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DEMATERIALIZE

                                             August 26, 2013

  Materialism, Anti-Materialism...
                                          Both be taken as a
  It's possible that the most
  obvious forms of materialism are         FALSE_CENTER
  themselves an excuse, a blind to
  (lightly) conceal what we're
  really interested in:

       OVERSTOCK

       Verily, even the much                 Different attitudes
       maligned (and possibly                toward stuff...
       dying) shopping mall                                      STUFF
       can preserve a social
       function:                             Does the artist value
                                             the material more than
            GRUEN_HILLS_OF_EARTH             the mainstream consumer?
            SHOPPING_WALT
            CHERRY                               In the mainsteram
                                                 world you're expected
                                                 to buy and then dispose.
                   EAST_OF_THE_EAST              The act is more important
                   ARTSY_TOWN                    than the possesion.



                                             Otaku as Consumerist Beatniks

                                                   OTAKU_REBELS

     There's a question-- an old question,         OTAKU_FED
     but no less valid-- of motivation:            OTAKU_CONSUMED
     why do the rich want to get richer?
     Why bother?


         Kim Stanley Robinson makes
         the point that the Scientific
         sub-culture is effectively                  Some would prefer that
         anti-materialist:                           only the spiritual can
                                                     be anti-material:
             ANARCHIC_ROBINSON
             UTOPIAN_SCIENCE                             MATERIAL_WORLD


   I heard Robinson mention that                    ENOUGH_IS_ENOUGH
   he'd been trying to come up
   with a slogan for moderation:     (Me, I would just go with "enough
   "sufficiency is sufficient"       is enough", but I guess that's 
                                     not positive enough for him.)
      That's almost as weak
      as one of my attempts
      at aphorism, e.g.                       HOMILETICS

      "The emergency is your life."

              GREENISH-TINGE



                A question:

                Is the "materialism" of
                political criticism the
                same as the materialism
                of petty greed, the simple
                desire to own stuff?

                Is that necessarily bad, or can
                there be redeeming factors,
                some sort of purity of motive?       The musician lusts
                                                     after a violin.

                Then complaints about materialism
                may just be complaints about poor
                taste



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