As might be expected there are recurrent threads of thought running through these posts, things that regularly crop up seemingly regardless of the specific topic in hand. One of these comes from my determinedly anti-materialistic perspective on life and surfaced a couple of times in the recent debate about consciousness etc.
Now on the face of it anti-materialism seems a pretty simple concept, usually involving a deep dislike of McDonalds. Really getting my teeth into it however I've found it's not as straightforward as it may first appear. Let's start with what seem to be the basic tenets of the thing:
The word 'materialism' is usually used to mean prioritising the physical over the non physical. Anti-materialism then comes from a deep and instinctive feeling that people, and their thoughts and emotions, are actually more important than 'things'.
Moving further in this direction we find a more long term view of the same idea. The material is seen as a dangerous distraction, albeit sometimes a necessary tool, from the pursuit of ideas and ideals. There is a sense of duty, that it is our purpose to think of solutions to our problems. The physical implementation of those solutions is just the same old animal act of physical labour.
Another way into this whole thing is to consider the practical implications of what we think of as 'materialistic' lifestyles. Rampant consumption stripping the world clean simply so that the global elite, (that's us,) can experience fleeting instances of pleasure and/or convenience.
These are all arguments that get my blood up, I can feel the siren's call for self righteous passion, but this isn't the end of the line. As tempting as it is to take what we have so far and start throwing old fruit and older insults, there's still more to this.
I'm a child of Thatcher and have been seeped in capitalist dogma pretty much every minute from birth. I get the urge to spend, sometimes if I'm feeling really shitty I'm assaulted by a random conviction that going out and blowing a load of cash will make me feel better.
You get in shops too, you see something and for some reason you're utterly taken with it. In that moment it's vitally important that you buy that thing, you must have it. Walking away however, the mood usually passes and that most precious thing in the universe is easily forgotten. Now I've come to recognise these feelings and, through that recognition, attached other feelings of revulsion and violation to them. I don't like the sensation that my strings are being pulled.
So far this is just more ammo for the opening gambits above, here comes the point. Right now I'm surrounded by shedloads of books, newspapers, magazines, CDs, videos and DVDs. While I vehemently believe in those first points I also consider the communication of ideas and work in these various media to be another fundamental role of our race.
And so the list of exceptions begins, these are ok because they do this etc. Watching the absolutes fray let's look again at the definition of material. It's the physical, specifically the physical over the non physical. I was thinking about this getting off the bus the other day.
Once off the bus I walk down the side of the ring road until I get to the business 'park' containing our offices. There are small grass verges on either side of the pavement and I've noticed recently that there always seem to be a lot of worms stuck on the path.
The first time I spotted one I almost picked it up and put it back on the grass. I didn't because I saw another, and then another. Then I realised that the weird, dry little C shaped things all over the place that I'd assumed were leaves or seeds or something, were actually dried up worms. It was horrible and really moved me. I didn't pick any of them up, just tried not to stand on any of them.
Then yesterday I was using the rowing machine, (everyone keeps telling me it'll make me feel better,) and I noticed that the sky outside was the most brilliant blue. Despite everything that's happened over the last week and how utterly down I was, it still felt really nice to look at the sky.
Now in terms of the physical and the non physical, the worms and the sky are quite definitely Big Macs, not brainwaves. Where they came from doesn't matter, the fact is that in that moment I was being confronted by purely physical things. In fact the naturally occurring environment is even more purely physical than any man made object to me as I don't consider it to have been made to any conscious plan or design.
How can I claim to reject the physical in favour of mental pursuits when I find myself feeling so inherently moved by and connected to the physical? As weird as it is to write it, McDonalds aren't the problem here.
Being anti-materialistic actually has nothing to do with a rejection of material things. At the heart of this concept the objection is to the thought, or lack of it, that lays behind those objects. It is materialism not materials which we are seeking to oppose.
It's unfortunate but understandable that while our noble motives might be considered left wing, we have fallen into the same habits as our increasingly fascist mainstream.
Now it's obvious to some that a great deal of crime, while being absolutely wrong, is also a symptom of a problem with society. How do we, as a winner takes all democracy respond to this? By wielding the law as a lonely club to punish the results while ignoring, or even actively feeding the causes.
Simply attacking people's lifestyles, telling them they're wrong and bad doesn't serve any useful purpose, neither does pretentiously hiding behind a vague idea that we haven't fully explored. My most excellent friend MSM proposed over the last week or so that there was no evil just a varied degree of good.
While I can't sign up to this fully I think it's a great concept that fits very nicely with my general aversion to being 'anti' anything. Defining ourselves as 'anti-materialistic' may tap into powerful feelings of tribalism and conflict that bring confidence and conviction but ultimately it won't achieve what we want.
Forget 'anti-materialism', if we're going to walk under a banner let's make it a positive one. From now on I'm 'pro-thought'. 
PS.
In the spirit of being pro-thought here's a tidy little thought that occurred the other day following on from earlier in the week. Another concept that starts out feeling inherently simple and understandable is the definition of life.
Now plants are considered to be 'alive' because they respond to their environment and reproduce. The thing is that, thinking back to my uni days, I see the universe as consisting of matter and energy that respond to that around them and, ultimately, continue to exist through a series of different forms.
Exactly where is the line in the sand that divides the great systems pulling planets round stars from the various biological machines roaming the Earth? It is my conjecture then that what we call 'life' is actually an illusion. We're just machines in a machine.
The immediate reaction here is to consider the whole universe and everything in it to be dead, like a dusty old clockwork model, but I dispute that that is only alternative. I don't think reality fits into our clumsy definitions of life and death, it just is.
Maybe we'd get further if we could start concentrating on just what is happening rather than spending all our time trying to decide what to call it.
