If you've read anything else on this blog, you may think that this is not the first installment of incoherent ramblings, but this will take incoherence to a new level, until finally it all comes together and coheres. At least that's what I'm hoping for. I think. I'm looking for the grand structure of current events, politics in general, economics, religion, life... Oh yes, Douglas Adams said it best in one of his book titles: "Life, the Universe, and Everything." But mostly politics and economics, because these are controlled by humans, and have so much influence upon their lives.
What is the overarching struggle here? Greed and hunger for power v. compassion and caring. Greed and hunger for power, I think, are bred from fear and insecurity, and the whole package is taken to a nearly psychotic level in high level politics and economic activity. After all, if you have incredible amounts of wealth and power, why would you feel an insecure need to exploit those who are less advantaged? "I must have more." No, you have enough to live the rest of your life in comfort, pleasure and splendor. Why do you need to wring a few more dollars out of people who may not be able to pay for food or medicine? Part of this problem may be driven by the capitalist emphasis on competition. Competition is supposed to lead to better products at cheaper prices. Sometimes it does, but a continuous drive to become bigger and cheaper eventually leads to a downward spiral, as concerns for the environment and the conditions of labor are completely shouldered aside in order to gain every advantage to keep the corporation in existence, squeeze out every penny of profit, and keep the shareholders and an overpaid CEO happy. But in cases like Enron and Worldcom, even the shareholders and finally the concern for the existence of the corporation itself seem to get squeezed out, in favor of an overly powerful CEO and handpicked executive buddies who will even sacrifice the corporation and its constituents to make a buck or a hundred million, and have a nice party in the process. Currently, the United States government in particular appears to be in alliance with such greedy multinational corporations and entrepreneurs, and has no problem with their devastating refusal to take responsibility for the broad consequences of their actions. Meanwhile, the incredible machine that is our environment, our link to existence, is allowed to crumble, and deadly poverty is ignored, sometimes even encouraged to continue.
Criticizing the US government or capitalism is not to deny the tremendous corruption, greed, and decadence that occurred under the heyday of Communism. Either way, you have those who are in a position of wealth and power taking advantage of their situation to get more of the same for themselves, at the expense of the people. The Cold War, we should realize, was not mainly fought as a struggle over what system would most benefit the people of the world. It is better explained as simply a struggle over power (and wealth and privilege), which is why so many committed Communists became committed to capitalist "reforms" after the fall of the Soviet Union. There are genuninely committed socialists, and even genuinely committed "capitalists" who aren't particularly greedy. But the Cold War had a name for them, which was slyly batted around by both sides in reference to the other: "dupes". Not that their idealism lacked beauty, only that it was irrelevant.
"I must have more." But what for? To deny death? We will all die someday. To prove oneself to some other neurotic figure in one's life, who also clings to excess wealth, power, and/or privilege for a sense of self-worth? This neurosis feeds itself with success: when the greedy get what they want, their drive is psychologically reinforced, and their coffers, their means to run roughshod over human beings and the planet in pursuit of even more, have grown larger.
In a hypothetical world where people have been brought up to believe that the role of a human being is to care for other human beings, one will have the security of knowing that others will help one to look after oneself, and this will give the individual the freedom to reciprocate, taking care of others, knowing that this is the fabric that enables human existence to not just continue, but thrive. In a competitive world, the role model one sees is to compete. If the competition is harsh, one must be harsh, or such is the feeling one gets.
Our world is a blend of these hypothetical worlds, but competition has been exalted and then spun out of control, so that the rich are in a state of desperate neurosis, while the poor are increasingly in a state simply of desperation. If we continue this way, we will destroy ourselves. And yet, this is only a small piece of the puzzle.
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