“Material Literalism” is a phrase I’m using to describe a particular mythology (way of relating the universe) of the present day (1985-2008, at least, and probably stretching back from whereabouts the early 1900’s.) It will be immediately recognized as the common secular viewpoint.
Tenants of Material Literalism
- The natural world (“what is”) tells us how we should behave (“how we ought to be.”)
- The relationships between people, as they are now, are basically the way they’ve always been and always will be.
- Religious or spiritual ideas are essentially mistakes.
- Many allow that they’re beautiful mistakes, and/or that people should be free to make them.
- What is important is objective, since that’s what we can all agree about.
- What is subjective isn’t very important.
- Subjective differences aren’t very important.
- People are basically selfish.
- Everybody scrambles for stuff, and this is the natural order of things. This is good.
- Everybody scrambles for more stuff, and this is also the natural order of things, even though it’s not so pretty.
- People who focus on subjective things are either losers, or soon will be.
- A hobby is a good thing to have; It refreshes your fun meter, and helps you live.
- Philosophy and art are good hobbies, but try not to get too into it.
- Art is a pretty good generic term for all those subjective things.
- Individual humans are unpredictable, but economic systems are basically like natural systems. We can and should understand & influence them.
- Moods and thoughts (subjective) come from the brain (objective); So the way to treat moods and thoughts is best done through treatment of the brain.
- It’s all basically sense gratification, of one sort (base physical) or another (wanting to relate with people, or know something.)
- Efficiency is to be valued over subjective value, generally speaking.
- Government as we have it is the natural order; Small countries are quaint but fun to visit, big countries make more sense.
- Things are basically what they appear to be, though specialist knowledge helps out in some areas.
- Causes aren’t really worth getting worked up about, unless there’s some cruelty underway.
- Reason and rationality give us a pretty clear sense of the way life should go, on their own.
- People just while away the time, until they die.
- (Getting more stuff, the way through.)
Examples
An example of an obvious error that stemmed from Material Literalism:
Behaviorism: the ultra-simplistic model of the human being as a pure reward system.
Fortunately thoroughly discredited. But this embarrasing mistake raises questions for me, about how it ever came to be that people took it seriously.
Other examples of material literalism:
- modern psychology – what one writer spoke as, “teaching people how to adapt their brains to the desert”
- postmodernism – while postmodernism doesn’t “believe anything,” it’s death-by-confusion of the subjective works perfectly well with material literalism
I believe Nietzsche observed something to the effect of: Nationalism will replace Religion.
I think it’s close, but slightly different. I think that material literalism has taken hold of the mainstream, which then manifests as Nationalism, (since it’s only natural, unlike any idea or opposition or cause,) when “public threats” take hold.
Alternatives
I write this page as a foil to EvolutionarySpirituality.
Some of the clear errors (as in: if you study them, you will see what’s wrong) include:
- the failure to make the is-ought distinction (see: David Hume, for explanation)
- reason & rationality are basis enough for the good life
- the subjective is unimportant
- commercial materialism
- people are basically selfish
What I want to do is:
- value the invisible subject more than the objective material
- detach from the mainstream
- establish a community so that the subjectivity is a socially shared subjectivity
- I believe this is essential.
Separating from the objective does not mean the end of separating from objects; it only means the separation from material objects.
Learning, fantasy, stories, are subjective objects, and are most fully felt when they are socially subjectively experienced.
When we hear “subjective,” we should not think individual.
We may need a better word: “The communal subjective.”
My developing vision on how to do this, is to “live imagination.” See: LivingImagination.
See Also
EvolutionarySpirituality