One of the more delusional aspects of capitalism is the idea that if one pursues the acquisition of private wealth with abandon, that this is somehow automatically \u201cgood\u201d for human society.<\/p>\n
The laissez-faire advocate and novelist Ayn Rand wrote that if one does not support this notion that greed is good and pursuing \u201cenlightened self-interest,\u201d (as Adam Smith characterized it), is the highest virtue, then one defaults to supporting a centralized oppressive regime that allows no personal freedom and no private wealth whatsoever. \u00a0One supports living in darkness and despair or, in a word, Hell. \u00a0This Manichean thinking is in keeping with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition dating back to the Indus Valley divide between the Vedic traditions and the Zoroastrian belief system of ancient Persia. \u00a0The notion that the world is characterized by an ongoing \u201cwar\u201d between the forces of light and the forces of darkness is at the base of much of so-called western thought.<\/p>\n
In The Three Metamorphoses<\/em>, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that humans are saddled with a heavy burden as children. \u00a0Using the metaphor of a camel, he describes how we then venture into the wilderness with this burden, whereupon we are attacked by a great dragon. \u00a0The dragon is covered with hundreds of scales, each scale bearing the words \u201cThou Shalt.\u201d \u00a0The human is then transformed into a lion in order to do battle with the dragon. \u00a0If the lion is victorious in the battle \u2013 slaying the dragon \u201cThou Shalt\u201d \u2013 the metaphor then turns to that of a child. \u00a0The human then becomes what he or she was born to be \u2013 \u201ca wheel rolling out of its own center.\u201d \u00a0One of the scales on the dragon for most of us growing up in the \u201cdeveloped world\u201d is that \u201cthou shalt believe in the war between light and darkness.\u201d \u00a0And, the societal assumption is that one aspect of this war is the capitalist notion of \u201cenlightened self-interest\u201d versus the evil \u201csocialist\u201d notions of public ownership and oppressive altruism that punishes the productive and rewards the unproductive. \u00a0This has become conflated with the Judeo-Christian religious structure of \u201cgood versus evil\u201d to the point where in some quarters there is no distinction between the secular and religious versions of the myth. \u00a0To complete the Nietzschean metaphor in this context, most people do not slay the dragon. \u00a0The result is a societal discourse that is largely delusional and controlled by mythic thinking, catch-phrases, and unquestioned assumptions.<\/p>\n While this is nothing new, the consequences are becoming too great to bear as humans acquire the unprecedented ability to wield cataclysmic power. \u00a0What is needed is a strong commitment to reality; i.e., a commitment to jettison ideology and religion for fact-based analysis. \u00a0The process begun by the Enlightenment was, by and large, a positive development at least for Europe. \u00a0But this process has been interrupted not so much by religion \u2013 the antithesis of the Enlightenment \u2013 but by a faith-based secular ideology that says the pursuit by individuals of their own private material gain is good for all.<\/p>\n To dissent against this faith-based secular religion is to be consigned to Purgatory and Hell by the Upholders of the Faith. \u00a0When the upholders of such a system see a dissenting opposition that is so threatening it must be condemned, it is probably worth asking, \u201cSo what\u2019s the threat?\u201d \u00a0This is what makes a study of the writings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and other dissenters from the secular faith so fascinating. \u00a0Before \u201cMarxism\u201d was codified into a tool of repression by state capitalists, (Soviet Union, China \u2013 regimes that used Marxist rhetoric to repress their own people), it was and still can be a useful critique of the secular religion of capitalism and very revealing in its analysis. \u00a0Some have helped bring this nineteenth-century dissent up to date on the basis of a critical scientific analysis of the evolution of the capitalist system, (Paul Sweezy, Howard Parsons, David Harvey, John Bellamy Foster, et al.).<\/p>\n The most valuable critique is the questioning of the \u201cenlightened self-interest as public good\u201d assumption. \u00a0This assumption is based on the false premise that humans are separate from their environment; that somehow, we are \u201cabove\u201d the normal consequences of action in the field of the life-death continuum of Planet Earth. \u00a0A brief perusal of the consequences of this false premise should be sobering to any thinking person. \u00a0The pursuit of resources and markets to feed a system that MUST grow to survive has made the planet and all of its inhabitants commodities. \u00a0In capitalist mythology, EVERYTHING has a monetary value, including and perhaps especially, people. \u00a0The fact that humans are dependent on a healthy environment is not a central consideration \u2013 capitalists who acquire financial independence can BUY a healthy environment as one of their private acquisitions, it is assumed. \u00a0Everyone else must either enter into the field of competition and buy their own \u201chealthy environment,\u201d or be consigned to a life that Thomas Hobbes called \u201cnasty, brutish, and short\u201d \u2013 a self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.<\/p>\n Critics and dissenters such as those mentioned above interrupt this mythic narrative and point out that environmental health, sustainability, and diversity are essential for both human and non-human health. \u00a0\u201cSelf-fulfillment,\u201d and protection of a \u201ccommonwealth\u201d are priorities for these dissenters, which is a thing different from the way Smith\u2019s \u201cenlightened self-interest\u201d has become a societal myth. \u00a0The original meaning of the Greek word \u201coeconomy\u201d had more to do with a well-kept house \u2013 be it an individual household, a neighborhood, a city, or an entire region \u2013 than it does with private acquisition. \u00a0Ultimately, our \u201chouse\u201d is the planet \u2013 there is NO getting around this fact. \u00a0For some time now we have had pictures of Planet Earth taken from space. \u00a0The empirical evidence is clear: we are a very small household in a vast sea of time and space. \u00a0We MUST cooperate or perish. \u00a0As it now stands, our Head of the Household \u2013 Capitalism (some would prefer the word \u201cfascism\u201d) \u2013 is an alcoholic who runs rampant over all who have something he wants. \u00a0The epitome of \u201cself-will run riot,\u201d he ravages entire countries in his search for another \u201cdrink\u201d (resources and markets) and will stop at nothing, including self-destruction, to continue his blind, staggering rampage across the face of the earth.<\/p>\n Once \u201cThou Shalt\u201d \u2013 the dragon telling us that this kind of behavior is on the side of the angels \u2013 is slain, our focus can then move to a more properly \u201csober\u201d analysis of our situation, allowing long-term, solution-oriented thinking to become part of our daily existence. \u00a0Pursuit of personal fulfillment for each individual in a healthy environment \u2013 as opposed to strictly material acquisition \u2013 can become a central goal of our household economy on Planet Earth. \u00a0Happy, fulfilled people do not plunder, rape, maim, and kill others for resources and markets. \u00a0The earth is a place of abundance, not scarcity. \u00a0People CAN cooperate and live in peace. \u00a0But we need to share a commitment to \u201creality\u201d \u2013 the real-life playing out of our interaction with the resources of our household \u2013 things that we all need like clean air and water, a healthy diet, expressing our creative powers, loving and being loved, being \u201cpart of\u201d something greater than ourselves (Planet Earth comes to mind). Becoming what we were born to be, a “wheel rolling out of its own center,” as the eyes and ears of Planet Earth, is our proper objective. \u00a0If the pursuit of individual wealth impoverishes others and the planet as a whole \u2013 which empirical evidence indicates — consigning innocent bystanders to a life \u201cnasty, brutish, and short,\u201d it represents unwarranted and misplaced power. \u00a0It is destructive. \u00a0It is like living with a drunk who is drowning in delusion. \u00a0It is time to intervene.<\/p>\n __________________________<\/p>\n Doug Harvey is a historian and musician teaching, writing, and performing in the Kansas City area. \u00a0He can be contacted at dharvey@ku.edu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n