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Why do we sell them our souls?
By Charles Sullivan
10/22/05 "ICH" -- -- It is painfully obvious that America is a land
that worships the market economy. Big money is God here. Big money
is all powerful, omnipotent. All solutions, as perceived by the
captains of business, therefore, must be market based. Moreover, in
the moribund perceptions of the ruling elite, the market must be
totally unfettered. It must exist beyond the pale of conscience,
bearing no responsibility to the people, or to the earth that
sustains it. It must answer only to the bottom line and reject all
other input—a function that it has executed only too well.
From the market perspective, all of our nation’s problems spawned by
market economics are not based upon real issues; they are matters
for public relations—to be solved by public relations campaigns, not
by addressing root causes. It is about manipulating public
perceptions to serve corporate interests. In the corporate model,
the public exists as they did in Benito Mussolini’s time, to support
the fascist corporate agenda, no matter how detrimental it is to the
public interest and to the earth. As we know, corporatism—itself a
legal fiction—is succeeding only too well.
The American citizenry must reject this unhealthy perspective of the
world as a commodity for corporate plunder. We must not allow the
myth of the ‘Market as God’ to pervade the national conscience any
further. Indeed, we must begin the essential work of undoing the
immense damage that paradigm has already inflicted upon the world.
It must be forcefully and emphatically ejected from the public mind.
We cannot accept the commodification of nature without undermining
the ecology that sustains all life on planet earth. To allow such
monolithic distortions to stand is to sign our own death warrant, as
well as sounding the death knell for the majority of the planets’
flora and fauna. No economy that is based solely upon contrived
market values can long endure because every economy is in fact
underpinned by ecological capital. Sadly, this most important truth
is omitted by virtually all working economic models based upon
capitalism. The seminal work of economists John Kenneth Galbraith
and Paul Hawken are notable exceptions to this general rule. Thus,
all market economics lacking a biological and ecological component
are founded upon a false premise. And as every sane person knows,
building a house upon a bogus foundation is worse than delusional—it
is suicidal. But that is exactly what we have done; and it is what
we are continuing to do without abatement.
In my over simplified view there are three primary cultural
institutions that have fostered this malignant world view. They are
the Church, the educational system, and the corporate media.
Any economic system that is based upon market values, not ecological
science, is an exercise in self delusion; and it is doomed to
catastrophic failure. On a broader temporal scale, that system can
be nothing more than a brief flash in the pan. It will be very short
lived and will precipitate widespread destruction and ecological
calamity. Likewise, any culture that is based upon economic fable is
doomed to suffocate in its own waste and excrement. The impact of
this endless stream of waste is already being felt on a global
scale. Its ramifications are beginning to intrude upon the public
conscience. Some of its symptoms are global warming, irrevocably
altering the atmospheric chemistry, melting glaciers and rising
oceans, more intense, longer and more frequent hurricane and typhoon
seasons; unprecedented loss of habitat and associated species;
widespread deforestation; depleted fisheries and viral pandemics on
a global scale.
As a nation, we have faith in a system of economics that is neither
just nor justified. It is based upon a faith that is blind—a faith
that is deaf and dumb and numb to the suffering it causes. In order
to continue on its self destructive path, it necessarily ignores the
reality that is evolving all around it. It feeds upon the lies of
capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth and power. In the
process, it fosters the class system, the military industrial
complex; planetary resource depletion; and the specter of endless
war and all of its attendant costs, both human and ecological. Like
a marauding cancer, Capitalism is destroying its own ecological
underpinnings. It is devouring the host organism—the earth—and a
vast array of species and ecological processes upon which it too
depends. And, as with terminal caner, it is self arresting.
Like imprudent adolescents flush with the belief in our own
immortality, we are foolishly denying the existence of the laws of
gravity; while we are subject to their influence every moment of our
existence. Like every other species on earth, we are in perfect
conformity to natural law, regardless how vehemently we seek to deny
that truth. Cause and effect is always in play. Every tree bears the
fruit of its own kind and no other.
Like the cancer cell, capitalism requires endless growth; an
ecological concept that is not possible in a closed system of finite
dimensions. The only possible outcome of unrestrained growth is
certain death. Is this the path that we really want to pursue? If
so, the question must be asked: Why?
The planetary life support systems are held together by a complex,
continually evolving series of food webs that are interconnected and
interdependent. Events that occur in one part of the web reverberate
throughout all parts of the web with observable and measurable
impacts. The American Indians intuitively understood this principle.
In their sophisticated holistic belief system they gave moral value
to every plant and animal; to every river and stream and to every
rock. This spiritual belief system acknowledged the intrinsic value
of all things—both living and non-living. Therefore it required an
ethical obligation to them and demanded accountability from them its
practioneers. Capitalism, on the other hand, knows no such ethical
restraints. It views the entire planet as a commodity for the
exclusive use of humankind—usually the domain of the planet’s
wealthiest one or two percent of the population—the ruling elite. In
this denigrated purview everyone and everything else is little more
than a commodity to be used and exploited by those in power.
Extreme ideologues among religious entities have too often served to
foster the views advanced by the hubris of power, not to counter
them and to make them accountable to the people. Rampant and
exploitive capitalism can only flourish with the blessings of an
equally perverted and largely useless (from a planetary survival
perspective) moral institution such as the church. Segments of the
church, like everything in the path of unbridled capitalism, has
been devoured and perverted by capitalism. Of course, there are
notable exceptions; the work of the Quakers and the good folks at
Sojourners, and Father Thomas Berry, for example. Unlike the
fanatical evangelicals routinely given voice in the corporate media,
these wonderful people have not lost the capacity for self examining
critical thought, humility, and a world view that embraces all
beings as equals with themselves.
Another key enabling factor in the moral demise of America is our
lack of ecological education. Science, reason, and critical thinking
skills are no longer taught in our schools, if they ever were. The
public school system has become another enabler of capitalism and
planetary destruction. Under pressure from religious entities such
as fundamentalist evangelicals, and consciously under funded by the
corporate puppets in Congress, self examining critical thought is
quickly disappearing from our schools. It is being replaced by the
pseudo science of creationism and intelligent design and other faith
based hoaxes. These belief systems are dressed in the garments of
science; but they are, in fact, nothing more than the intrusion of
the church upon the state. I have no quarrel with anyone believing
whatever they wish to believe. I draw the line, however, when those
beliefs are imposed upon the public and financed by the public
treasury under the guise of public education. Church and state were
kept separate by the founding fathers for good reason.
Under the emerging belief system put forward by narrow-minded
evangelicals, demonstrable facts no longer matter. Operating under
the veil of ignorance and superstition, and dressed in the flush
garments of science, the religious ideologues have made an enormous
contribution to the dumbing down of America; the effects of which
are visible all around us. The result is that we are witnessing the
end of birth—the death of the complex ecological interconnections
that sustain all life on planet earth. In all probability we have
already crossed the Rubicon. Once loosed upon the world, there is no
putting the Genie of ecological calamity back in the bottle. We will
bear the fruits of our own self delusional labors; and it is not
going to be pretty. Not even the harmonic convergence can save us
from ourselves. There will be no escape from ecological and moral
accountability for what we are doing to the planet. The piper is
knocking on the door. He is kicking the door in. But we pretend not
to hear.
We are a nation that professes to care about our children. Yet we
are leaving them a legacy of unspeakable loss and planetary
calamity. Because of us the next fifty years and longer will be a
horrible time to be alive, unless we wake from our long stupor of
indifference and complacency and reverse these disturbing trends.
Failing this, it is our children and their offspring who will have
to deal with the result of our self delusion.
Like tactless cowards, we are allowing the ruling elite to hijack
the economy, the ecology, the religious institutions and the
educational system of our country. They rule not only through the
growing use of force and coercion—through the emerging police state;
but primarily through the judicious use of lies and propaganda,
which too many of us dutifully believe. The corporate media, as
startlingly revealed recently in the example of Judith Miller, does
not serve the principles of democracy. It serves the interests of
the rich and powerful. They are the cheerleaders for death and
delirium. Why do we lend them our ears and our minds? Why do we sell
them our souls?
Turn off the television. Listen to the sound of the wind moaning
through our devastated, liquidated forests. They are telling us
something that we desperately need to hear. Conservationist Aldo
Leopold stated: ‘The penalty of an ecological education is to live
in a world of wounds.’ But what is the penalty of ignoring those
wounds? The din of the machinery of capitalism is drowning out
something that we absolutely must pause to hear. Stop. Look. Listen.
Proceed with caution down a different path than the one that was
chosen for you by those in power. Solutions—to the extent that they
still exist—lie within the hearts and souls of those of you who read
this page and seek to know truth. To know truth is to have power.
Examine the evidence and reach your own conclusions. I hope and pray
that enough of you know what this entails. The alternative may be
more than I can bear. It may be more than any of us can bear.
Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance
writer residing in the Eastern Panhandle of geopolitical West
Virginia. He welcomes your comments at: earthdog@highstream.net.
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