The Days of the Mammonites

Let me admit at the outset that I do not have faith in the systems of economic theory relied upon by modern governments to determine their budgets and fiscal policies. I will not set my trust on any economic theory which cannot accommodate or explain altruism in its graphs and algorithyms, and I dismiss economic policies which do not place a value on untapped and untrammelled natural resources, including the air we breath.

My formal efforts to understand economics were not rewarding. The lecturer was highly regarded for having written a book about the economy of a mythical island Nation, which from the cartoon illustrations looked suspiciously like a banana republic. He began his lecture by drawing a graph with tractors on one axis and food on the other to show how opportunity must be divided between enterprises, with the choices affecting the output of both. Sure enough, when the line maxed out at 15 tractors a year, food production was zero as predicted. The fact that the example mixed luxury with necessity was ignored. Natural curiousity forced me to enquire how workers could be persuaded to work for a year without food, while making the maximum quota of tractors. I quickly discovered that such issues were of no concern to economic theorists.

The first challenge for any would be economic theory today is to be persuasive without provoking worship, as a dogma or a credo upon which the whole edifice of a society might be predicated. There is only one thing worse than a false theory of economics, and that is a false economic theory which attracts the religious zeal of its adherents and which is thereby allowed to determine the entire order of the social fabric. In a world hungry for personal gain, the “ismising” of economic theories can give rise to materialist movements which come to function as surrogate religions, as for example Communism and Capitalism. For all their sectarian squabbles in recent history, both are denominations of the same church and worship the same god, Mammon. The consequences of this idolatry have yet to do their worst in the world.

It has long been obvious to anyone entangled in litigation with Companies that they are devoid of any ethic beyond profit. This is the only responsibility their Articles of Incorporation place upon their directors. Any semblance of compassion in their mission statements can be dismissed as marketing hype, since they form no social contract. You cannot take a Company to Court and force it to do anything, unless there is a specific statute prohibiting the offending conduct. There is presently no onus on corporations to be good corporate citizens, only to make profits for their shareholders. For the affluent there is no dichotomy here, since they see themselves as the shareholders, and so it is all good. For them to sue a corporation on some ethical ground would be to bite the hand that feeds them.

The problems compound when corporations, as is increasingly the case, develop economic power beyond the gross national product of Nations, and in an essentially lawless international environment. Their lack of corporate ethic then extends beyond national borders to plunder the resources of their neighbour, or to hold their industries to ransom through the manipulation of the market. On this scale, the excesses of corporations have the potential to become catastrophic, and their consequences hideous in terms of human suffering. Yet individual Nations are no more able to stop the plundering of Corporations than unarmed sailors in a rowing boat were able to stop the predations of a Pirate Galleon. Without the promulgation of international laws to govern their activities, Corporations are free to move beyond the scope of sovereign Nations to control them.

Where once paper currency possessed a redeemable value, today it can be more perishable than an ox cart full of cabbages. The rampant devaluation of third world currencies floated on the international market brings both demeaning poverty to workers and an endless source of cheap labour to industry, which none may call slavery since according to the capitalist liturgy, it is a natural consequence of market forces. It is as if we have moved from nationalism to a transnational form of feudalism, and the sovereign Nations are merely the titular powers who exist solely through the grace of Pirate Corporations in their role as robber Barons. Ironically, the analogy is supported by the fact that many of today’s tax havens used by transnationals once provided safe anchorage to pirate fleets.

But against this gloomy background a warm light can be seen glimmering. While our corporate entities may be moving out of control, humanity is moving ever closer. The ignorance and misinformation of former times is progressively being erased by personal experience of other cultures, a defacto common language is allowing dialogue where once their was only suspicion. The global village is no longer the vision of the futurologist, it has become a reality. Sovereign Nations are now but suburbs of the same city. This trend is being recognised by governments in certain regions by the issue of common passports and currency, allowing the free movement of citizens throughout the region while preserving their National and cultural identity. What was once a culture of fear and suspicion is now slowly being supplanted by a culture of trust and cooperation.

Curiously, much of this cooperation is being fuelled by a resource which economists do not measure, and which does not feature in their prognostications. On the internet today there are countless evidences of genuine altruism, and the empowerment of individuals to use their initiative in contributing positively towards the evolution of an international community, well ahead of the ponderous moves of their respective governments, and despite the corrosive machinations of terrorists. While some might argue that no real lessons can be drawn from a virtual community, the challenges of complex consultation, communication and organization required to produce commercial grade software, demonstrate skills which easily translate into other social and economic endeavours which can be truly international in scope.

Consider how dismissive commentators were about that product of the Penguin, saying that, unlike David, it could never defeat the champion of corporate capitalist operating systems, Microsoft Windows. How hushed are those same voices now, and how emancipated are the masses who, despite the gainsayers,have put their faith in Linux as an industrial strength product? Current economic theories are not able to explain this evolutionary phenomenon? It defies all conventional economic and business logic and it exploits resources which do not even appear on the economists balance sheet.

Plowshares and Pruning Hooks

I have often wondered whether history is a poor tutor, or we are simply poor students. There was the Great War which was declared to be the “war to end all wars” in its horror and its carnage, but we still enrolled for World War II. World War II taught us that the League of Nations was dead in the water and that we needed a new tribunal to avert conflict between Nations. So the United Nations was born to watch through the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Seven Day War and others too numerous to name. Until at the end of the Millennium it seemed that the United Nations had gone the same way as its predecessor, and had demonstrated for the last time its powerlessness to prevent international conflict. Strangled by bureaucratic protocols, heartrending appeals by the oppressed for rescue fell on deaf ears, and UN troops were forced time and again to watch as innocents were slaughtered around them.

It was perhaps naïve to hope that an instrument of self interest designed by the victors of the Second World War would ever bring lasting peace, but it did serve to prevent the members of that select club from tearing at each others throats during its time. But it could not address the progressive economic imbalances that continued to develop between differing materialist ideologies and groups of Nations, and the use of economic coercion in lieu of outright military force. It seemed powerless to redress the establishment of puppet governments to serve the National interests of powers who chose not to intervene directly in the affairs of other Nations.

How fortunate then that the cold war should end before the United Nations was finally proven ineffectual in administering justice and therefore incapable of establishing and maintaining lasting peace. It was capitalist materialism, represented most prominently by the United States of America, which won the day over collective materialism. Such is the current disparity in military and economic power that it seems there is no longer any risk of international conflict involving conventional military forces, except for ‘rogue’ Nations, since there are no combatants willing to take the field against patently overwhelming force.

But a problem remains. While the most powerful military force to ever exist is left alone in the field, a new and pernicious enemy to peace has emerged. Terrorism does not provide a suitable adversary to a conventional army since its practitioners do not require the trappings of an army and can remain invisible within civilian populations until they choose to strike. The risk of collateral damage limits conventional military activity directed to rooting them out. September 11 was not the greatest damage inflicted by terrorists upon America. The most telling blow has been their ability to make the entire US Military powerless and therefore largely redundant. The control of terrorism requires police action by civil authorities, acting in close co-operation with their international colleagues. It cannot be overcome using conventional military forces without exterminating the civilian population in which the terrorists are embedded.

“And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Micah 4:3)