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Fritz Kyle
Mrs. Nills
Comp. IIA
5 Feb 2007


Materialism
America is a very different kind of place these days. Back in the days of our parents America was a place where people were defined by pews they sat in at church, family bloodlines, jobs, and things of that nature. Now, in the 21st century, we are defined by what we have. This is called Materialism, and it’s a sickness that is taking over all of our country. I believe that materialism is leading to declining moral standards, and is really screwing up our class system. In a world where the brand of your jeans, and the model of your cell phone determine where you stand in society something is seriously wrong. We spend money like it’s not even a real thing, and this leads to massive debt on our part. Maybe it was the baby-boomers. Maybe it’s the way we raise our kids these days. Or maybe it’s just that we’ve lost touch with our roots. Any way you look at it, materialism is something that is taken, and will continue to take the world by storm. I think that this is one of the saddest things that has happened to the world.
These days, the labels on our jeans and shirts, the prices of our cars, and what we own make us who we are. From the article titled A Material World: Defining Ourselves with Consumer Goods by Steve Orlando “We have made the material world the map of value. What religion used to do, what occupations used to do, what bloodlines used to do … now objects do it,” said Twitchell, a pop culture scholar. “For those who may wonder why the label has moved from the inside of our clothes to the outside, Twitchell says it’s simple: We want the world to know this is a Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt we’re wearing because our identity lies in the image that goes with it. We don’t know each other from bloodlines, or by what pew they sit in,” Twitchell said, “so we make materials things the signs that let other people know who we are. You are not what you make, you are what you consume.”
All of our materialistic tendancies lead us to anxiety and uncertainty in our lives. Every day, when people wake up they think about what they’re going to wear that day. What will make them look better than others. Are we really so insecure that we have to rely on objects to secure our positions in the hierarchy of life?
Contrary to the world our parents grew up in, we don’t have the system that we once had. We’ve come up with our own, and it’s an unfair one. Where people were once known for what they did and how they acted has changed. Now what’s more important is the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the houses we own, the places we travel, and the electronic equipment we have.
Another down side to materialism is the continually increasing amount of debt. 30% of Americans say that they will probably always be in debt. “In 2003, the average credit-card debt of US households with at least one card was $9,205, up from $2,966 in 1990” according to the research firm CardWeb.com.
“Debt may not be as widespread a problem as smoking or overeating, but it's gaining attention as perhaps a form of addiction. Yes, overspending is largely a matter of personal choice, but many observers say an increasingly materialistic culture conspires against people's desire or ability to act wisely. Still others call for reform of certain practices in the credit-card industry that make it easier for people to build up balances to the point where they are trapped.” (Teicher 2004)




that was all in the correct format in the word document, I copied&pasted it, and it just made it one big thing. so don't bother correcting the MLA style. Thanks

ok.
I'll do that.

That's only what I wrote today.
about 20 minutes worth.

I'm not close to being done.
I've got TONS more to say.

o.o No definition of materialism? Philosophical views?

In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions; that matter is the only substance. Science uses a working assumption, sometimes known as methodological naturalism, that observable events in nature are explained only by natural causes without assuming the existence or non-existence of the supernatural. As a theory, materialism belongs to the class of monist ontology. As such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. In terms of singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism stands in sharp contrast to idealism.

Materialism is and with the methodological principle of reductionism, according to which the objects or phenomena individuated at one level of description, if they are genuine, must be explicable in terms of the objects or phenomena at some other level of description -- typically, a more general level than the reduced one. Non-reductive materialism explicitly rejects this notion, however, taking the material constitution of all particulars to be consistent with the existence of real objects, properties, or phenomena not explicable in the terms canonically used for the basic material constituents. Jerry Fodor influentially argues this view, according to which empirical laws and explanations in "special sciences" like psychology or geology are invisible from the perspective of, say, basic physics. A vigorous literature has grown up around the relation between these views.

Materialism typically contrasts with dualism, phenomenalism, idealism, and vitalism. The definition of "matter" in modern philosophical materialism extends to all scientifically observable entities such as energy, forces, and the curvature of space. In this sense, one might speak of the "material world".

Materialism has frequently been understood to designate an entire scientific world view, particularly by religious thinkers opposed to it, who regard it as a spiritually empty philosophy. Marxism also uses materialism to refer to the scientific world view. It emphasizes a "materialist conception of history", which is not concerned with metaphysics but centers on the empirical world of actual human activity (practice, including labor) and the institutions created, reproduced, or destroyed by that activity

You can always quote Confucius: "The higher man yearns for virtues rather than the lower man enjoying his material comfort.

You can also jump off and talk about commericialism :3 The related term "commercialized" is often used in an accusing way, implying that someone, often an artist, has compromised the quality of his work for monetary gain by selling out. It can, for example, be applied to a painter who uses his/her talent to do flattering, expensive portraits to order, an independent music band that signs a contract with a major record label and then changes its music and/or appearance to become more appealing, or a novelist who switches from writing difficult "highbrow" novels to populistic thrillers.

.___.

I asked my teacher.
She said that what I had would be perfect.

If I need some filler though I'll definatley make that my first choice of things to put in.

Well.
I know that my writing is good enough to do well on the AP (advanced placement) exam.
All I want to do is get into the advanced class.

It's good for scholarships
resumes
and just making me better at writing


I'm only a sophomore (grade 10)
I rank like.... 20th in my class of 125 I think.
Something like that, but I don't really know if that matters in the slightest.

I have no placement exams or s**t like that. In french, I know I'm not the top x_x;

Is anyone interested in reading the paper in it's fullest form?