In our current social-economic climate, profits reign supreme. It is called capitalism which has become extreme; to the point of excessive. Some might call it anarcho-capitalism, (i) but I'm not opening that can of worms. Let's call it runaway capitalism. Capitalism is a political/economic system where a country's wealth and business is controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the people or the state. As with feudalism, the constant struggle among the wealthy slowly eliminates the weaker or less wealthy until everything is owned by a small number of individuals such as a royal family or a few mega-corporations. According to an October 2011 Forbes Magazine article, 147 corporations own everything in the world and "the real power to control the world lies in four companies." (ii) From this we get the one-percent of the US population who basically own us and everything else in this country. Capitalism has absolutely no concern for human rights, environment or social justice and equity unless those issues will create capital, wealth, profits for the corporation. On the political side, these corporations and their controlling owners are going to wrap 'capitalism' in a flag so that clueless peasants - you and me - will feel unpatriotic if we complain or resist. They tell us that they're doing this for the country. Yea. Right. If you are gullible enough to believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'll be happy to sell you cheap.
Today profits are above all and the end all. This is no secret, and many financial experts would proudly agree. Profit trumps (no pun intended … well, maybe just a little one) compassion, humanity, clean water, clean air, human rights and social justice, as well as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (iii) Profits also stand in stark contrast to nature and the environment; destroying entire species and ecosystems in the name of profit. In March of 2017, Mr. Trump signed his 19th executive order entitled "Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth". In this case "economic growth" is a euphemism for "more profits for the oil companies". We all know that, so I won't bother to argue its veracity. The order directs the Secretary of the Interior to review rules which regulate oil and gas drilling in national parks and to "repeal, suspend or rescind them if they are found inconsistent with the president's energy goals". (qui autem volunt regem esse) This order directly threatens entire ecosystems and many of our national parks, but it means profits. Lots of profits at the expense of nature and 'We the people'. Our only hope against such an attack is the Wilderness Act of 1964 (iv) and the National Park Service Organic Act (v) which established the National Park Service in 1916 and gave it the mandate "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
I would suspect that a majority of US citizens know nothing other than extreme capitalism and believe that this is the way it has always been. The whole super-capitalism campaign didn't began ramping up in the United States until I was a small child during the post-World War II period; late 1940s. The period of what we might call the Robber Barons coincided with industrial growth in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is, however, really different than our current capitalistic growth. That was much more of an elite oligarchy. That, however, is another story. Suffice it to say, our current spiraling out of control started right after World War II. We are told that it must be this way. The truth, if one wants to do a bit of reading in anthropology and history, is that this is not how it has always been, nor does it necessarily need to be this way. Actually, there are still a couple of hunter-gatherer societies in existence that actually have shorter "work weeks", a better social environment, and no taxes. (vi)
We began our destructive march toward our current crisis when, some 12,000 years or so ago, we started becoming farmers and claimed ownership of the land; forsaking our roots as a part of the magnificent life on Earth known as nature. The concept of ownership created a have-versus-have-not society and the trouble began. (vii)
I must interject here that not all societies followed this path. For example, along with the hunter-gatherers still in existence, many North American tribes did not have any concept of ownership before being introduced to the concept by European invaders. Some of these tribes were actually far more socially advanced than the European invaders in areas such as participation in government, social equity, women's rights and social welfare. You must remember that most of the European countries that invaded North America were barely more than feudal. They still had royalty, ownership by the wealthy, and little to no social justice or safeguards. In many ways the people the Europeans were calling uncivilized were not the uncivilized ones. Charles Hudson, in Chapter 4, Social Organization of his book, The Southeastern Indians, (viii) noted the tribes being more politically advanced than the Europeans and there actually being women's right. We still don't have women's rights and the ancestors of the European invaders are still looking down on these indigenous peoples. "The council of the chiefdom was a thoroughly democratic body. Anyone who wanted to could speak, no matter how distasteful his views to the others, and all the people would listen politely until he had finished. The council did not meet to legislate or to adjudicate - they met to reach consensus. . . . . it simply sought harmony by conciliating differences." (viii) No one was coerced or punished for disagreeing. In Europe you could still literally lose your head for disagreeing with the royalty. Today we are coerced and socially punished for any statement, no matter how much evidence or logic, that contradicts the edicts of the wealthy one-percent.
Religion must also take much of the blame. In the Christian's Bible they are told that their god said "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion …." (Gen 1:28) That this was the beginning of our downfall is my opinion, and there are many highly regarded anthropologists out there who would agree with me. However, this isn't the purpose of this monograph. I share this opinion by way of explanation of how we got where we are. It was an easy step from land ownership and the profit motive to our current oligarchy where we are made to feel obligated to work for the few who profit, causing us to accept the rape and destruction of our marvelous world. We have become the instruments of our own destruction.
Life is the result of nature. It is neither created nor sustained by corporate profits. No corporation, no matter how big and powerful, can create or sustain life. But that isn't their problem. Their problem is to somehow obtain the lion's share of the market and make a profit. If that means destroying water, air and soil, so be it. The problem of survival becomes our problem. We have permitted ourselves to be made serfs to the lords of profit. They have convinced the vast majority of people that the world would stop turning if we don't sustain them by greater and great consumption. But we can't sustain continued greater and greater consumption, and, if we use common sense, we know that there is life apart from this capitalistic nightmare. In my blog "What will really kill us?" (ix) I told about how in Ireland we had a bank strike that lasted almost six months. The banks assumed that the economy would come to a screeching halt without them. Not so. People found other ways of carrying on business without the banks. In fact, data showed that the Irish economy actually prospered during the bank strike.
Through all of this chaos nature has been right here for and with us. It gives us life, and we destroy it. I am thoroughly convinced that if we were to renew our relationship with nature; if we were to return to being a part of nature as opposed to attempting to control, subdue or overcome nature for the sake of profit; we would find new and creative ways to sustain life on this fragile little ball hurling through space and return to our rightful place as a part of this magnificent world.
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FOOTNOTES.
(i) https://www.libertarianism.org/encyclopedia/anarcho-capitalism
(iii) United States Declaration of Independence. 1776. Independence was declared on July 2nd. Congress approved the Declaration on July 4th. but it was not signed until August 2, 1776.
(iv) The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of the Wilderness Society and protects over 9.1 million acres of federal land.
(v) The National Park Service Organic Act, August 25, 1916 established the National Park Service.
(vi) my blog "Hunter-gatherers - the original affluent society. 2nd February 2018. http://oldconservationist.blogspot.com/2018/02/preface.html
(vii) Bodley, John H. (2015). Victims of progress. Rowman & Littlefield. NYC.
(viii) Hudson, Charles. (1976). The Southeastern Indians. University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville, TN. p. 224.
