Use Your Gifts, Don't Waste Them

We are all created equal. We are all individually different. Our equality is essentially in our human dignity and rights. There are social and economic disparities that constantly need addressing. We are unequal in our conditions and functions. We are different in our aptitudes. We all have a conscience and so our moral lives are different. In our materialism we each respond differently to the things we perceive. There is often an element of risk involved. If we can proceed with confidence it helps but we are sometimes let down by our people and our leaders. Only those who respond and behave positively and faithfully should be given responsibility and merit. Those who are unfaithful and respond negatively because of fear or disobedience are unproductive and cannot be trusted with great authority.

Westerners are often stereotyped as materialistic and value people by how much they own. It is particularly true in America. Europeans tend to take the abundance of products for granted but not everyone stresses the value of materialism equally. It has been measured in degrees of success, centrality and happiness to study individual differences in orientation. Analysis of cross cultural differences suggest materialism is not linked to affluence but is a consequence of several factors including social stability, access to information, reference models and historical developments and cultural values.

In terms of their own materialism people tend to try to justify it or excuse it. Various kinds of justification go from being a connoisseur, to instrumentalism and from social excuses and modernism to deserving it. Perhaps a good justification is to say it is shared with others.