Pope Benedict XVI and Consumerism Research Paper

Pope Benedict XVI and Consumerism - Research Paper Example A man once believed that economic growth alone will bring forth happiness in the lives of people. But men, women and the youngsters of the prosperous nations stand destroyed as for their inner convictions today. They feel useless, helpless and trapped. This great crisis hopefully will unite the world-leaders to initiate a concerted action to save humanity from the evils of consumerism. Â  Many think-tanks with their faith in the virtues of materialist civilization believe that the natural resources are meant for human aggrandizement. That nature is the enemy and humanity should be a permanent ‘war’ with it. Mindless exploitation of the natural resources is considered as entrepreneurship. Let us take a simple illustration. Visit a supermarket. You will come across hundreds of varieties of toothpaste, soaps, detergent powders—each company manufacturing these items has substantial advertisement budgets, sales promotion staff and they try to attract the customers to their company’s products, by imaginative advertisement campaigns. Management of such companies is responsible to plan and promote cut-throat campaigns to subtly downplay the merits of the products of their competitors. Every company, every individual wish to become prosperous, as quickly as possible, even by employing dubious means. The pursuit of goodness and virtue has taken th e backseat. Universal prosperity and the single-minded pursuit of wealth are the supreme goal of life for such materialists. Spirituality has been considered as the after-retirement project to be thought over by an individual when one’s one foot is in the grave. Is such thinking conducive to universal peace, plenty and prosperity?