Who Will Pay the Bill?
During the past sixty-five years, I have believed in the virtues of peace, fairness, and honesty, which has tended to keep me at odds with the foul prerogatives of capitalism. It is my confirmed view that human values should, in every instance, be given absolute precedence over any considerations of private wealth or corporate advantage. Such precedence clearly is demanded by the common precepts of essential morality. I have learned, however, that money rules with unquestioned power, which means that those who have the greatest amount of money usually are able to get anything and everything they want, in defiance of both expense and equity, while those with lesser amounts of money get little or nothing.
It seems that I have not been able to "succeed" in life mainly because my own desire for money was never strong enough. In our capitalist world, in which money is the only thing that matters to most people, greed is the driving force in all realms of human experience, but extreme affluence never appealed to me. I understood, early in life, that having too much money (and having too much of what money can buy) always results in corruption, and, however quaint it might sound in the 21st century (a time in which shameless corruption is a chosen way of life for both the upper crust and the greedy masses), I did not want to be corrupted.
I have observed, to my deep repugnance, that most people are quite willing to surrender themselves to the worthless delights of comfortable avarice. Even after many years of daily observation, it still sickens me to see that so many people, including those who are highly educated and therefore should be inclined to make wiser choices, are so witlessly eager to embrace a hollow life of upscale slavery, turning off their brains as they abandon their integrity and happily yield to the fraudulent joy of being an ardent consumer (and, of course, a perpetual debtor). Such are the empty rewards of living the capitalist dream. As Peggy Lee once sang, "Is that all there is?"
Most people prefer convenience to compassion, even if that convenience is achieved through heinous actions. Few people will consent to make any concessions that might require them to renounce the habits of ease to which they have become accustomed. For those who seek to attain riches, accepting a world of grievous wrongs is preferable to the prospect of having much less of what they desire in their own lives. They refuse to support any policy that aims to create a more just community, because to do so would threaten their own self-interest. Poverty and hunger blight the world not because it has been divinely ordained by a callous deity, but rather, because affluent people prefer it to be that way.
It is hardly a startling insight on my part, but I hold that the pursuit of wealth is, in all situations, an unfailing cause of evil. Over the course of my lifetime, I have seen nearly everyone around me either using others for their own selfish purposes or permitting themselves to be used, all in the filthy name of greed. It is a moral disease that, in the end, is certain to drag humanity ever downward, into an inescapable pit of wholesale destruction. Generations of weak-minded fools have thoughtlessly enjoyed the vulgar luxuries of brute capitalism, but there is one question that remains to be answered. Who will pay the bill?
In moments of idle curiosity, I am frequently prone to wondering how everyone will cope when all the current delusions have irreparably broken down, and the perverted fantasy of eternal abundance, having recklessly expended itself in a wanton manner, cannot be sustained any longer. It is, admittedly, difficult to know what might actually happen when the loathsome mania of prosperity wanes, as it inevitably must, and the attendant jollity finally comes to a sour end, but I suspect that whatever does happen will not be a pretty sight. As dreadful reckonings go, it promises to be an extremely harsh comeuppance for all concerned, probably harsh enough to inspire wild-eyed despair even in the most determined advocate of free markets.
Within the open sewer of capitalism, "progress" is a clumsy illusion and "democracy" is a bitter falsehood. The world is, in truth, controlled by the ruthless villainy of banks and corporations whose vile deeds are above and beyond the law. If mankind is to have any chance of survival, it will be necessary for the plague of capitalism to be eradicated, completely and permanently, from the face of the earth. Unfortunately, most people have been conditioned to fear and scorn the radical change that is so urgently needed, allowing familiar patterns of thievery, deception, and excess to be continually repeated, with no apparent hope of deliverance.
It seems that I have not been able to "succeed" in life mainly because my own desire for money was never strong enough. In our capitalist world, in which money is the only thing that matters to most people, greed is the driving force in all realms of human experience, but extreme affluence never appealed to me. I understood, early in life, that having too much money (and having too much of what money can buy) always results in corruption, and, however quaint it might sound in the 21st century (a time in which shameless corruption is a chosen way of life for both the upper crust and the greedy masses), I did not want to be corrupted.
I have observed, to my deep repugnance, that most people are quite willing to surrender themselves to the worthless delights of comfortable avarice. Even after many years of daily observation, it still sickens me to see that so many people, including those who are highly educated and therefore should be inclined to make wiser choices, are so witlessly eager to embrace a hollow life of upscale slavery, turning off their brains as they abandon their integrity and happily yield to the fraudulent joy of being an ardent consumer (and, of course, a perpetual debtor). Such are the empty rewards of living the capitalist dream. As Peggy Lee once sang, "Is that all there is?"
Most people prefer convenience to compassion, even if that convenience is achieved through heinous actions. Few people will consent to make any concessions that might require them to renounce the habits of ease to which they have become accustomed. For those who seek to attain riches, accepting a world of grievous wrongs is preferable to the prospect of having much less of what they desire in their own lives. They refuse to support any policy that aims to create a more just community, because to do so would threaten their own self-interest. Poverty and hunger blight the world not because it has been divinely ordained by a callous deity, but rather, because affluent people prefer it to be that way.
It is hardly a startling insight on my part, but I hold that the pursuit of wealth is, in all situations, an unfailing cause of evil. Over the course of my lifetime, I have seen nearly everyone around me either using others for their own selfish purposes or permitting themselves to be used, all in the filthy name of greed. It is a moral disease that, in the end, is certain to drag humanity ever downward, into an inescapable pit of wholesale destruction. Generations of weak-minded fools have thoughtlessly enjoyed the vulgar luxuries of brute capitalism, but there is one question that remains to be answered. Who will pay the bill?
In moments of idle curiosity, I am frequently prone to wondering how everyone will cope when all the current delusions have irreparably broken down, and the perverted fantasy of eternal abundance, having recklessly expended itself in a wanton manner, cannot be sustained any longer. It is, admittedly, difficult to know what might actually happen when the loathsome mania of prosperity wanes, as it inevitably must, and the attendant jollity finally comes to a sour end, but I suspect that whatever does happen will not be a pretty sight. As dreadful reckonings go, it promises to be an extremely harsh comeuppance for all concerned, probably harsh enough to inspire wild-eyed despair even in the most determined advocate of free markets.
Within the open sewer of capitalism, "progress" is a clumsy illusion and "democracy" is a bitter falsehood. The world is, in truth, controlled by the ruthless villainy of banks and corporations whose vile deeds are above and beyond the law. If mankind is to have any chance of survival, it will be necessary for the plague of capitalism to be eradicated, completely and permanently, from the face of the earth. Unfortunately, most people have been conditioned to fear and scorn the radical change that is so urgently needed, allowing familiar patterns of thievery, deception, and excess to be continually repeated, with no apparent hope of deliverance.