Materialism = Sadism, part 1

In a prior post I mentioned the concept named in this post's title.

To elaborate requires some explanation.

First, a definition of terms.

Materialism is understood here as the accumulation of material goods, and as a consequence, status, prestige, power.

Sadism is understood here as 1 side of a duopoly towards sexual deviance, in that Sadism represents the willing subjugation of the lover, while masochism is the willing surrender. 

Second, responses to possible objections to the above definitions.

Though the Sadism/Masochism convention is typically treated as one of the more lurid theories of Sigmund Freud, this assumption about basic human behavior is telling in that it describes well how humans interact with other humans and with the world we live on. 

One could point out that materialism has always been seen as hedonistic, so materialism as sadism is not exactly seminal. True indeed, but our stated supposition, as will be shown, is an attempt to understand that relationship through an existential or ontological lens, with the moral consequences of materialism (expressed as hedonism) a secondary lens.

Third, the arguement.
 
To construct our existential lens we must dive into Jean Paul Sartre, a French existential philosopher from the mid-20 century. The link is to his bio, so I won't repeat here, other than to highlight how tragedies of the 1930s and 40s influenced his philosophy.

In Sartre's primary work, Being and Nothingness (1943), he posits that the sadism/masochism struggle can function as a means to negotiate the "Other" or as Sartre labeled it, the "being-in-itself."

We all negotiate Other as the primary means of relating with the world as a Self. It is the Self-Other dichotomy that drives much of human behavior, and sadism is a way to cope with Other by controlling or defining it (the flip-side being controlled or defined by Other). 

We can control or define Other by consuming it. By consuming Other, it disappears, and then no longer threatens to force us to face our "facticity (Sartre's term), or the fact that we are free to define our existence, and are therefore not free from having to do just that. And it's the knowledge that we are not free to to not define ourselves is what causes Sartre's "La Nausée".

Fourth, to circle round.
 
Consumption is essentially materialism.

Therefore, materialism equals sadism.