Humanity Is Much Older And Far More Important Than Capitalism

Jesus cleaning the temple of moneylenders.

PART ONE

Capitalism, the globalised economic system that has ruled the world for hundreds of years, seems to have entered a stage of steadily expanding and faster collapse than is usually the case nationally, let alone on a global basis, though this is hardly dealt with by any news or commentary in the capitalist world. And since there is no other world but that, how can anyone arrive at such a conclusion? Possibly by paying closer attention to the material reality of that system rather than continuing to accept a religious theory about it that only makes sense in the way the divine birth and resurrection of Jesus, Moses being in direct contact with, and Mohamed being directly contacted by, the deity, and other foundation myths of the Abrahamic  legends which, however minority created and preached  still make sense for billions of people. Faith can be our salvation at times, but as an ex-clergy member has said, only gravity works all the time. Groups of humans calling themselves secular and science based who still accept private profit in a market place as the Credo in Unum Deum are frequently much closer to religious fundamentalists in accepting as foundational universal truths the material results of earth, air, water, fire and humans being treated as market commodities.

This political economic system has been incredibly rewarding to a sector of humanity, while causing untold suffering and devastation for a majority who have been forced to absorb the loss so that others might profit. Even the Abrahamic faiths contain teachings and proposed actions that work against the acceptance of poverty, wealth, and the collection of interest. Islam does not allow interest collecting, or at least tries to forbid it before banking and finance make it nearly impossible, and Christianity once forbade it completely. In fact,  one of the Jesus stories has it that he and his radical band of rabbis attacked the moneychangers and moneylenders at the temple. Whether they did so because it was seen as evil in and of itself or only so if taking place at the temple is up to the interpreters, but there might be a lesson there that humans, at least some of us, were in open rebellion against minority profiteers even while the groundwork was being laid to make religious teachings the handmaidens of capital at its earliest stages.

Presently, while an american elite is trying and seems almost successful in hysterically mobilizing a defense of the system by attacking the reckless if honest pinhead who won the presidency despite all the owners of the nation’s political process did to prevent it, the signs of breakdown are not just mental for those who can afford it but more physical for those unable to find solace through therapy, drugs, religion, or as John Lennon once put, through sex and tv. The marketing of aspects of this breakdown are further signs of its desperation, but also its malevolent power to cloud people’s minds in myth, legend, propaganda and lies,  through the “branding” of manifestations of its deadly flaws with product names like “climate change” and  “military defense”, the first an aspect of capitalism treated as a mysterious aspect of “our” treatment of nature, the second a much older enforcer of minority power now, in a nuclear age, threatening all life on earth rather than simply those of one or another people or nation.

While the evidence of breakdown is global, the source of the political economic power that has brought it about is regionally western and specifically American, though certainly not uniquely so as newer entrants into the capitalist market madness are part of the problem, though not nearly as menacing as the originals. Russia, and even more so China, are creating inequality and destroying the environment in the necessary fashion in order to create great wealth for some while robbing others, but their approach is relatively progressive, to use an overworked word loved by liberals, by comparison to the powers that have brought us closer to world disaster in their terrible treatment of people and earth itself. The global realities of capitalism that shrank the world of numerous nations into one of a massive market, spoken of by Marx and Engels more than 150 years ago, have become the global mall in which workers are dumped from one nation to another based on the financial loss of keeping them in one place or profiting from their cheap labor in another, have become massive problems of relocation and misery for some and wealth and profits beyond belief for a tiny minority of the planet’s people. This is tearing nations apart as it adds to the divisions of manipulated populations into fighting one another over seemingly diminishing wealth, under capitalist  “austerity”, a process which is only applied to and experienced by common working people – the overwhelming majority – while incredible wealth beyond what past charlatans and hustlers called royalty once amassed creates a sub-market for excessive riches which trickle down to their servant class as money for their pets. When a civilization (?) is reduced to spending more on war and domestic animals than it does on the well being of some, really most of its humans, globally, blaming that on lazy workers can only cover reality for so long, even among a people fed a diet of fast food, fake news, and political lies. Humanity has not survived and evolved for millennia to wind up vanishing due to a political economic system calling itself democratic, which is like calling rape an act of love. Although it can look that way if we only peek at material reality behind blinders and wearing head phones which allow only news of the most trivial, useless, consumptive and bestial products to seep through. We are better than that and need to begin acting like it before ruling minorities bring us, and everything else, to a crashing end. Can we?

to be continued

email: fpscott@gmail.com.