Welcome to Post Modern Zen

Welcome to Post Modern Zen: "With the rise to dominance of science, technology, and capitalism as a unified perspective, the materialistic, creative ecology of American society dramatically changed. Many people compartmentalized what gave meaning to their life; commitment to a particular religion gave spiritual meaning and commitment to scientific, democratic, capitalism gave material meaning. Other people defined meaning for themselves totally in terms of satisfying materialistic goals. Often these goals could be achieved via a work ethic and/or via other means, e.g., the robber barons of the early 20th century and the recent scandal of Enron going bankrupt, independent of personal transformation. Thus, I distinguish between creative and non-creative utilitarianism. Those who chose non-creative utilitarianism found meaning in a non-creative ecology, and those who chose creative utilitarianism found meaning in a creative ecology. Throughout the 20th century utilitarianism progressively overshadowed the message of traditional religions. After 1958, when scientific capitalism came to dominate public education and undermine to various degrees private, religious education, materialistic meaning progressively overshadowed spiritual meaning. Also, scientific capitalism with its emphasis on mechanistic thinking converted postsecondary education into a non-creative, book-learning project to obtain entrance into the marketplace in order to achieve money, status, and power. "