Economics Maintains Our Broken Whole
The fundamental reason that we cannot recreate the original whole of society is our economic system. When we try, and millions try in their personal lives, and while social movements have in the past tried to remake our culture, our business and financial institutions hold us back. We can identify many different factors from behaviors like selfishness and alienation to corruption in government to bad media and entertainment and so on, but the essential problem, the main problem is corporations, money, profit, greed. These factors maintain the broken whole of history, and they sabotage attempts at fixing this whole. The condition is debilitating to our economy. The system wants a select part to dominate us, to create its own version of a “whole” – a whole founded in the narrow and singular value of a dollar. This is the part as whole, its currency as whole, its one value expanded to the whole value of a civilization.
Modern capitalism has completely separated itself from society. Corporations stand outside of the community and exploit it for profit. The core issue and dynamic is money, pursuing money alone destroys all other Human values by simply ignoring them or subverting them.. The original village was a whole and its values were a collection of many needs goals and ideals. Today new metrics and new money must participate in a whole of measure; all of our values must be addressed.
The current corporation attacks and undermines all other social institutions – government, healthcare, charity, education, national defense, church, art, entertainment, communication, and even sports. The strategy is either the abuse or neglect of people. And the strategy is to stunt or privatize institutions, if profit can be seen in potential. The result of this process is mass poverty, a huge income disparity, lack of equity and power. For the middle class there appears a culture of consumerism. Another result is a population that is sickly, and mental health issues abound. We see addictions and alienation, and entertainment that deludes and distracts.
Capitalism created economic classes, the division of labor was fixed into a system of ownership by one class and lack of ownership by another class. What was a division of labor issue became a “class” issue, no democratic solutions to this problem were allowed.
In this economic evolution “work” itself became redefined. Work became working for someone else, producing what they wanted, what they thought was necessary for the market. Individuals had to suppress their inner drives and creativity; they had to perform boring and painful tasks while receiving no gratitude or rewards. And there was no democratic consensus or vision on the necessary work to fulfill the community’s real needs. The “worker” appeared in history and she and he were supposed to replace the full Human being.
Consumption also took a strange turn in history. No longer did we consume only what we truly needed, we consumed for the purpose of consumption itself. We sought higher and higher levels of consumption with no regard for real personal needs or real community needs or the needs of our natural environment. Corporations spread “desire” and these negate true need indefinitely.
Education originally served to prepare the young, it was transformed from an all-rounded curriculum in ancient times to the modern system of education designed to serve the corporation. Issues such as emotions, psychology, self identity and creativity are of no use to the modern economic system, in fact, teaching children about these issues might impede the course of consumerism and Polythea.
Government arose and it stood apart from society and its citizens. In the tribe there was a democratic forum, issues were debated, tasks were assigned. But now bureaucracy appears, and government exists for the sole purpose of perpetuating itself. Political professionals developed, they made decisions while the ordinary person was completely left out. When representative democracy emerged, we found out that the representatives merely represented themselves. Bribes were taken, voters were manipulated, citizens fell into apathy. The game of political parties is endless. And the root force of the game is money in the political process. While our ancestors learned that State and Religion must be separate, we have not yet learned of the separation of Money and State.
The break up of the original tribal community led to a standing war within it and alienation of the citizens from all other communities. These attitudes and perceptions are applied outside the community; they are visited upon the “foreigner”. Thus, the result is alienation from the planet, from all Humankind. And war against other nations for whatever reason is convenient for the moment -- race, religion, culture, ideology, economic threat, cuisine, dress, accent.
With no solidarity at home, none was felt toward those beyond home. The notions of one Human race, one species, one family, one Human being, one people, one community, one planet, unity of Humankind have no appeal.
What of the Environment and Nature? There is one great subsume of this planet, of Humans and Nature, of Co-genio. But our focus became the delusions of culture and consumerism. Nature was forgotten. It is exploited then pillaged and poisoned. Living in modern cities disconnects one from Nature. People do not see, do not want to see what they are doing. Many have assured themselves that because they like Disney animations and have pets then they must be good people -- meanwhile a great slaughter takes place just miles from their cozy suburban homes. Behind all this is an economic system that makes profit by destroying our environment, a system that cannot stop itself, even though it is in the end committing suicide.
When the village dissolved the family began its long descent into fragmentation. The first event was the break up the extended family of the tribe so essential in the raising of children. Next, appeared the lonely “nuclear family” -- which became the core social unit in a hostile modern world. Heaped upon the nuclear family, upon mom and dad, was a daunting set of tasks and responsibilities, in addition to working demanding jobs. While others in the community pursued their selfish goals of money, power and war. The struggling family unit had to substitute itself for the energy and services of the tribal extended family. As with many issues, neglect was the strategy of the elites, but the family suffered and endured out of great love and powerful obligation.
And now in our modern period, this nuclear bit is dissolving leaving child rearing solely as a task for women. America is at the cutting edge of this trend of social fragmentation, demonstrating a new stage of separation between men and women. We are at last at the final stage of the family: The single working mom. It should become clear that we must return to the old idea and create new forms of the extended family to recover the task of child rearing by the whole community.
The true community of city or town does not exist, the tribal village was a community of unity and support; here we knew everyone including our leaders. But the modern community is inhabited with strangers and factions; its root motives are money and power; and no one is to be trusted. Today greater powers have taken the lion’s share of resources leaving the local community in poverty. In new communities could be new models of consumption, new ritual, new extended family, a new relationship with Nature, new social activism, and social work to help the less fortunate.
Science and technology long left the community, long ago it broke with the social whole. Today science and technology operate for profit without a care for Human beings or animals or Nature. This kind of science and technology has no morality, it thinks that morality is not for it, that it is “extra-moral” and “objective” -- but that is just another form of immorality because nothing is beyond good and evil.
Science believes that it exists in itself and for itself, outside of the community. This kind of clinical, dispassionate science is dangerous, look around at its work.
The enlightenment brought us the religion of science, an objective truth discovered through experiment and scientific method; however this ideology was only partly true. Science can never act without ethics, objective science is a fallacy. It must act within a social whole of which it is only one part, and it must operate with a whole set of values and not the narrow and amputated notions of pure science.
The Enlightenment is now at its stage of the “Twilight-enment”. Who will forgive the corporate scientist who poisons the community, invents war tools, plans for accidents, and puts a price tag on Human life?
All of these things above result from the actions of our economic system upon our Social Diverse. The whole can never be united in this condition. This forces us to rethink economics, business, finance and money. When we can conceive of a new kind of economic system then we can also bring our social and psychological whole back together.
Axxiad News