What I believe, by John Wright
I've challenged visitors to this site to submit their personal credo in 272 words or less -- since that's how many words Abraham Lincoln took to deliver his , one of the greatest speeches ever given. Today I post our bloggers' attempts to express their values and beliefs within that word-limit. If you are interested, provoked, challenged, impressed or infuriated by what they have written, add a comment and say why. Exactly one week from now, the credo attracting the most comments wins a book prize of my choice. Needless to say, the views expressed by the entrants to our Spirit of Lincoln competition are their views, not mine or the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s. The following is John Wright's credo.
If only it had been possible for people, centuries ago, to look into the future and observe the progress of humanity in developed countries by 2006. Their profound delight and envy would surely astonish some of today's sulky malcontents. The relative peace, abundant prosperity, ingrained order and fundamental sophistication of our society would have been far beyond the imaginations of any human being just a short time ago.
But what was the cause of this progress? Astonishingly, the answer appears to have eluded many of the most liberal of our leaders, the most intellectual of our academics and the most thoughtful of our politicians. We are so relatively peaceful, so abundantly prosperous, so inherently ordered and so fundamentally sophisticated because the law of the jungle no longer applies; capitalism has replaced it.
Capitalism: a word so attended by contempt, mockery and censure, and yet a word which consequentially encapsulates the reason for all human progress. If only people in 'developing' countries were not in the same position as those trapped in earlier centuries, tragically watching our progress from far away; would that instead they could own the gift of capitalism. Which other political system replaces poverty with prosperity and slavery with freedom? Who but the capitalist can work without fear that the fruit of his labour be seized and the property he acquires be pillaged? Who but the capitalist can employ the services of a poor guy in an arrangement mutually beneficial to both?
We are continually looking for answers to the many remaining challenges of society. We have failed because we haven't consulted history. The answer is more capitalism; not less."
Comments
John is your life really this dull? Capitalism is what you live by? Believe in? This is what you chose as the description of you LIFE? God help us all.
Helen- The principles of political philosophy affects us all, in ways you clearly have never even imagined. Your insults aren't very endearing.
John, I don't take as harsh a line as Helen, but I do think there are other things than capitalism. I don't despise capitalism in its more responsible forms. And I certainly think it is something that stimultes progress. In a somewhat Darwinian-flavoured, harsh way, but progress it stimulates, undeniably. But there are other things that do that too. Alan Watson mentioned mans inquisitive nature. To me personally that is more important than capitalism. I do academic research for my job. Trust me, I'm not doing that to make a fat salary. I'm doing it becausae I like to find out how a small particular area of nature works (and academic work gives you tons of freedom to go about your work as you see fit). Capitalism stimulates progress (in a harsh way sometimes) but so does curiosity. And others may come up with other drivers still.
Peter- Firstly, when I refer to capitalism I'm referring to classical capitalism - the economic system - not the form of mixed economy that we see in most developed nations today.
So when you say you think capitalism "stimulates progress" (because of the incentive of a 'fat salary') that's far too restrictive a definition. What we're talking about here is freedom. You get paid for your academic work, and you get to keep (most of) it. The more capitalistic a society, the more of it you would keep, and the greater your ability to continue doing what you like to do. Capitalism is the system which enables this arrangement. Capitalism is the system which permits inquisitive, curious people like yourself to pursue their goals, whatever they may be.
We've chatted about our mutual enthusiasm for the Apple computer. We both find that Apple products make our lives better and easier and more productive. But without capitalism, they wouldn't exist. In the same way that this blog is a system which permits the exchange of ideas, capitalism is the system which permits the exchange of human production. They produce computers and you produce academic research: capitalism is the system that gives both of those endeavours value.
I hope this clarifies my position.
...you mean like the biblical work ethic Peter (Max Weber)???
Seriously though, good on you John, you took some work in there and you have the guts to put your real name and id behind it!
PB
John,
Given that 'sulky malcontents' abound, separated families are the norm, everyone appears to be stressed and we are becoming a country of overweight, telly addicted celebrity obsessed sloths - what has gone wrong?
PB- Absolutely. I have no problem with anyone knowing who I am, how to get in touch with me and what I believe. I'll go for coffee with anyone who's interested in a chat.
Rubberduckie- You should have been around a couple of hundred years ago! We're doing better now as human beings, believe it or not, than in any other period in history. And the fact is that capitalism is responsible (ie. systems which provide for the peaceful cooperation of exchange between human beings). Do we still have a lot of problems? Yes. But my credo is arguably the most optimistic posted, because we've discovered the system by which progress occurs most easily. In short; if telly addiction and obesity make your top ten in the list of problems with the developed world then we've come a long way.
The deplorable face of CAPITALISM is NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF, it is nothing but a disease which oppresses and exploits the vulnerable people of society while the fat cats get fatter and fatter on there unethical greed.
The trend in recent years by the capitalistic multinational greed machine has been to source their products in countries with low economies therefore putting workers out of work in the country of original source, the textile industry in the UK has been decimated because of this trend, the trend is now starting to take a grip on the electrical product and motor vehicle industries also.
The products get resourced for a fraction of the original cost but the retail price doesn’t change to reflect this,it may even rise in cost, therefore the fat cat has a larger profit to satisfy his capitalistic greed.
If you work in a sweat shop in Bangladesh you can expect to be paid as little as 5p an hour for making cheap fashionable clothes destined for UK chains, working in excess of 80 hours a week in death trap of a factory with no health and safety legislation to protect the welfare of these vulnerable and exploited human beings.
In the USA the business of undocumented workers usually illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe, Central America and Asia being exploited with the direct knowledge of executives is big business, increasing their profit margins is the unethical motivation behind this capitalistic greed.
This is capitalism in its crudest form; this is nothing to shout about, an embarrassment, the capitalist fat cats and their aficionado should hang their heads in shame.
Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages.
Billy- The difference between you and I is that I value man's inalienable right to provide for himself by being allowed to keep the fruit of his own labour; you believe he's a slave to the collective. Because there is this vast chasm of perception, I have nothing else to say to you that will change your mind.
I'd rather be poor in a world where everyone has enough food to live on than rich in a world where people die of hunger
Helen:
You are free to give away your possessions and become poor if you wish so as to help whoever you wish. Perhaps you could start by selling your computer and giving the proceeds to the third world. I don't expect to see you online again. After all, you REALLY care about the poor, don't you?
SG
Helen- It's a false dichotomy since no world such that you describe exists. In the absence of it, capitalism is our fairest, most equitable, most effective system for accomplishing the kind of thing you (and I) would like to see.
John:
Helen cannot continue this discussion with you as she has sold her computer to help the poor.
SG
Oh I see. :-)
Well, I see Helen has participated in other threads, so perhaps her concern for the poor is really a bunch of self-righteous rhetorical bull-plop with no application to the real world.
SG
Capitalism isn't a philosophy of life, it's just a fact of life. It's the way the world works and we just have to learn to live with it and ameliorate its worst effects as far as we can. That's how I see it anyway.
Get your eyes tested then.
SG
John:
I am going through the credos that might win this competition and making sure that I post an equal number of times in each so that my vote will not count towards the decision.
This is my posting to achieve this objective in your thread.
You should not reply to it.
Peace,
Maureen
Maureen- Okay, although I know mine isn't going to win. I knew when I posted it that it wasn't a subject matter that most who are here because of 'religions and ethics' discussions would particularly find exciting! And that's fine. I didn't post it to win; I posted it because I post regularly here and thought it would give people a bigger glimpse of what I'm all about.
Well said Maureen.
SG
John:
And because the capitalism message needs reinforced because so many people misunderstand it. It's about individual rights and freedom.
SG
John I've watched this thread with interest and am of course a frequent watcher and contributor on your blog. There are a couple of things that they aren't understanding. First among these is that they seem to equate capitalism with the current state of affairs in western democracies. For capitalists like myself this is not true capitalism, in the same way that western 'communists' do not view the USSR or China as true communism. As long as there are social programs and high taxes and protectionist policies and rules about food and all manner of interventions from government, this is NOT capitalism and the comments here reflect that they do not understand that. Capitalism is tested, because America and other countries have it to a certain degree, with incredibly positive results. But true capitalism is what you are defending in this post, which is not a practical reality today, it is an 'ideal'. While you are defending an ideal, the people responding here are attacking the shortcomings of western democracy, which there are many of, which you are not addressing in your post. I think this should be made clear if people are to understand it. Though as you've said you will not win this competition, I think if it had been clearer that you are defending an ideal rather than the practical reality of what we would call this mixed economy, the comments may have been different. I appreciate that it is very difficult in 272 words to make this clear and then explain how it looks in detail, as an ideal, but it is mostly because people have been misled as to what capitalism is, and only hear negativity about it, that this problem occurs. I for one enjoyed your credo as I've told you, and congratulate you for putting it out here on a ´óÏó´«Ã½ blog to defend it.
Regards,
Quinney
The definition of capitalism has evolved since its conception; there are many different shades of capitalism today, and America as a state is a Democratic Capitalist state with some cronyism thrown in, America is a democratic capitalist state as opposed to a libertarian capitalist state that the libertatian dreams for in the land of nod, pie in the sky philosophy, which doesn’t belong to the real world.
Quinney- Thanks for your comment my friend. I believe you're right about some of the previous replies, which display a general sort of ignorance about capitalism as a political ideology. I deliberately chose the word 'capitalism', though, as opposed to 'libertarianism' or 'classical liberalism' or anything else similar, since I thought it would be provocative and help stir a debate about its true meaning. The word needs redeemed. I have hopes that it will, at some point.
Christian Socialist- Are you being intentionally bizarre?
You say:"America is a democratic capitalist state as opposed to a libertarian capitalist state that the libertatian dreams for in the land of nod, pie in the sky philosophy, which doesn’t belong to the real world."
I'm lost. You're saying the political ideology of libertarianism is... what, exactly? Unpractical? More unpractical than socialism, for example, another political philosophy that you claim to identify with?
You didn't think too hard about that post, did you?!
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