Our lives are under a barbarian invasion, so much so that this barbarian castrates our souls not with a hornbeam and mace, but with the seduction methods of persuasion and advertising. ‘Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.’ said a wise man. This invasion, in which everything is turned into a commodity, the human being degraded to a customer and an advertising hunt, inculcate us that we can only be happy with buying and objects. We fill our lives with junk. We are turning our lives into junk with empty magazines and entertainment shows. While a value-based life tells us that meaningful relationships, spirituality, virtue, a beautiful soul, being a good parent or wife will be good for us, materialism whispers in our ears that we can only be happy with buying and objects and that we are nothing if we cannot consume them. Thereby, the most powerful pattern of modern culture that herds spirits is graspingness.

The map of Western consciousness is shaped by capitalism, materialism, extreme competition, and discrimination. Where there is no wisdom, no inner awareness, no global conscience, it is easier to greed. The thought that the excessive and big is good causes to lose abundance and prosperity. Unrestrainable greed creates huge inequalities in every corner of the world, dynamiting both social justice and freedom. Even in welfare societies, if inequality falls into the equation, material welfare does not convert into happiness. Although wealth in the US has grown exponentially over the past four decades, happiness rates remain stable. The new individual who is rich in goods, but poor in terms of time, thinks that in the absence of time to require living the life, money will make up for one’s life which wasted by working. Whereas, happiness is possible as long as a person pays less attention to materialistic values and to be able to build one’s life around inner/spiritual values. Not all values count in numbers, and money cannot buy everything. The things that cannot be bought are the essence of life. We must resist the objects we buy against that them having us. We have to say no to being taken over by junk. We have to have a bone to pick with a materialistic mindset that puts having ahead of being. Money solves problems about money, the problem of today is that people want to solve problems that have nothing to do with money. You cannot buy a heartfelt smile, love, or self-esteem with money.