Should material well-being be the goal?
Today, the idea that the goal of our life, our creativity, our activity, our creation is material good is very strongly promoted, inspired, driven in.
This idea looks very strange. After all, scientific and technological progress itself was created with the aim of creating such conditions under which a person could hardly work or work less, the machine would do everything for him. And what would he do? What's next?..
We must correctly assess the stimulus of our activity - material prosperity. Is this goal worthy in itself or not? The history of the individual and the history of mankind indicate that something is not right here. Material well-being in itself does not give a person what he aspires to.
What should be the goal of creative activity? happiness! And what does it consist of? A good social and political system? Harmony in the world? Creation of a unified state?
The slogan of the Great French Revolution was “Freedom! Equality! Brotherhood!". A huge mass of people were embraced by this motto. In 1793, France was drenched in blood. The revolution of 1917 showed what “freedom, equality, brotherhood” is.
So what is the correct goal? Where do you need to direct your creative efforts? What funds are needed for this?
The problem, ultimately, boils down to the following: what is possible happiness - in the creation of material values or in spiritual and moral values in the person himself and, accordingly, in the life around him?
Unfortunately, we are seeing a startling picture. Until the 16th century, the task of all education was to make a person better. Therefore, everything changed, more and more began to change. And finally, we see today that education has as its goal to create an environment that will allow a person to live comfortably.
Gradually, a person, as a value, turned into a cog, which is valuable only from one side - how well he turns in this common machine.
Let's try to comprehend what is the cause of all the crises that occur today. Many people are already talking about this, pointing out secondary things, including the external order.
And this, by the way, is one of the results of the 2000-year history of Christianity: we begin to see that the cause of all crises is the person himself.
And if now more and more often they talk about the loss of spirituality, meaning the level of education, intellectual development, aesthetic level, general culture (all this is just part of the complex of the external educational process) ... then it is least of all (or even not mentioned) about what a person is.
prof. Alexey Ilyich Osipov
