Conghaileach
17th May 2003, 23:47
''The coming death of capitalism''
Printed on Friday, February 07, 2003
By John Brand, D.Min., J.D.
YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)
(YellowTimes.org) ’Äì For most of recorded history, the vast majority
of humankind has not been well served by prevailing economic systems.
Forever and a day, a few avaricious alphas amassed obscene assets
while most people had a hard time keeping body and soul together.
Getting people to submit to such injustice and discrimination required
a belief system embraced by most individuals. From dim historical recesses
until about the 1800s, religions provided the anesthetic that made most
people accept an economic system benefiting only a few. The cant
was that God ordained everyone's station in life. Kings ruled by divine
right. God appointed clergy to proclaim God's absolute truths. God himself
assigned slaves, serfs, and workers to their lowly rungs on life's ladder.
However, if they behaved in accordance with the Church's doctrines,
they would be assured of a heavenly hereafter complete with robes,
wings, and harps. Most people swallowed that bait hook, line, and sinker.
In the late 1700s, there was an awakening of the people. They got tired
of being shafted. The American Revolution proved that King George III
did not rule by divine right. The French Revolution guillotined masses of
aristocrats who had hidden their shameful distain for the lower classes
under the guise of God's will. A breath of freedom, a sense of equity,
and promises of a new order permeated the air. Perchance the time had
come for a new world order. But it was not to be. A new dogma, in a
sense a new religion, was birthed. It did not rely on supernatural
manifestations of the divine but proved just as repressive for the vast
majority of humankind as did the rule of the gods. The people were duped
into a system appearing to have the stamp of rationality imprinted upon it.
The human brain has the uncanny ability to vindicate the unreasonable,
to justify the unjustifiable, and to defend the indefensible. This capability
is not limited to people of low estate and/or moderate intellectual
capabilities.
Some of the most brilliant people in the world's history have been guilty of
the most crass self-deceptions. Plato saddled the world with a belief in the
absolute nature of God. He established the rationale providing religious,
political, and every other kind of pundit with the authority to shroud their
pronouncements with the mantle of absolute truth. Belief in polar absolutes
is probably as responsible as any other single factor, except the behavioral
imprints in the human reptilian brain, for the murderous behavior of our
species. Believing our ideas to be absolutely correct and backed by stacks
of holy scriptures, pronouncements of assemblies meeting in God's name,
and having been prayed over, we bash in anyone's head who does not agree
with the words we issue in the name of our god. The brilliant Newton lent
his significant scientific reputation to authenticate the nonsense of belief
in absolute polarities.
Over time, belief in God's absolute power to predestine every action in our
universe diminished. This was also the beginning of the industrial era. As
these two forces merged, someone very smart had to come up with some
highfaluting reasons allowing perpetuation of the economic ravishing of the
masses. That someone was the admired, esteemed, and highly respected
saint of the American economy, Adam Smith. While trained as a moral
philosopher, he shed almost all of his morals in the development of the new
religion flying under the banner of capitalism. A curia consisting of most
CEOs,
Deans of Schools of Business, and a coterie of politicians are the
administrators
of the Articles of Religion of the New Faith. In essence, only the names,
dates,
and places have changed since our species believed in the divine right of
kings. The new kings think of themselves as no less divine than Egyptian
Pharaohs. What is this hoax that has become the altar at which we worship
the new god? What is the phantasmagoria providing the equivalent of a new
theology continuing the enslavement of most of the world's people?
The new illusion contains only two major Articles of Faith. Volumes have
been written in the worship of these twins keeping bread from the mouths
of babes, perpetuating a consistent sense of uncertainty about a workingman's
ability to provide for his family, and causing the world to descend into
periodic
economic depressions and major wars. Yet, the little people of the western
world have swallowed this poison depriving them of "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness." "The king is dead. Long live the king." Nothing new
has happened. The old tyranny has simply been baptized with a new name.
The substance remained the same.
The first Article of Faith of this new religion is found in Smith's The Wealth
of Nations, Book I, chapter 2.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker,
that we expect our
dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. Smith admits that
humans, as distinct
from all other animals, need each other in order to meet their needs. They
use barter and
trade to find satisfaction of their wants. In effecting this exchange,
Smith continues,
We address ourselves, not to their (that is the baker's, the butcher's, the
candlestick
maker's) humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own
necessitie but of
their own advantage.
Smith posits utter selfishness as the reason for commerce, trade, and
business. This, of
course, is the mantra that encourages companies like Enron to hide the
actual state of
their business in offshore companies. It is the Declaration of the New
Ethics that causes
high and mighty executives of Arthur Anderson to shred documents. The new
economic
faith established self-interest as the only "raison d'etre" for the
conduct of business.
Human selfishness lies at the heart of bartering and trading. However,
Smith, having a
background as a moral philosopher, probably had a twinge of conscience when he
realized that he simply gave a new name to the old "dog eat dog"
philosophy. What to
do? So, the second Article of Faith was developed. In book 4, chapter 2,
Smith writes,
by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the
greatest value,
he (our butcher, baker, and candlestick maker) intends only his own gain,
and he is in
this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end
which was no
part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it
was no part of it.
By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society
more effectually
than when he really intends to promote it.
So now we are back to angels and seraphim, gods and, perchance, aliens
landing in
UFOs looking out for the good of society. Smith advocates the most crass
sort of
self-centered greed and then trusts some invisible hand making sure that no
one gets hurt.
Holy cow! I could have sold that guy the Brooklyn Bridge! Pretty naˆØve,
isn't he? Of course
there is no unseen hand looking after anybody. There was no such hand when
kings ruled
by divine right and there isn't one now that the magnates of industry continue
their rule of greed.
I must be honest and admit that it is possible in the early stages of a
business to achieve
public benefits that are not its direct intent. When, for instance, a man
decides to build
gas stations, his primary interest is to sell gas so he can make a profit.
The people benefit
from such a self-centered goal. They now have a convenient place to obtain
gas. However,
selfishness being what it is, our good merchant will combine with other
sellers of gas and,
eventually, there will be price-fixing. Then self-interest dictates that
our good merchant obtains
a share in the production of crude oil, its refining process, and its
distribution system.
Working interest in drilling companies, oilfield service companies,
manufacturing of
compressors and drilling rigs are the natural results of the new economic
order. With
monopolistic tendencies, engendered by selfishness, sooner or later our
good merchants
will gain control of the government. Then war is declared against those
nations possessing
the largest known oil reserves. While some initial good results from our
paragon's selfishness,
the ultimate end is body bags and worldwide upheaval. In my book, that is
not a desirable
Article of Faith.
Thomas Malthus, a disciple of Smith's "new" economic order, is best known
for his proposition
that populations increase in geometric proportions whereas food supply
follows an arithmetic
growth curve. It is not so well known that Malthus looked upon the poor of
England -- and, by
implication, any society --as being nothing more than an increment of the
economic pie.
Concern for humane values does not exist in this new order. In order to
have a supply of
labor exceeding demand -- thereby keeping labor costs low -- Malthus was a
profound enemy
of birth control. The more children these poor engender, the larger is the
supply of cheap labor.
In order that these masses of children do not constitute a drain on
welfare dollars, Malthus
proposes to just let the sick, little blighters die. He defends these
deaths by saying that it is
really to the benefit of the working class to do away with so many little
ones. That way the
labor pool would diminish and labor could demand a higher wage. It all
follows the simple
law of supply and demand. Human life is commercial commodity!
Malthus even wrote that infants are of little value because as soon as one
dies, another one
takes its place. Somehow, the invisible hand will take care of everything.
Is it any wonder
that unrest and malcontent undermine the foundations of our society? Now
comes the
real sleeper in this august form of economics. Malthus suggests that it is
evil for governments
to impose any restrictions whatsoever on what is essentially a license to
practice unlimited
greed. However, it seems to be quite all right for the government to enact
legislation granting
special rights and privileges to large, moneyed interests. Smithian
religion approves what
America's dot.coms did. Deceit and fraud is not only right, it is the most
supreme form of
worship to the Golden Calf of Mammon. Congress made sure that chicanery,
deceit, and
fraud were legal.
Well, it's a rotten system, hell-bent on destroying the vast majority of
people both in America
and elsewhere. Such a system must come to an end. If human life means
anything at all, then
this nefarious economic theory must be dismembered and tossed overboard. If
the mighty and
all-powerful captains of industry do not heed the call of an abused
humanity, then the wheels
of history grinding slowly but consistently will produce the antithesis
that will annihilate the
present system.
Whether the new system will place world-wide dominance into a few hands --
with its concomitant
results of continuous sabotage, terrorism, and riots -- or whether our
species shall put in place a
just and equitable system of distribution of goods remains to be seen.
Sooner or later the present
appetite for power by the few will evolve into something like the
man-eating plant in The Little Shop
of Horrors. Even the moguls will be devoured by what they created. The
Hegelian dialectic is alive
and well. Can't we figure out a system providing a synthesis based on
equity and justice and thereby
prove Hegel wrong?
[John Brand is a Purple Heart, Combat Infantry veteran of World War II. He
received
his Juris Doctor degree at Northwestern University and a Master of Theology
and a
Doctor of Ministry at Southern Methodist University. He served as a
Methodist minister
for 19 years, was Vice President, Birkman & Associates, Industrial
Psychologists, and
concluded his career as Director, Organizational and Human Resources,
Warren-King
Enterprises, an independent oil and gas company. He is the author
of "Shaking the Foundations."]
John Brand encourages your comments: [email protected]
YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication.
YellowTimes.org
encourages its material to be reproduced, reprinted, or broadcast provided
that
any such reproduction identifies the original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org.
Internet web links to www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated.
Printed on Friday, February 07, 2003
By John Brand, D.Min., J.D.
YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)
(YellowTimes.org) ’Äì For most of recorded history, the vast majority
of humankind has not been well served by prevailing economic systems.
Forever and a day, a few avaricious alphas amassed obscene assets
while most people had a hard time keeping body and soul together.
Getting people to submit to such injustice and discrimination required
a belief system embraced by most individuals. From dim historical recesses
until about the 1800s, religions provided the anesthetic that made most
people accept an economic system benefiting only a few. The cant
was that God ordained everyone's station in life. Kings ruled by divine
right. God appointed clergy to proclaim God's absolute truths. God himself
assigned slaves, serfs, and workers to their lowly rungs on life's ladder.
However, if they behaved in accordance with the Church's doctrines,
they would be assured of a heavenly hereafter complete with robes,
wings, and harps. Most people swallowed that bait hook, line, and sinker.
In the late 1700s, there was an awakening of the people. They got tired
of being shafted. The American Revolution proved that King George III
did not rule by divine right. The French Revolution guillotined masses of
aristocrats who had hidden their shameful distain for the lower classes
under the guise of God's will. A breath of freedom, a sense of equity,
and promises of a new order permeated the air. Perchance the time had
come for a new world order. But it was not to be. A new dogma, in a
sense a new religion, was birthed. It did not rely on supernatural
manifestations of the divine but proved just as repressive for the vast
majority of humankind as did the rule of the gods. The people were duped
into a system appearing to have the stamp of rationality imprinted upon it.
The human brain has the uncanny ability to vindicate the unreasonable,
to justify the unjustifiable, and to defend the indefensible. This capability
is not limited to people of low estate and/or moderate intellectual
capabilities.
Some of the most brilliant people in the world's history have been guilty of
the most crass self-deceptions. Plato saddled the world with a belief in the
absolute nature of God. He established the rationale providing religious,
political, and every other kind of pundit with the authority to shroud their
pronouncements with the mantle of absolute truth. Belief in polar absolutes
is probably as responsible as any other single factor, except the behavioral
imprints in the human reptilian brain, for the murderous behavior of our
species. Believing our ideas to be absolutely correct and backed by stacks
of holy scriptures, pronouncements of assemblies meeting in God's name,
and having been prayed over, we bash in anyone's head who does not agree
with the words we issue in the name of our god. The brilliant Newton lent
his significant scientific reputation to authenticate the nonsense of belief
in absolute polarities.
Over time, belief in God's absolute power to predestine every action in our
universe diminished. This was also the beginning of the industrial era. As
these two forces merged, someone very smart had to come up with some
highfaluting reasons allowing perpetuation of the economic ravishing of the
masses. That someone was the admired, esteemed, and highly respected
saint of the American economy, Adam Smith. While trained as a moral
philosopher, he shed almost all of his morals in the development of the new
religion flying under the banner of capitalism. A curia consisting of most
CEOs,
Deans of Schools of Business, and a coterie of politicians are the
administrators
of the Articles of Religion of the New Faith. In essence, only the names,
dates,
and places have changed since our species believed in the divine right of
kings. The new kings think of themselves as no less divine than Egyptian
Pharaohs. What is this hoax that has become the altar at which we worship
the new god? What is the phantasmagoria providing the equivalent of a new
theology continuing the enslavement of most of the world's people?
The new illusion contains only two major Articles of Faith. Volumes have
been written in the worship of these twins keeping bread from the mouths
of babes, perpetuating a consistent sense of uncertainty about a workingman's
ability to provide for his family, and causing the world to descend into
periodic
economic depressions and major wars. Yet, the little people of the western
world have swallowed this poison depriving them of "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness." "The king is dead. Long live the king." Nothing new
has happened. The old tyranny has simply been baptized with a new name.
The substance remained the same.
The first Article of Faith of this new religion is found in Smith's The Wealth
of Nations, Book I, chapter 2.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker,
that we expect our
dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. Smith admits that
humans, as distinct
from all other animals, need each other in order to meet their needs. They
use barter and
trade to find satisfaction of their wants. In effecting this exchange,
Smith continues,
We address ourselves, not to their (that is the baker's, the butcher's, the
candlestick
maker's) humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own
necessitie but of
their own advantage.
Smith posits utter selfishness as the reason for commerce, trade, and
business. This, of
course, is the mantra that encourages companies like Enron to hide the
actual state of
their business in offshore companies. It is the Declaration of the New
Ethics that causes
high and mighty executives of Arthur Anderson to shred documents. The new
economic
faith established self-interest as the only "raison d'etre" for the
conduct of business.
Human selfishness lies at the heart of bartering and trading. However,
Smith, having a
background as a moral philosopher, probably had a twinge of conscience when he
realized that he simply gave a new name to the old "dog eat dog"
philosophy. What to
do? So, the second Article of Faith was developed. In book 4, chapter 2,
Smith writes,
by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the
greatest value,
he (our butcher, baker, and candlestick maker) intends only his own gain,
and he is in
this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end
which was no
part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it
was no part of it.
By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society
more effectually
than when he really intends to promote it.
So now we are back to angels and seraphim, gods and, perchance, aliens
landing in
UFOs looking out for the good of society. Smith advocates the most crass
sort of
self-centered greed and then trusts some invisible hand making sure that no
one gets hurt.
Holy cow! I could have sold that guy the Brooklyn Bridge! Pretty naˆØve,
isn't he? Of course
there is no unseen hand looking after anybody. There was no such hand when
kings ruled
by divine right and there isn't one now that the magnates of industry continue
their rule of greed.
I must be honest and admit that it is possible in the early stages of a
business to achieve
public benefits that are not its direct intent. When, for instance, a man
decides to build
gas stations, his primary interest is to sell gas so he can make a profit.
The people benefit
from such a self-centered goal. They now have a convenient place to obtain
gas. However,
selfishness being what it is, our good merchant will combine with other
sellers of gas and,
eventually, there will be price-fixing. Then self-interest dictates that
our good merchant obtains
a share in the production of crude oil, its refining process, and its
distribution system.
Working interest in drilling companies, oilfield service companies,
manufacturing of
compressors and drilling rigs are the natural results of the new economic
order. With
monopolistic tendencies, engendered by selfishness, sooner or later our
good merchants
will gain control of the government. Then war is declared against those
nations possessing
the largest known oil reserves. While some initial good results from our
paragon's selfishness,
the ultimate end is body bags and worldwide upheaval. In my book, that is
not a desirable
Article of Faith.
Thomas Malthus, a disciple of Smith's "new" economic order, is best known
for his proposition
that populations increase in geometric proportions whereas food supply
follows an arithmetic
growth curve. It is not so well known that Malthus looked upon the poor of
England -- and, by
implication, any society --as being nothing more than an increment of the
economic pie.
Concern for humane values does not exist in this new order. In order to
have a supply of
labor exceeding demand -- thereby keeping labor costs low -- Malthus was a
profound enemy
of birth control. The more children these poor engender, the larger is the
supply of cheap labor.
In order that these masses of children do not constitute a drain on
welfare dollars, Malthus
proposes to just let the sick, little blighters die. He defends these
deaths by saying that it is
really to the benefit of the working class to do away with so many little
ones. That way the
labor pool would diminish and labor could demand a higher wage. It all
follows the simple
law of supply and demand. Human life is commercial commodity!
Malthus even wrote that infants are of little value because as soon as one
dies, another one
takes its place. Somehow, the invisible hand will take care of everything.
Is it any wonder
that unrest and malcontent undermine the foundations of our society? Now
comes the
real sleeper in this august form of economics. Malthus suggests that it is
evil for governments
to impose any restrictions whatsoever on what is essentially a license to
practice unlimited
greed. However, it seems to be quite all right for the government to enact
legislation granting
special rights and privileges to large, moneyed interests. Smithian
religion approves what
America's dot.coms did. Deceit and fraud is not only right, it is the most
supreme form of
worship to the Golden Calf of Mammon. Congress made sure that chicanery,
deceit, and
fraud were legal.
Well, it's a rotten system, hell-bent on destroying the vast majority of
people both in America
and elsewhere. Such a system must come to an end. If human life means
anything at all, then
this nefarious economic theory must be dismembered and tossed overboard. If
the mighty and
all-powerful captains of industry do not heed the call of an abused
humanity, then the wheels
of history grinding slowly but consistently will produce the antithesis
that will annihilate the
present system.
Whether the new system will place world-wide dominance into a few hands --
with its concomitant
results of continuous sabotage, terrorism, and riots -- or whether our
species shall put in place a
just and equitable system of distribution of goods remains to be seen.
Sooner or later the present
appetite for power by the few will evolve into something like the
man-eating plant in The Little Shop
of Horrors. Even the moguls will be devoured by what they created. The
Hegelian dialectic is alive
and well. Can't we figure out a system providing a synthesis based on
equity and justice and thereby
prove Hegel wrong?
[John Brand is a Purple Heart, Combat Infantry veteran of World War II. He
received
his Juris Doctor degree at Northwestern University and a Master of Theology
and a
Doctor of Ministry at Southern Methodist University. He served as a
Methodist minister
for 19 years, was Vice President, Birkman & Associates, Industrial
Psychologists, and
concluded his career as Director, Organizational and Human Resources,
Warren-King
Enterprises, an independent oil and gas company. He is the author
of "Shaking the Foundations."]
John Brand encourages your comments: [email protected]
YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication.
YellowTimes.org
encourages its material to be reproduced, reprinted, or broadcast provided
that
any such reproduction identifies the original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org.
Internet web links to www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated.