Capitalism - Part II

I've decided to put the whole post together in this Part II, hoping to give a better flow in the entry. It need not be read all at one go so I have included some questions for 
thought at possible "rain shelters" on top of the already embedded questions. 

(... continued from Capitalism - Part I)
Most people adopt the utilitarian philosophy of deciding if something is morally good based on its consequences. But we do not just look at end results. What the process does to us affects us greatly too. Specifically here, capitalism shapes our desires in subtle ways we do not notice or recognise. We unsuspectingly adopt wrong desires...


Is the perpetuator really at the upper hand? 

These wrong desires enslave us to things that not only do not bring us closer in union with God but actively pulls us further from desiring God and the things of God. We often look at what an act or non-act do to someone externally. So, the people who are marginalised, starving to death, sleeping on the streets are obvious consequences. We see it, we know it. But do we notice too what the same act or non-act does to the perpetuator? 

source

The Catholic Church believes that sin contaminates the perpetuator far more than the suffering it causes to the victim. And this is so true. For instance, when I choose to hold a grudge and not forgive someone who has hurt me, what is happening within me? Am I not causing a worm to remain in me to slowly eat me up from within? My heart begins to rot. Has anyone met an unforgiving person who is happy? Do murderers strike us as wholesome and at peace? Are they not suffering behind their facades too? Does not gossiping further reinforce one's negative feelings towards the other, making us become more forgetful that we are called to love even our enemies? 

Yet, the person who forgives whether or not the forgiven appreciates it is the one at peace. It is the one who continues to care despite being misunderstood and backstabbed who is at peace, despite being hurt. Because that hurt will be filled in by God's love that flows into the person who empties himself out. It isn't enough to look at an act in itself but to search deeper for what it is doing to a person (the not-so-obvious).

The obvious about capitalism...

Having looked at the fact that what happens externally does affect our interiors, we can look more closely at capitalism. We know that capitalism has been the cause of exploitation. We hear of stories of children being paid low wages for hard labour, farmers who never seem to get out of their poverty cycle because the big players pit these poor farmers against one another to offer their products at the lowest price in the aim of winning the bid. Sometimes, they even go below their production cost. The poverty cycle never breaks. 

The not-so-obvious...

But what does capitalism also do to the very people who thrive in it and are successful? How have they responded to God's invitation to love their neighbours? For companies to persist in burning up lands in Indonesia to clear it for the next crop generation, despite knowing fully well the consequences it has on the lives of people in their country and beyond like in Singapore, the damage it will cause to the ozone layer, contributing to the rise of global temperatures, ice caps melting, sea level rising, lost of animal habitats, destruction of costal homes... and yet they still do it because it is the cheapest and fastest way of clearing the land... ultimately, to save cost, increase profit margins. 

To me, this burning is obviously bad because I suffer the consequences the haze causes to my health every year. The implications to the environment are obvious. Perhaps, these people continue to do this because they have not yet realised what it is doing to their own selves. What has capitalism done to them if not to taint and harden their hearts to the point of such indifference towards humanity? What about the people who continue to produce cigarettes even though they know it will definitely harm people's bodies, affect family life? What about those who build casinos even though they need no further evidence that addictions WILL happen and destroy family life? What about those who claim to be life-savers but are in the medical field because it pays well and puts them on a pedestal? Nothing bad it seems. They get the money and the prestige, feel good that they can save lives (though they are helpless in 'hopeless' cases), people get cured. No bad external consequences. A win-win situation. But what is happening within? What are all these doing to the image and likeness of God in these human persons who have only one goal in mind - profit? 

Some reflections for consideration:
What are the beliefs the Church teaches that you find difficult to accept because you cannot understand what is so wrong about it? Take some time to reevaluate these beliefs, attitudes and actions to examine what could these do to a person, to you, interiorly. 




Capitalism does not involve me... does it?

Special thanks to Fr. Chris, SJ for this video
an excerpt of David Foster Wallace's commencement speech
Kenyon College 2005

Well, many of us aren't at the two ends of capitalism. We don't hold the market power and we aren't the farmers at the other end. We are the consumers who actually hold the power that keeps these big players in business, and the poor people in their poverty cycle. We stand in between these 2; we are their link. We don't really think too much about what we buy, why we are buying, who defines my needs, what defines my identity. Since we are not in the top management of the multinational companies, we are quite powerless and helpless. Not true at all. If we resist being manipulated by capitalism, who can these companies produce for? Maybe it is just you and I now against the tides but slowly, we build awareness, like what I am trying to do in this post. One person at a time. We start by evaluating our habits and desires, by bearing witness to the truth that we need not give in to capitalism. "Resistance is possible."

But again, we see no harm. Because the companies produce, I buy what I want, those poor people are given jobs in production lines, farmers are able to sell their produces to someone at least... everyone seems to somehow get by. More good than harm. Utilitarianism. Judging a situation based on its outcomes. As consumers, it isn't just about a simple act of buying. In that buying of what we do not actually need, we are allowing our desires to be reshaped and reshaped by capitalism. Because we don't think about capitalism often and deeply enough, it has seeped into our lives far more successfully than we are aware, bringing a destruction that we don't realise. 

It seems to me that capitalism thrives on individualism and further emphasises it to make itself even more successful. The emphasis on the "I", making the "me" far more elevated and important that "me" really is. And it contradicts head-on with what John the Baptist said, "He must increase, I decrease."

Our focus shifts further and further away each time from the one true desire - God. Opens the doorway to overindulgence, greed, gluttony, lust to satisfy the senses. It becomes about my feeling good. "Happiness is understood as pleasure, the absence of pain." (J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism, C. 11, p. 257) Suffering is perceived as a curse, a punishment. I get angry with God who allows me to suffer. I lose faith in a God who leaves me in the lurch. In possessing and allowing possessions to define who we are, pride steps in, jealous of what others have that I do not have. Anger at my life situation, at an unfair God who gives more to some and less to me. And the list doesn't end here. 

The question to ask is what is this seemingly harmless consumerism doing to my life's focus and goal? What are we doing to ourselves as we strive to accumulate more certificates, qualifications? What is the message that we are sending ourselves and reinforcing daily without our awareness, if not that God is not enough? God does not satisfy. Rather than placing my happiness and securities in God, it seems safer and more rewarding to have these tangible things. That being a child of God is not precious enough, not good enough to define who I am, not good enough a reason for me to walk with my head held up. Instead of claiming this sonship, I choose instead to constantly work hard to earn a reputation, sustain my image, a place in society, a status to claim what I am worth, to accumulate more so that my head can be held higher and higher, so that I don't need to hang my head low or feel intimidated and lesser when I meet someone else who has more than I have. What are we saying to ourselves when we give in to this apparently harmless capitalism? 

Capitalism is bad.

It is not the final consequence that defines whether or not it is good. For the author of this book, Daniel M. Bell Jr., wrote, "In other words, the problem with capitalism is not simply that it may not work but that even if it does increase aggregate wealth, even if it made everyone on the planet a millionaire tomorrow, it is still wrong and to be opposed because of what it does to human desire and human sociality." Capitalism "actively works against the divine will for the renewal of communion with God and humanity." The author questions further, "With our economic lives ordered by capitalism, are we able to worship God truly? Are we able to desire God and the gifts of God as we ought?"

A means or an end?

The economic order, capitalism, as with all other things in life, must serve us in bringing us towards our life goal. We are not made to serve economy and capitalism. As Jesus taught us, the sabbath is made for Man, not Man made for the sabbath. The sabbath is meant to help us pause in our busyness to recall and give thanks to God for all the goodness He has showered upon us. Man took it literally that it is wrong to work and became anal about it. Wrong order of things. And so it is with the economy. We are not called to be slaves to economy, even if society says so. Our freedom need not be inhibited. Economy, its economic order - capitalism - must serve Man and take its proper place as a means, not an end. One cannot be the slaves of 2 masters. We cannot have more than one ends. We will love one and hate the other. 

Some reflections for consideration:
Which master have you been serving? 
Which master do you want? 

The Ignatian tradition speaks about being in the world but not being of the world. We can be in the global capitalist society and yet not be shaped by it. 

Do you believe that this is possible for you?