"The World Is Too Much with Us"

Reading "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" reminded me of Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us". Wordsworth writes
The world is too much with us; late and soon
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
Granted I believe he is saying how man is out of tune with nature, but the reason for man being out of tune is because of his pursuit of the things of this world. Materialism and the love of things has been with us since the beginning of time. In the Bible, Jesus talks about the rich young ruler who loved his possessions to much to give them away and follow his Creator. I like "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" because it showed the consequences that come with the pursuit of possessions. The in which Tolstoy writes the story, with what I consider to be a bit of a sarcastic undertone, is both fascinating and entertaining. Unfortunately for us, rather than seeing materialism as a problem and it being changed, the closer we get to the end of the world, the more prevalent I think it will be.