Published in Volume 48, Issue 5.
Unbridled market capitalism is an outdated system that is no longer providing wealth and good fortune for those who it serves, but is now largely at fault for the severe social and environmental unraveling we are now experiencing at an ever accelerating rate.
The history and formation of capitalism is of course varied and complex. Many say capitalism is an ideal system for those who are willing to “market” their own lives and talents and is an ineffective system for those who want to be dependent on someone else. This is a very rudimentary example of the basic ethos of capitalism: work hard and you might succeed, somehow. Certainly many people have followed this example and have become quite wealthy or exuberantly wealthy, perhaps. For many centuries capitalism was highly effective at the task of coordinating individual production and distribution of material wealth. It was viewed as a fairer alternative to the predominant medieval system of feudalism. Today, capitalism has been taken hostage by banks and massive transnational corporations where the individual has simply become a means to an end and in many ways makes the old feudal system look Utopian in scope.
Capitalism has since moved from that innocent “survival of the fittest” interpretation to something quite different. Modern capitalism is more comparable to a giant octopus on top of the world, reaching out largely without logic or empathy to get whatever it can—no matter the expense—putting sheer profit above all else, including human life. It is a system that has thrown aside human solidarity in favor of greed driven bottom-line profits of corporate cabals. It is suicide.
Did I need it? No. Do I use it? No. Can I live without it? Hell no.
The main premise of modern capitalism revolves around the concept of insatiable human desires. Look around. Massive tracts of land are scarred with inefficient development devoted to the mass production of unnecessary goods. Conspicuous household items like bottled water and televisions in every room are examples of widespread consumption and exuberance that leads to unnecessary waste. “I own, therefore I am” is without a doubt the predominant mindset of the capitalistic society. The concept of ownership comes to represent the individual in various ways. Few can perceive an existence outside of possession or striving after it. This attitude is so encapsulated in the capitalist ideology that a person’s identity is shaped by what they own. “So far as possible he conducts himself toward others as a merchant and toward himself as a hedonist, but dislikes to go about unmasked,” said German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies.
People work to get money and capitalism demands they spend and over consume. Average ‘Joe Six Pack’ keeps working over and over again, buying and buying, getting politically thrown aside, paying that bank mortgage, becoming enslaved to the insanity, becoming more disillusioned, until he retires and the oligarchs come to strip him of his dignity and decency. Could it be about time Joe sobers up? Obviously, the economic system is much more complex than is portrayed in this example. But on a simplified and perhaps slightly cynical level, this is the cyclical and reoccurring pattern in the modern capitalistic society, however inconvenient it may seem.
Research and simple observation has shown that egalitarian societies in nations such as Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands have more equal distribution of wealth, lower crime rates, more equal access to health care, and comparatively less corruption in government. Citizens there also score very high on life satisfaction surveys and general well being, the highest in the world actually.4 More economic and social equality seems to lead to a more peaceful and content society. One theory why the Scandinavian nations score so highly on well-being surveys is apparently due to the fact they have their basic needs fulfilled to a higher degree than most other nations. Jim Harter, in the July 2010 issue of Forbes magazine added that “When we look at all the data, those basic needs explain the relationship between income and well-being.”
The United States seems to suffer from its own style of unregulated, uncompassionate capitalism. Almost every aspect of society has been infected with facets of capitalism and compulsive monetary gain. Banking institutions, manufacturing, energy, the military industrial complex, and as we have seen in Wisconsin, even education has been hijacked and fine tuned for maximum monetary gain in a way unheard of in many other developed nations. Banks have become the alters at which the people must bow before. Because of their predatory actions and incompetence, we are experiencing an ongoing global economic collapse. Education has in many ways been transformed into a “pay for your degree” experience; many colleges are nothing more than job training institutions instead of formative experiences that cultivate the self. The clothes we wear are produced by marginalized workers in far away nations by large multinational corporations. As witnessed during the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, people die on collapsing oil rigs built with little to no regard for the environment.
Capitalism is a destructive, blood stained killing machine that is hurling headlong towards its own demise at an ever-increasing speed. We try to keep it propped up; when it falters, the news of the economy’s health is all over mainstream media. Complex charts and graphs like heart rate monitors denote its health or sickness. The casino of Wall Street is viewed as imperative and to be defended at all costs by the taxpayer. The system we live in is simply inane. In fact, there are no real words to describe such a seemingly twisted, backwards order. Today we hear discussions about the foreshadowing of Earth’s sixth mass extinction event. There is little question this is due in part to the destructive and greed-oriented forces that widespread capitalistic fervor has unleashed on society and the environment.
Destroy the Planet for Profit? Yes!
The shortsightedness inherent in the capitalistic society contributes to destruction of the environment. Coal generates half of all electricity in the United States.3 One of the predominant ways to extract the coal for energy production is through the practice of mountaintop removal or mountaintop mining. This practice not only destroys the mountains in an aesthetic sense but also annihilates streams—and the life in them—with heavy metals and toxins resulting from the mountaintop mining process. Despite all of the destruction, only about six percent of a coal deposit is ever recovered.2 When all is over, the mountaintop has been stripped away, severe erosion often occurs, waterways become severely polluted, and the landscape becomes permanently blighted. But don’t worry, we got the coal out, some of it anyway!
What kind of society is willing to rape and pillage the life-supporting environment for the immediate purpose of burning more coal and sending more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere only to even further endanger life? The entire process is seemingly without reason. In a capitalistic society, humans are incapable of differentiating between short- and long-term effects. As Sigmund Freud surmised in “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” and “Civilization and Its Discontents,” human societies are as intoxicated and blinded by their own rush toward death as they are by the search for erotic fulfillment. It’s no secret that the decline of every advanced human society was precipitated not only by poor management of resources but also political corruption and widespread greed. Jarred Diamond in his 2005 novel Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed stated that, “Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial in tipping their [societies] outcomes towards success or failure: long-term planning, and willingness to reconsider core values. On reflection, we can also recognize the crucial role of these same two choices for the outcomes of our individual lives.”1
As things stand, why should anyone believe that the constraints placed on modern society are any different from those of ancient civilizations? We think we are more intelligent and infallible. We assume our way of life is inexhaustible. We believe science will save us. The arrogance of humanity paired with a widespread ignorance of history will prove to be the major downfalls of our society when it finally crumbles. After the collapse of the global environment, there will be no new lands to conquer or indigenous people to steal resources from. We will, for the first time in history, fall together. All notions of self-interest and feverish nationalism will have no meaning.
Existing In Suspended Animation
Capitalism certainly cannot be blamed for all our woes. But closer inspection of the capitalist system shows that it’s unsustainable and has become somewhat anti-human, existing only to serve and satisfy the acquisition of the magnificent golden dollar signs. It’s not too late but it’s getting dark. The masses do not understand the gravity of our situation, making it difficult to inspire collective action. The current state of the world is tense; the feeling in the air is that everything could come crashing down at any moment. The people of this world seem to exist in a kind of suspended animation, fully aware of these problems but intentionally ignoring them to serve social and economic obligations that are blind in their destruction.
Where do we go from here? Who knows? If one thing is certain, we can all agree that humanity does not like to play by the rules. The natural world, however, will certainly enforce those rules to the detriment of civilization. We like to be bad to be good—we think the destructive practices of capitalism in the short-term will somehow lead to long-term prosperity. This is an incredibly dangerous fallacy. We have only one Earth, one life, one home. The importance of establishing a sustainable, locally-focused, and globally-minded economic system is more paramount than ever. Perhaps one day the people will reanimate from suspension and resume life the way it was meant to be—living wise and free.
Further Reading
1. Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York City: Viking Press, 2005.
2. Fair, J Henry. “Enter The Anthropocene Age of Man.” National Geographic Mar. 2011: 68-69.
3. National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). “Clean Power Generation- Market and Policy Drivers.”
4. Levy, Francesca. “The World’s Happiest Countries.” Forbes.com.