“He was a bit of an iconoclast, this Andreski guy. You could see that just by the title of his 1972 book Social Sciences as Sorcery. I remember reading at the time his comment that in looking at the literature in his field, he could see platitudes magnified into ‘scientific statements’ enveloped in ‘scientific language.’ For example, he said that after wading through page after page of social science research, one finds out that humans are gregarious. Didn’t Grandma say that?”
“What brings Stanislav Andreski to mind?”
“An article online under Medicalxpress.com. The October 12, 2018, article out of the University of Illinois at Chicago is ‘How To Avoid Raising a Materialistic Child.’”*
“Let me guess. We already know, and Grandma told us.”
“Yes, my point. After noting that materialism ‘has been linked to a variety of mental health problems’ the author writes, ‘But now there’s some good news. A new…study…suggests that some parenting tactics can curb kids’ materialistic tendencies.’ And you’ll never guess the high-minded answer: Foster feelings of gratitude. Whoa! Radical stuff. Who woulda thunk it? How, you’re probably wondering, could parents foster gratitude? Well, the researchers suggest having the child keep a ‘gratitude journal.’ Or, having the child keep a ‘gratitude jar’ or discussing ‘something they are grateful for’ around the dinner table; such actions can decrease materialism.”
“Okay, it makes sense that people who are thankful for what others are, do, and give are also people who are people-centered and not objects-centered. What about Andreski? How does he play a role in this?”
“In his iconoclastic book, Andreski writes,
'Every human society which has endured long enough to leave records has had elaborate customs and institutions which were effective in instilling into the young the sentiments necessary for its perpetuation. Now for the first time in recorded history Western capitalism offers us a spectacle of a system which not only has given up altogether the task of moral education, but actually employs vast resources and the means of persuasion of unprecedented power to destroy the customs, norms and ideals indispensable for its survival; and to implant fundamentally anti-social attitudes which are incompatible with any reasonable social order.'
“Materialism is one of those anti-social attitudes engendered by our affluence. I don’t blame our economic system that has led to greater wealth for greater numbers of people and greater physical comfort for more than ever before, but I agree that having material wealth can be a context for abdicating basic human instruction in and modeling of social behaviors. Andreski wrote his book decades before the Texting Generation and before the notion of a welfare state took hold of the West, and long before 55% of US households average three TVs and two cars. Let me ask: How many do you know who don’t own a cellphone? A microwave? More shoes than can be retired because of wear? More clothes than can be stored in available closet space? And more jewelry than pebbles in a stream?
“He does advise us not to despair:
' [The] reason why human understanding has been able to advance in the past, and may do so in the future, is that true insights are cumulative and retain their value regardless of what happens to their discoverers; while fads and stunts may bring an immediate profit to the impresarios, but lead nowhere in the long run, cancel each other out, and are dropped as soon as their promoters are no longer there (or have lost the power) to direct the show. Anyway, let us not despair.'
“Basically, the lesson here is to ask what Grandma would say and do. I don’t mean some flighty wild cougar on the hunt to recapture youthful indiscretions, but ‘Grandma’ as in the common, ‘I had to work when I was little, and we had very little.’ I mean the grandmother who has endured through bad and good times and who has remained a loving person imbued with care for others. The grandma (or parent or friend or whoever) that has carried on the ‘true insights’ that culture has accumulated, the grandma free of fads. She’s the one grateful for our presence, and, though she might slip up at times and foist stuff on us for birthdays and holidays, is the one who stands as a model of gratitude: For life itself, for the people around her, and for whatever material possessions she has or can give.”
*U. of Illinois at Chicago. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-10-materialistic-child.html
Lan Nguyen Chaplin, Deborah Roedder John, Aric Rindfleisch & Jeffrey J. Froh (2018) The impact of gratitude on adolescent materialism and generosity, The Journal of Positive Psychology , DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2018.1497688
“What brings Stanislav Andreski to mind?”
“An article online under Medicalxpress.com. The October 12, 2018, article out of the University of Illinois at Chicago is ‘How To Avoid Raising a Materialistic Child.’”*
“Let me guess. We already know, and Grandma told us.”
“Yes, my point. After noting that materialism ‘has been linked to a variety of mental health problems’ the author writes, ‘But now there’s some good news. A new…study…suggests that some parenting tactics can curb kids’ materialistic tendencies.’ And you’ll never guess the high-minded answer: Foster feelings of gratitude. Whoa! Radical stuff. Who woulda thunk it? How, you’re probably wondering, could parents foster gratitude? Well, the researchers suggest having the child keep a ‘gratitude journal.’ Or, having the child keep a ‘gratitude jar’ or discussing ‘something they are grateful for’ around the dinner table; such actions can decrease materialism.”
“Okay, it makes sense that people who are thankful for what others are, do, and give are also people who are people-centered and not objects-centered. What about Andreski? How does he play a role in this?”
“In his iconoclastic book, Andreski writes,
'Every human society which has endured long enough to leave records has had elaborate customs and institutions which were effective in instilling into the young the sentiments necessary for its perpetuation. Now for the first time in recorded history Western capitalism offers us a spectacle of a system which not only has given up altogether the task of moral education, but actually employs vast resources and the means of persuasion of unprecedented power to destroy the customs, norms and ideals indispensable for its survival; and to implant fundamentally anti-social attitudes which are incompatible with any reasonable social order.'
“Materialism is one of those anti-social attitudes engendered by our affluence. I don’t blame our economic system that has led to greater wealth for greater numbers of people and greater physical comfort for more than ever before, but I agree that having material wealth can be a context for abdicating basic human instruction in and modeling of social behaviors. Andreski wrote his book decades before the Texting Generation and before the notion of a welfare state took hold of the West, and long before 55% of US households average three TVs and two cars. Let me ask: How many do you know who don’t own a cellphone? A microwave? More shoes than can be retired because of wear? More clothes than can be stored in available closet space? And more jewelry than pebbles in a stream?
“He does advise us not to despair:
' [The] reason why human understanding has been able to advance in the past, and may do so in the future, is that true insights are cumulative and retain their value regardless of what happens to their discoverers; while fads and stunts may bring an immediate profit to the impresarios, but lead nowhere in the long run, cancel each other out, and are dropped as soon as their promoters are no longer there (or have lost the power) to direct the show. Anyway, let us not despair.'
“Basically, the lesson here is to ask what Grandma would say and do. I don’t mean some flighty wild cougar on the hunt to recapture youthful indiscretions, but ‘Grandma’ as in the common, ‘I had to work when I was little, and we had very little.’ I mean the grandmother who has endured through bad and good times and who has remained a loving person imbued with care for others. The grandma (or parent or friend or whoever) that has carried on the ‘true insights’ that culture has accumulated, the grandma free of fads. She’s the one grateful for our presence, and, though she might slip up at times and foist stuff on us for birthdays and holidays, is the one who stands as a model of gratitude: For life itself, for the people around her, and for whatever material possessions she has or can give.”
*U. of Illinois at Chicago. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-10-materialistic-child.html
Lan Nguyen Chaplin, Deborah Roedder John, Aric Rindfleisch & Jeffrey J. Froh (2018) The impact of gratitude on adolescent materialism and generosity, The Journal of Positive Psychology , DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2018.1497688
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