Modernization Taking Over

Materialism: preoccupation with or emphasis on material objects. comforts, and considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values.

It has been brought to my attention that this... this disease has been spreading all over the world. Basically, this means that people are becoming more and more obsessed with money and having more things than others.

Think about it. People used to care more about the economy and their families. Nowadays you can't even walk out the door without seeing some form or another of advertisement for the new "Abercrombie and Fitch" store to be put in the mall. All anyone cares about now is their status on the social rank board.

First of all, thanks to President Bush, we're in one of the worst economic slumps we've ever been in and the government is millions of dollars in debt. Secondly, our world is being polluted to a point of hazard in some areas that we can't even take a walk without wearing a damn gas mask. There are so many fuel-burning factories out there that I can see the impurity in the air.

Recently, gas prices have actually gone down. All over the United States, people were paying near $4.00 a gallon. Thirty years ago, people only had to cough up around $0.50 per gallon. Why should we have to pay the price of modernization. True, pay checks have also gone up and the value of money has clearly changed, but that doesn't make it any more tolerable.

What's wrong with old-fashioned hard labor? Today, working hard is considered sitting at a desk all day and filing paper work for a living.

To modernize something means to give a new or contemporary character or appearance to. Why do we want all of the beautiful, ancient, familiar surroundings to turn to tall, gray, cold structures. Where is the warmth and comfort in that?

This brings me back to obsessive materialism. Some think I'm crazy for worshiping God, or, for lack of a better phrase, "some crazy dude with a beard who claims to be the Son of He who Created the World." Okay, what about those out there who worship material objects? I'm not sure I want to hang around with someone who adores thousand dollar shoes above all other possessions. That's called idolatry and it is a sin in the Catholic eye, although many readers, I know, could care less about what Catholics consider a sin, so I won't go into detail there.

Today is Christmas Eve, and I can't help but be a little bit down in the dumps. This holiday - what used to be my favorite holiday - has been commercialized to the point of being unbearable. It's really sad. The only things holidays are about anymore are presents and what people can get out of them. Instead of teaching about the true meaning of Christmas, like they did in the Charlie Brown "Peanuts" special, schools now teach the students how to wrap gifts.

Christmas carols are sung as an excuse to get together and drink beer late at night while walking and singing drunkenly to pissed off neighbors. Christmas parties are rip-offs used by the people who throw them in order to get what they want for Christmas. It's all so wrong.

What has this world come to, that everybody criticizes those who put material possessions above spending time with their family. The only problem is, everyone has fallen subject to it at one point or another.