Thursday, July 23, 2015

Transforming Universal Guilt into Universal Innocence

One can behold in capitalism a religion, that is to say, capitalism essentially serves to free us from the same worries, anguish, and disquiet for which so-called religion formerly provided the answer. ... Capitalism is presumably the first case of a blaming, rather than a repenting cult. ... An enormous feeling of guilt not itself knowing how to repent, grasps at the cult, not in order to repent for this guilt, but to make it universal, to hammer it into consciousness and finally and above all to include God himself in this guilt.
Walter Benjamin
Abrahamic religions demand we repent for our greed and selfishness and attempt to rule our lives based on nobler feelings we find in our souls. The cult of capitalism, on the other hand, intends to make greed and selfishness the new virtues. Mercy is a defect in the judge who must enforce mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes. Kindness is a defect in the employee whom it distracts from ruthlessly pursuing the advantage of his employer. What we once called noble sentiments are now forms of flakiness and irresponsibility. Our duty is no longer to God and the image of virtue He inspires in our souls. Our duty is to order our lives in accordance with the demands of the market. If repentance is called for, it is not we who must repent, but rather God must repent for allowing sentiments not conducive to economic efficiency to have so much influence in the souls of His creatures.

When I insist on repenting for my greed and selfishness, I become a nuisance to the cult of capitalism, which intends these sentiments to be fuel for the engine of economic progress. Why shouldn't I join everyone else in degrading my mind into a machine for ruthlessly calculating and exploiting my own self-interest? Do I think I'm special? My refusal to be selfish, from the point of view of the cult of capitalism, is a form of selfishness.

The best way to assure ourselves greed and selfishness are acceptable is to look around us and see that everyone accepts them. Even a single dissenter threatens this system for transforming universal guilt into universal innocence.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The Premises of Commerce

The two fundamental premises on which commerce is based are:
1. Some human beings own things.

2. Only those human beings who offer me things in exchange are worthy of my help.
Premise 1 is something we accept as a social convention, without argument or evidence, and may turn out to be as false as the premise of an earlier age that human beings own other human beings.

Premise 2 is false. And we all know very well it is false. Commercial activities help customers who can pay and ignore those who can't. But we all know very well those who can pay very often lack the human qualities (kindness, mercy, humility) that make them worthy of help. We all know very well those who have nothing to offer us in return for our help are often the ones who could benefit most from it and are most worthy of it on account of their human virtues.

We all know the premises on which commerce is based are false and unconscionable. And yet we continue to participate. Why?

The Essenes, an early Jewish community, understood that to assent to the false premises of commerce would be a violation of intellectual and moral conscience, a betrayal of all that was highest in themselves. They refused to participate, and withdrew into an isolated community in the desert.

The Buddha advised his disciples to live a restrained and simple life, contenting themselves with a minimum of food, refusing all forms of entertainment and adornment. He advised them to help all sentient beings find the path to the end of suffering, demanding nothing in return. He told his monks to beg for food, proving their worthiness to be fed by showing their virtue to the world, not by offering things in exchange.

Early Christian communities described in the Book of Acts shared all things in common. The first step in joining these communities was to sell all possessions and give to the poor. These early Christians recognized that human beings do not, never have, and never will own things. All things belong to God. The first step on the path to righteousness is to reject the false and corrupt premises of commerce.

To participate in commerce is not only a betrayal of religious values, but also a betrayal of secular values. Science demands we accept no statement as true without persuasive arguments and and compelling evidence. As the greatest leaders in the medical profession recognize, decisions about care shouldn't be made on the basis of what consumers demand and are willing to pay for. They should be made on the basis of objective scientific reasoning. Doctors with the highest standards of scientific integrity insist on objectively assessing what is best for the health of patients. Why is medicine the only secular profession where this ethic has any influence? Why do so many other professions decide whom to help and what to offer based on the false and arbitrary norms of commerce, rather than the objective norms of science?

The cynical part of me knows the ways of the world, and tells me I must adapt to them in order to survive. But must I really? Great saints and sages defy the ways of the world. Religious communities are founded on principled rejection of the ways of the world. Heroes of the medical profession objectively assess what is best for their patients in defiance of the norms of commerce. Don't these examples show all too clearly that the cynical part of me is dead wrong? The cynical voice claims to be the voice of truth, free of all mythology and self-deception. But isn't it in fact just another form of self-deception, which panders to my intellectual and moral indolence, my cowardice, intemperance and gluttony? Cynicism presents itself as a realistic, scientific acknowledgment of the depravity of others, but in fact it's only a cowardly acquiescence to my own.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Honest Toil


In a world as corrupt as ours, there's no such thing as honest toil. By working for the greedy parasites who own the means of production, who live in pomp and luxury while the poor suffer, we make ourselves complicit in their inhumanity. What we toil to produce isn't goods and services that actually help those in need. It's luxury for the idle rich. The premise of all our toil is that the selfish men and women who insist on living in luxury while the poor suffer should be given what they want and the poor who beg for our help should be ignored. It's a gruesome premise. We treat those who lack money as if poverty were somehow a defect in character. We pamper the wealthy as if money, and not virtue, could inspire our respect.

When I give a homeless man a dollar, he's far more likely to spend it on liquor than on food. What he needs isn't the resources to continue his dissolute life. What he needs is help overcoming his vices. The same is true of our economic system. By reporting to work Monday morning, I imagine I'm helping my fellow men and women. But what the system produces isn't used to feed the hungry. It's used to build mansions for the wealthy. The economic system, just like the homeless man, doesn't need more resources. It needs to be taught to overcome its vices and use the resources it has more wisely. My diligent toil doesn't benefit my society any more than the dollar I give to the homeless man benefits him.

Renounce all attachment to worldly things. Stop working for the greedy tyrants who rule the world of the flesh. Take no thought for your body, for what you will eat, for what you will wear. Your fleshly life will descend into squalor and chaos, to be sure, but there is no alternative. You can't work for the vile system of greed without sanctioning its values.

Anything you do to help the vile parasites who own the means of production is a stamp of approval for them and their greed. Perhaps your renunciation of the world of greed will inspire others to follow you, and the vile system of greed will finally collapse. Tyrants rely on our cowardly concern for our flesh to compel us to obey them. Once we despise our own flesh, they can command us all they want, and we will sit quietly and ignore them.

When Jesus began recruiting fishermen to his ministry, he didn't teach them to keep fishing and come visit him on Sunday. He taught them to leave their nets behind and follow him. The fish they caught weren't going to feed the poor. They were adorning the tables of the idle rich. By continuing their work, Peter, Andrew, James and John were making themselves complicit in the vile inhumanity of a system that feeds those who can pay and allows the poor to starve.

Even if a trickle of charity does indeed escape from the vast boiling cauldron of greed, why should the poor be content with a trickle? Why should I be content to work for a system that produces no more than a trickle? Love and charity must be the principles that rule my entire soul, not just an evening diversion after I have sated my fleshly desires.

By renouncing my lucrative position in the system of greed, of course I renounce my opportunity to use the booty for charitable purposes. But a system which pampers the rich and allows the poor to starve is a system of organized crime. Participating in it makes me a criminal. What act of charity can atone for this?
Hillel stood in the gate of Jerusalem one day and saw the people on their way to work. "How much," he asked, "will you earn today?"​ One said: "A denarius"; the second: "Two denarii." "What will you do with the money?" he inquired. "We will provide for the necessities of life." Then he said to them: "Would you not rather come and make the Torah your possession, that you may possess both this world and the world to come?"
The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 6, p. 399
Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed Jesus.
Mark 1:16-20
‘Suppose there were a man, a slave, a labourer, getting up before you and going to bed after you, willingly doing whatever has to be done, well-mannered, pleasant-spoken, working in your presence. And he might think: … “I ought to do something meritorious. Suppose I were to shave off my hair and beard, don yellow robes, and go forth from the household life into homelessness!” And before long he does so. And he, having gone forth might dwell, restrained in body, speech and thought, satisfied with the minimum of food and clothing, content, in solitude. And then if people were to announce to you: “Sire, you remember that slave who worked in your presence, and who shaved off his hair and beard and went forth into homelessness? He is living restrained in body, speech and thought, in solitude”—would you then say: “That man must come back and be a slave and work for me as before”?'

‘No indeed, Lord. For we should pay homage to him, we should rise and invite him and press him to receive from us robes, food, lodging, medicines for sickness and requisites, and make arrangements for his proper protection.’
Gautama Buddha, Digha Nikaya, M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 2, verse 35, p. 97

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Awareness Reuptake Inhibitors

A patient goes to his doctor complaining his life feels futile and pointless. The friendly physician is eager to help. She can offer drugs that inhibit reuptake of various neurotransmitters. But perhaps the neurotransmitters are working just fine, and the unfortunate patient has simply discovered the truth.

A life worth living is a life spent pursuing virtue and wisdom. Such a life demands we seek virtuous teachers who can impart the wisdom accumulated by the human race. The depressed patient has finally figured out he is squandering his life. He obeys unwise rulers during the day. He is entertained by unwise athletes and actors in the evening. He gives no attention to moral and intellectual improvement. Having realized something is wrong, he goes to a doctor he perceives to be wise. But that doctor, instead of assigning the reading material that would help the unfortunate patient begin to understand and criticize the false ideologies around which he organizes his life, gives him a drug that will get him to fall submissively back into line, and proclaim the false ideologies with ever renewed vigor.

The idea that we should spend our leisure time entertaining and amusing ourselves represents a senseless squandering of the potential of human mind and spirit. All time and energy left after taking care of our needs for food and shelter should be devoted to moral and intellectual improvement. When we're too tired for that, we should cultivate mental silence and prayer.

The idea that human beings can own property is an illusion, on par with other superstitions in the pagan society where it originated. The Roman Empire required slaves and citizens to worship the pagan gods. Today our rulers demand we squander our lives producing baubles and trinkets to pamper the vanity of the rich and powerful. We might have been improving ourselves by studying, meditating and praying, but instead we slave away producing the symbols of ostentatious wealth.

The watchword of the new science of behavioral health is "adapt." The patient who adapts his behavior to the prevailing norms is considered healthy. The one who fails to adapt is sick and must be cured. The great saints and sages knew the societies to which they were asked to adapt were vile and unconscionable. To adapt would be to sacrifice all that was highest in themselves. Jesus didn't adapt to the hypocrisy and greed of the Pharisees. The Buddha didn't adapt to the superstition and narcissism of the Brahmins.

A life spent in pursuit of vanity, comfort and pleasure, even if that pursuit is successful, is a wasted life. Those of us who wake up and discover this should be going to the library and checking out books that will help us understand the illusions that rule our lives. Instead our doctors offer us medicines to sedate us, so we can return to the false ideology that keeps our futile and pointless lives in motion.

If inhibiting the reuptake of one or more neurotransmitters could help me study, meditate and pray more effectively, I would have no objection. But if it's merely helping me avoid awareness of the superficiality and vanity of my existence, it's a form of inhibition I would be better off without.