If you don't understand the Market—how can you understand modern life?
We are now prepared to understand the root problem in modern society. The two sides of reality share a key relationship. The external/material side is always subordinate to the internal/spiritual side, just as two parts always form a higher whole, not vice versa. In economic terms, productivity should always be a means to a higher end, never an end in itself. Thus, as long as human behavior subordinates the economic to the moral and spiritual, it is in accordance with the nature of things, and the result will be Good. In effect, the market economy is harnessed by a set of higher principles for the benefit of all, the higher whole. But if this relationship is inverted, society begins performing an unnatural act, and disastrous repercussions ensue—in the individual, in the corporation, in the nation, in the natural environment, and at all levels in between. This is the deadly spiral of materialism, which transforms all aspects of society.
The symptoms of this problem are all around us today, and increasing in intensity, to the detriment of our society and the planet.