built upon it—so untenable, so unsteady, so explosive, so chimerical, is that it promises so much but has never had the resources to realize its promise, for it relies solely upon human thought and energy working through material means  It unknowingly subverts its own goals and purposes by this narrowness of vision, lack of moral discipline and denial of greater spiritual powers.  The terrible “agonizing disjunction” coupled with the failure of either aggressive materialism to completely conquer the soul or the use of soporifics of every kind to dull the anxiety has brought humanity into open rebellion against this spiritual tyranny.