An interesting article from The Guardian ended up in my Inbox this morning, courtesy of my Google Alert for “Jesus Is A Capitalist.”
Leaders at Davos (Switzerland) could do with some religious instruction.
Actually, this article was making a side argument, that capitalism is the de facto religion of the Western world.
Agreed. (A-greed?)
Some of the money quotes:
The capitalist economy redefines the sacred in ways that destroy the sanctity of life and land. Capital, which is disembedded from social relations and civic bonds, sunders material objects from their moral meaning and symbolic significance. This also has the effect of separating responsibility from both risk-taking and reward. In the pursuit of wealth, capitalism disconnects getting rich from doing good.
(My italics.)
And:
Faiths enjoin their followers to impose ethical and civic limits on the activity of businesses. The prohibition of gambling and usurious interests rates are not merely matters of private choice but must be applied to global finance in the public interest.
The alternative is not automatically socialism, as any critique of capitalism is countered. The alternative is limits.
“Limits” is a dirty word in current discourse. But it seems to me self-evident: left to its own devices, the pure capitalist/Ayn Rand/Tea Party form of capitalism is rapacious and Darwinian.
(Interesting that many of its proponents do not believe in Darwin.)
Maybe Calvin was on to something.
Whole article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/26/leaders-at-davos-religious-instruction
Ways to follow: