LETTERS: QUEST FOR MATERIALISM CAN BE SELF-DESTRUCTIVE

To the editor:

The other day I discovered a word which to a degree affects all of us. It was defined as that morbid and extreme desire to possess material things. It begins in early childhood as that innate desire expressed by a small child who clutches a toy he doesn't want to share and says, "It's mine." Later, it becomes that greed which causes many to feel life's only values are in material things.

When a boxer after strenuous training and a championship fight thinks that he is underpaid at $20 million, or when a basketball star is unhappy with an annual salary of $18 million, most people will certainly feel that they are living at the poverty level. And when the chief executive officers of major companies have an annual income far exceeding those of athletes and other entertainers, it may seem to some that our democratic capitalism may be becoming a little out of balance.

Yet, if everyone were to receive an income of $20 million annually, chances are that our money would be so inflated that we could use the bills for wallpaper.

Of course, it is easy to note that I am not an economist or financial guru.

When the discrepancy between the poor and the affluent becomes too great, we create a kind of feudalism. There are a few who then seem to have everything while the great majority are serfs.

Often, those who have succeeded in accumulating material well-being find that their greed is not fulfilling and satisfying after all.

In some areas, pleonexia can assume epidemic proportions and eventually destroy life and its values which otherwise are essential in a prosperous or organized society. In other words, excessive greed can adversely affect the whole society.

Usually, healthy or wholesome competition is a sign of success and progress, but when pleonexia becomes so deeply ingrained over years, it may destroy even that need for competition. It reminds me of the time of bloodletting. It sometimes eliminated the disease but likewise destroyed the patient. There are those who seem to recommend that kind of extreme solution or remedy rather than the simple use of antibiotics which try to bring about effective healing. Killing and violence may be quicker and possibly more effective. The same could be said about euthanasia for solving the problems of the ailing and elderly. It is possible that extreme inequities in any culture may tend to destroy those values which we claim to cherish.

Some who may seem to sell their souls for a mess of pottage may just succeed in crating a bigger mess for themselves as well as others. Pleonexia can destroy the very goals which one may set to achieve contentment and satisfaction. Some basic values may be ignored. Some become so engrossed in that desire for extrinsic values that they ignore the importance of intrinsic honesty and fairness. These ideals are discarded as may suffer from political hatred and economic competition becomes o infectious that it destroys not only the competition but democracy itself. When an epidemic of pleonexia runs rampant without a curative healing process, we may be trying to eliminate a case of poison ivy by violently scratching it. The relief is quite temporary. All of us suffer from a degree of pleonexia since it is a part of human nature.

Although pleonexia can be self-destructive, there are those who realize the existence of others. Fulfillment and satisfaction come through service to the common good. Years ago, old and frugal Benjamin Franklin observed that a "penny saved was a penny earned." Today, we know that a penny saved is not worth as much as it once was. Even he concluded that his purpose in life was to serve humanity. Perhaps he discovered the cure fo pleonexia and, thereby, wholeness and satisfaction in life.

IVAN NOTHDURFT

Cape Girardeau