Library Islam Philosophy of Islam chapter 01 - Man of Our Age Greedy Animals
Greedy Animals
- Details
- Hits: 2174
Greedy Animals
This was one side of the coin, but there is another side of it too. The material civilization of today has solved many problems of human life, and has given man dazzling power to control nature. But at the same time it has so much eulogized and puffed the philosophy of having more and more, that it has made the man of our age a greedy animal, who is day and night worried about only increasing the production and consumption and thinks of nothing else. Materialism and too excessive concern about economic affairs have converted man into a machine. He is always busy with earning his livelihood or finding the means of leading a more and more luxurious life. This situation is so wide‑spread that the life of most of the men of our times is almost devoid of any other valuable content.
There was a time when man valued his freedom most and even sacrificed his life for the sake of it. Now he has become a slave of production and consumption and has laid down his love of freedom at the altar of this deity.
With the progress of material civilization, the consuming needs of man have increased and the way of meeting them has grown complex to the extent that many people sacrifice their physical and moral well‑being for achieving that end.
In the material society of today all higher human values have been set aside, or, it may be said, that even moral values are looked upon only from material angle. In most parts of the world the real infrastructure of education and training is only material and aims at economic gain. The actual purpose of framing any educational or training programme is only to produce men who can provide better economic return for the pockets of others or sometimes for their own pockets. The motto of every one, from a man in the street to the elite, has become "achieve economic gain and material pleasures ensuing from it". The specialists in higher intellectual and technical fields, the politicians, the writers and the artists are no exception to this rule. Even many of those who are devoted to higher spiritual questions have been affected by material and economic attractions. Missionary work is performed mostly in exchange for financial and material remuneration. This situation is the natural and inevitable result of the diverse material philosophies prevailing during our times.
Day and night man is being told that he is no more than an economic animal, and that wealth and economic prosperity are the sole criterion of good fortune and the only sign of the progress of a nation, a class or a group. It is constantly being drummed into the ears of people that money has a miraculous power and it can solve every problem. There is always a talk of the heaps of money obtained by chance or by directly or indirectly robbing the fellow human beings and spent for satisfying the lowest animal desires. In these circumstances it is not surprising that men or rather semi‑men of our age have turned into greedy animals, bent upon acquiring money from whatever source they can and spending it for obtaining the greatest possible pleasure. They have become the slaves of production and consumption. Their life is bereft totally of the higher values befitting a living human being, and has tended towards vulgarity and degradation.
