The Lie of Wealth
Human cultural norms often espouse the importance of generating means in the material. The more material one has, the happier they are; or so the narrative usually goes. But from what we’ve seen with the advents of new technologies is that there comes a set of diminishing returns when seeking fulfillment by means of the material. The world, materially speaking, is the most prosperous it has ever been. Despite this supposed prosperity, people still yearn for more. To me, this signals that true wealth, despite what we’ve been told en masse from media outlets and influencers alike, comes not from the material aspects of the world, but the immaterial ones.
The true measure of one’s wealth is not their means to access material, but the immaterial. People don’t speak on this issue enough mostly because immaterial things are more difficult to quantify and because of this, it is more difficult to compare oneself to another in regards to what they have immaterially. But this key difference between the material and immaterial is why it is more important to gauge one’s true sense of wealth with the immaterial. With immaterial things, there has never been true scarcity. There is always enough to go around and because of this, people are less concerned with them. Most people would rather spend their time vying for material resources for fulfillment, but as the old saying goes: one bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.
The world we live in is very much so conditioned towards material thinking. People are always on guard with their possessions and making sure that they’re protected. We are also always thinking of ways to create more material so that there’s more to go around, but due to the imbalance of prevailing power structures, there always seems to be a shortage. There’s more than enough food for us to eat, yet people go hungry. There’s more than enough homes for people to live in, yet people sleep on the streets. The lie that we’ve been told is that if we simply work to gather enough material wealth, these problems will go away. But this is simply not true.
Defining Immaterial Wealth
Immaterial wealth can be defined as things that bring us value but are not readily tangible to us physically. The greatest pillar of immaterial wealth is the relationships and affiliations in which we build our life upon. Someone who is immaterially wealthy is someone who has strong values and a strong support system to uphold those values. This person is someone who is the opposite of isolated; they are surrounded by a series of interactions and ideas that work harmoniously to create the summation of their true wealth. What this person often finds as a result of their works is that materially, they do not want for more. They are satisfied with whatever material conditions may exist, no matter how grand or meager they may be.
Today, our economic conditions put many people into materially precarious situations. Many people are struggling to make ends meet financially, often accruing massive amounts of debt just to stay afloat or even worse, becoming displaced and going hungry. This material poverty has also been coupled with immaterial poverty as well. People feel more isolated than ever before, and many of the social institutions that help people build immaterial wealth (churches, schools, community centers) have become ideologically dysregulated and have seen either a lack in participation or a mass exodus altogether.
When people in positions of power (big corporations, governments) offer solutions to these problems, their solutions often lie in the material. These solutions are often pitched in the form of products for people to consume. Oftentimes the prevailing idea is that it just takes one more purchase for all of it to make sense, for everything to come together just the way it’s supposed to. Unfortunately, this line of consumerist thinking has created a sense of consequences that are slowly decomposing the morale and psyches of the masses year after year.
But don’t lose hope. Immaterial wealth is still quite simple to amass, and I am going to explain how it’s done.
How to Create Immaterial Wealth
To build immaterial wealth, all one has to do is two superficially simple things:
Deny self
Help others
When these two practices are done in tandem, immaterial wealth is built. The idea here is that immaterial wealth is built through the establishment and development of strong and cohesive social relationships. Through these social relationships, one’s immaterial wealth becomes apparent. One is no longer limited to the scope of their own abilities, but now have access to a network of individuals’ abilities to tap into to perform whatever task or project is at hand. Denying self and helping others is a time tested winning formula for creating community, which is the true base for immaterial wealth.
Denying Self
Denying the self is an odd practice, especially given the cultural hegemony of ego-centrism and individualism (mostly in the West). It is something that doesn’t get a lot of attention and as such, most people either don’t know or aren’t comfortable with the idea. However, the practice of denying the self is something that has been around for a very long time. It has been shown to lead to more favorable outcomes not just for the society, but the individual as well.
Denying the self as an action is relatively simple. It is a refusal to act by means of desire. Do you want something? Tell yourself no! It’s not about whether or not you deserve the thing, but rather the act of saying “no” in and of itself. Denying the self deflates the ego and removes the conflation between the ego and the spirit. Just because one feeds the ego does not mean that they are also feeding the spirit. One can do things that constantly feed the ego, such as fulfilling desires of the self, but the spirit will still suffer from hunger because it can’t feed on the products of the ego.
But what exactly feeds the spirit?
Helping Others
These days, people are so caught up with their egos that they often forget to see the forest beyond the trees. The world is so much bigger than what’s between the ears. It is up to us to see it and nurture it so that it can grow into something that can truly feed the spirit. With the self denied, that energy can be invested into helping others. It doesn’t have to be anything beyond one’s own means. Any act of service, no matter how small, makes a significant impact on the world. This is because one act of service isn’t isolated in itself. It snowballs into other acts of service and creates a positive feedback mechanism.
The best part about helping others is that it always comes back to those that help. This is the food that feeds the spirit. Think of it like this: what tastes better, a meal cooked by yourself for yourself, or a meal that someone else cooks for you? The meal cooked by someone for someone else always tastes better because acts of service are what truly nourishes the spirit and when the spirit is fed, we are truly satisfied.
Immaterial wealth is simply this: a community of people who serve you because you serve them. The bigger the community, the wealthier you are.
Conclusion
It’s become clear that one of the most crucial problems of our present day is a lack in immaterial wealth. We have forgotten how to nourish our spirits because have been consumed by ego. With that, I present a call to action. Every day, ask yourself this question: how can I help someone today? Then once you find a suitable answer, do it. As time moves forward and the more days that rack up where this task is complete, more immaterial wealth will be built and the worries of the modern world will slowly begin to fade away.
No longer will you be consumed by the constant inundation of sensationalist pessimism, but instead be fed by those that you have helped keep themselves afloat.
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