More Rants

Today, I want to write about how the capitalist notion of globalization diminishes all of us as full, well-developed human beings. First, I want to clear up any objections anyone has about my being anti-capitalist. I am not anti-capitalist. I am, however, anti-“one philosophy meets every human need and aspiration.” Life and its demands are far too complex to be “answered” by a single ideological concept. In human history nearly as many different ways to approach life and succeed have existed as humans. A successful human life is successful because the consciousness aware of that life has met and experienced a joyful outcome to an existential challenge. When the followers of a one-size-fits-all “ism” or “ity” become so powerful that the rest of humanity must accommodate those beliefs in order to simply survive a serious imbalance is in evidence and should be resisted in as many ways as possible. Corporate Capitalism is an economic practice that has become a political ideology after the set back western socialism experienced with the fall of the Russian Soviet socialist dictatorship. That Soviet socialism offered beneficial survival strategies for those living under its influence is evidenced in the rapid political and economic recovery of Russia after the economic collapse of the Soviet empire. For those of us living within the influence of 21st century Corporate Capitalism the time required to recover from such a collapse as that experienced by the citizens of the late Soviet Republic would be far greater, if we could recover at all.

Although hardcore capitalists will deny the following truth, Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels clearly nailed the relationship between the organization of the means of economic production and the resulting human social order. How we manage the resources, both human and non-human, needed to produce and distribute the goods we all need to live both is shaped by the society in which those goods are produced and distributed and eventually reshapes it. The US and the UK are the two oldest practitioners of capitalism as a national economic policy. Over the years capitalism has taken many different forms but the single distinguishing characteristic of the private possession of excess monetary resources for capital investment remains constant in all the forms of capitalism practiced by the US and the UK. I think a strong argument can be made for the connection between the practice of capitalism in these cultures and the development of competitive individualistic societies. Capitalists embrace competition among participants as a central feature of capitalism. However, capitalism has little to do with competition. Capitalism does, however, thrive amongst competitive Alpha humans who actively seek to acquire and hold the excess monetary resources necessary for capitalism to work. Money is a satisfactory substitute for ears, horns, and other body parts once displayed by Alpha males in earlier societies as signs of their physical, and therefore, social superiority over other males. Thus, capitalism blends easily with the symbols and practices of a political and social elite that claims superiority by the right of divine trial. Those of us not in possession of excess resources become lost in the daily struggle to simply survive. We are forced to exchange our labor for survival goods.

Humans have long since developed a civic infrastructure that negates the necessity of the biological survival drive for species preservation that underscores competitive behavior. In fact, competitive behavior could very easily provide the force needed to fuel the lemming-like tendency of self destruction that seems to be the hallmark of contemporary empire building. Capitalism by its very nature is ultra conservative in its practices. Capitalism encourages ultraconservative behavior as a safeguard against the loss of the excess economic resources that make capitalism possible. Tried and proven strategies are the preferred strategies of capitalistic investors. Prior to the environmentally destructive practices of late twentieth century industrialism, the only real fall out of this consequence of capitalist economies was confined to creating human misery. The American reform movements of the early twentieth century were direct responses to the abuses of unbridled market capitalism in the late nineteenth century that bred such monsters as Diamond Jim Brady, John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Today, the consequences are far greater. Contemporary industrial practices are literally depopulating and defoliating the Earth. As China becomes an economic giant its water, earth and air are becoming less and less supportive of any life, let alone human life. The inherent ultraconservative behavior of capitalism is magnified in capitalism’s latest manifestation, Corporate Capitalism. Until a sure fire profit is seen in green conservation practices, global corporate capitalists, whether clothed as private industry executives or single party national dictatorships, the deforestation of our continents, the depopulation of wildlife and the oceans, and the gradual poisoning of our atmosphere and water in the pursuit of private profit will continue.

As a species, our biological success is the result of our natural ability for rational thought. We have survived through the development of abstract systems of thought, not physical prowess like, say, the alligator. However, those systems of thought have collided head on with the biological drives that were once necessary for species survival in an indifferent environment where the competition for survival among all life forms was dependent upon either sheer, overwhelming numbers of individuals or superior predatory power. The adaptive, survival behavior of humans of developing abstract systems of thought to dominate a given threat to survival has placed the very source of our survival in danger. As a species, we now dominate the very source of all that is necessary for our physical lives. As is our want, we have fetishized our desires and transmogrified a system of thought into a first premise truth of human life. The actual truth Corporate Capitalism is finally bringing to life is that as a species we all must work together to survive or we shall all die together.

Enough with the Police

I dithered all week about what to write for the blog. My initial thought was to write about preparing for the coming economic collapse, and make no mistake a collapse is coming. I read a very good analysis of the United States' ability to survive a total economic collapse like the one the old Soviet Union suffered with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The analysis is performed by Dmitry Orlov and entitled, “Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US.” (Orlovv's analysis may be found at http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259) Orlov's work caused me to think about how to prepare for the coming US collapse and, perhaps, help it appear a little more quickly, since I am convinced such an economic collapse would ultimately be in the best interests of the survival of American democracy.

However, as I drove into work today everywhere I turned I encountered a cop who, in each case, scrutinized my car as I passed to make sure I was wearing a seat belt and my turn signals, etc. worked (It’s a very old car in need of new paint). I truly dislike police. The role of police in the US has changed from a force of officers held in check by a federal system of checks and balances on their power to a force of adrenalin junkies underwritten by federal laws designed to fund a series of poorly conceived federal initiatives, such as the disastrous “war on drugs.” A strong statement? Not in my experience. I grew up on the ‘wrong side of the tracks” (what the ghetto for poverty stricken whites was called in the ‘50s) and saw more than my share of the abuse of power by “law enforcement” officers. Once I hit puberty, I was routinely stopped, searched and questioned for “walking while poor.” When I was in my twenties I was arrested twice for “vagrancy,” locked in a cell and cavity searched, released without an apology or an explanation when no drugs were found. Trust me. The anger and humiliation of such treatment never leaves you. I can not imagine the anger I would feel if I’d had to experience racial prejudice along with the humiliation. When I reached my thirties I was working for the local newspaper and my association with the counter power of the public press brought most of those arbitrary humiliations to a stop. I say ‘most’ because the legal system never forgets your past, even when it has no reason to remember. One of my arrests for “vagrancy” forty years ago routinely appears on criminal background checks, even though the court dismissed the charges as unfounded after a preliminary hearing.

Today, the threat of law enforcement’s power is flaunted by those in power. Enforcement campaigns that threaten “We will catch you” rather than advise against detrimental behavior have a disturbingly Big Brother note to them. Because of seat belt laws if you drive an older car you will be closely scrutinized by law enforcement officers every time you drive by one. If you have the misfortune to park near a manned cruiser or to be stopped for some small traffic infraction your vehicle will be scrutinized for “drug possession” indicators. All actions that, in my opinion, violate traditional American practices concerning the relationship between the individual and state power.


All of this gives testimony to the growth of what the Critical Resistance movement calls the “prison industrial complex.” (The Critical Resistance movement website may be found at http://www.criticalresistance.org) The US has the largest percentage of its population behind bars than any other country in the world, and that includes some of the most repressive dictatorships known to humanity. As a country we imprison more of our youth than any other couintry in the world in order to "make the streets safe." Even though study after study has convincingly shown that crime rates rise and fall in close coordination to the employment rate of young males between the ages of 18 and 25, law enforcement administrators and politicians still scream for a need for more law enforcement officers to curb the “rising crime rate.”

As citizens, we need to recall law enforcement initiatives that have clearly failed, such as the war on drugs, and reevaluate our legal and social priorities. We can not change human behavior by imprisoning those with little hope or little education. If private individuals were to act in response to negative human behavior in the way our government does they would summarily be arrested for physical abuse. Where's the justice?