The Insanity of Capitalism

[kara speltz]

Once again Boff, challenges us to look again at the insanity and disparity of capitalism. Check out the third paragraph where he lays out the inequities in detail. Kara

It is Urgent to Review the Fundamentals
Leonardo Boff
Theologian
Earthcharter Commission

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The combination of different crises, some related to the moment, others systemic, forces us all to work on two fronts: one, intra-systemic, seeking immediate solutions in order to save lives, guarantee jobs and production, and to avoid collapse. The other, trans-systemic, elaborating a rigorous critique of the theoretical fundamentals that have brought us to the present chaos, and developing others that may engender an alternative that on another level allows the continuity of the human planetary project.

Each historical epoch needs a myth that unifies people, galvanizes forces and imprints a new path to history. The founding myth of modernity rests in reason, that, since the time of the Greeks, has been the structural axis of society. Reason creates science, transforms it into techniques of intervention in nature and purports to dominate all its forces. For this, according to Francis Bacon, the founder of the scientific method, nature must be tortured until she gives up all her secrets. This reason believes in unlimited progress and creates a society that strives to be autonomous, built on order and progress. Reason presumed to foresee all, handle all, control all, organize all and create all. It occupied all the spaces. It dispatched into limbo other forms of knowledge.

Now after more than three hundred years of exaltating reason, we witness its madness, because only a reason gone mad would organize a society where 20% of the population possesses 80% of the wealth of the Earth. The three richest people in the world have assets greater than the combined wealth of the 40 poorest countries, where 600 million people live; 257 individuals alone accumulate more wealth than 2.8 trillion persons, equivalent to 45% of humanity; five thousand families in Brazil hold 46% of the national wealth. The madness of productive and consumerist reason has caused the global warming that is already bringing visible imbalances, and will decimate thousands of species, including the human race.

The dictatorship of reason has created the market society with its typical culture, a certain form of living, producing, consuming, of making science, educating, teaching and molding the collective subjectivity. These must be attuned to its dynamics and values, always seeking to maximize earnings through the marketing of everything. Now, this culture, called modern, capitalist, bourgeois, occidental, and now, globalized, has entered into crisis. It is manifested through the various current crises, all of which are expressions of one unique crisis: the crisis of fundamentals. It is not about rejecting reason, but of questioning its arrogance (hubris) and critiquing its narrowness of vision. What reason needs most at this moment is to be complemented with sensible reason (M. Maffesoli), with emotional intelligence (D. Goleman), with cordial reason (A. Cortina), with the education of the senses (J. F. Duarte Jr.), with the science of conscience (E. Morin), with spiritual intelligence (D. Zohar), with concern (D. R. Winnicott), and with caring, as I have personally been proposing for a long time.

It is the profound feeling (pathos) that lets us hear the cry of the Earth and the heartbreaking outcry of millions of starving human beings. It is not cold reason, but the sensible one, that moves people to bring those suffering down from their crosses, that they may live. This is why it is urgent to critique the dominant model of science, to radically impugn the applications that are made more in function of profit than of life, to unmask the present model of development that is unsustainable because it is highly predatory and unjust.

Sensibility, cordiality, caring, taken to all levels, with nature, in social relations and in everyday life can cement, together with reason, a utopia we can touch with our hands because it is instantly practicable. These are the fundamentals of the paradigm of a civilization that is being born, which gives us life and hope.




Leonardo Boff

[scott snedeker]

I am not surprised at the statistics except for one. There are not even 1 trillion humans on the planet! There is an estimated less than 10 billion which is less than 0.13% of the authors stated figure of 6.2 trillion (2.8trillion/.45) BTW an American trillion is a thousand American billion which is a thousand million. The British billion is a million million [1 million squared] and the British trillion is 1 million to the third power.


http://eyeful-tower.com/muse/billion.htm

Ok head hurt yet?

But Here is where I have commmon ground.

I am best categorized politically as a Libertarian Socialist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism

Certainly a more equitable distribution would contirbute to a better quality of life for miliions.

[Rick336]

It sounds to me that he might be saying that everything is screwed up and it's the rich people's fault.

I think he needs to re-write the article so that people with average intelligence (like me) can understand what he's talking about. Otherwise the message is lost on 90% of the population which defeats the whole purpose of a message that is "urgent".

BTW, the population of earth is 6.5 billion.

Rick

[Zerbie]

The author seems to be faulting reason and science for the inequities in society. That makes as much sense as faulting fire for arson.

There were inequities in society long before the 'age of reason.' In fact, one can argue that western society has become more egalitarian since the 18th century and it's 'enlightenment' and in the ensuing 'scientific' generations. Why has he left this out of his commentary?

The fault lies not with reason or with science, but with human choices. He gets close to saying so, but leaves it implicit. The question is not about what tool one uses (ie, 'reason,' versus 'caring') but with the user.

I also question his statistics. I thought world population was about 6 billion. From where is he getting this 'trillions' number?

[BruceChris]

Power attracts money, and money attracts power, and when things are insufficiently well regulated, this can get out of hand, and cause problems. And it's greed, not reason that is at work here. We don't need such high fal-oo-tin' language to tell us that.

I think that the weight of the language being used far exceeds the weight of the meaning being conveyed.

Bruce Chris

[kara speltz]

Originally Posted by BruceChris

Power attracts money, and money attracts power, and when things are insufficiently well regulated, this can get out of hand, and cause problems. And it's greed, not reason that is at work here. We don't need such high fal-oo-tin' language to tell us that.

I think that the weight of the language being used far exceeds the weight of the meaning being conveyed.

Bruce Chris

Oh, I absolutely agree with you. But it should come as no surprise that theologians don't speak english, they have their own language and I find it very difficult to plow through. But I do have a deep sense of gratitude to Boff for his liberation theology work.

Kara

[Eugene]

But it should come as no surprise that theologians don't speak english

It's always a surprise to me when academics aren't capable of communicating their thoughts. It makes me wonder whether they've chosen the wrong profession.

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by Eugene

It's always a surprise to me when academics aren't capable of communicating their thoughts. It makes me wonder whether they've chosen the wrong profession.

It's just because they're so used to talking to Each Other. Academics usually address other academics. They get so used to their jargon and inflated scholarly language, they aren't even aware that it's jargon and/or inflated scholarly language. Academia is a pretty closed world.

[Gennee]

The problem with the academians is that they live in a glass towers. Sometimes not much practicality in their thoughts or opinions. Before the Industrial Revolution, we were agrarian society where folks provided for their own.

I see some people who have been laid off are taking control of their own lives. I am a volunteer with an organization looking to create an independent media that addresses the concerns of poor and working people. What I believe is that government and business are no wonder concerned with the public's interests-only their profits and shareholders.

No system of government is perfect. It's up to us as citizens to make sure that government and business do the right thing.Gennee