Mammon, masquerading as “The Market”, is a false prophet
Why have we not heard of the 300,000 to 500,000 people who demonstrated in Chicago on Friday?
“300,000 to 500,000 people marched in Chicago to protest The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.”
Or this major development:
“Now comes the conservative American Bar Association–400,000 lawyers–whose House of Delegates has overwhelmingly approved a task force report accusing President Bush, in polite legal language, of violating both the Constitution and federal law. ABA President Michael S. Greco sent it to Mr. Bush with a cover letter dated February 13, 2006.” — Ralph Nader.
Why is the Mainstream Media [MSM] failing to report these stories? Google these stories and you will see that the MSM are missing in action. A conspiracy of silence.
Is it because they fear the restoration of the primacy of the people over Mammon’s market?
It is clear once again that the proposition that the “market” is the best, if not only, solution for all problems is false. Just as in the “Roaring 20s,” Mammon’sMarket has, in fact, created one train wreck after another: healthcare, the environment, education, international relations, the middle class, justice as fairness, social equality, the rule of law, our Constitutional civil liberties, — you name it. Our Civic and Economic viability and health are in deep trouble as a consequence.
The question is simply this: Is the market meant to serve humanity or is humanity meant to serve the market?
Mammon will always answer that we are the servants of the market. We have now tried Mammon’s corporatist approach since 1980. After more than a quarter century, it is manifestly emerging as a massive failure, as it always has and always will.
A significant consequence of accepting Mammon’s argument is that it replaces the functions of government with the operations, short time horizons, and metrics of the market. Dick Cheney’s quip in the 2000 VP debate that “the government had nothing to do with his success” is a pure example of Mammon’s value proposition. Government is incompetent and bad. The Market is supremely competent and good.
The British gave into Mammon even earlier: The policies of Margaret Thatcher, and earlier, in the 1960s, The Mayfair Set, including David Stirling, Jim Slater, James Goldsmith, and Tiny Rowland, rapacious take over con men who corrupted British political ethics and sold off England’s Industrial assets for Mammon’s short term profit imperative.
Until we once again assert the primacy of citizens over the market, and thus the validity of government’s role in human affairs, we will remain in the thrall of Mammon’s false prophecy. This can only lead to our demise, just as it did last century with the great market crash of Black Friday in 1929.
Can we afford another unregulated market inspired economic crash?
The false prophet Mammon sets up an equally false dichotomy: The Market or The Commons. From this, Mammon creates the tautological arguments that have powered the radical right and their corporatist paymasters for the past 25 years. At root, this is their attack on FDR’s politics that clearly gave citizens primacy over the market. This attack on FDR was exactly the mission that the National Association of Manufacturers gave to Eddie Bernays in the 1930s. Bernays was Mammon’s genius hand maiden. His successor and disciple, Karl Rove, is the same.
This is NOT to say that we do not need a market. We do. But one clearly and firmly dedicated to the service of all humanity: A market that respects and encourages the public good as its essential partner in sustaining both civic and economic well being.
When will the Democratic party wake up and reject Mammon? When will the Democrats declare the obvious: The market is not sufficient for civic and economic health and well being. It is necessary, but not sufficient.
The truth can only be found in the synthesis of and/both: The Commons and the Market: The citizens with primacy over the market but respectful of it, as they recognize and value its essential and necessary role.
I look forward to a political leader who will articulate this as the basis for claiming a brighter future for all of us: An extraordinary future full of promise, opportunity, and innovation.
permalink | Jock Gill | Community, Economy, Politics, Propaganda
Jock is quite right that the MSM simply ignore huge stories that might discomfort the wealthy rulers. Before the Chicago demo Josh mentions, there was the latest demo about immigration in DC history last week, probably well over 100,000 people filling the west lawn of the Capitol, with virtually no coverage.
And last week Code Pink brought over a group of Iraqi women to testify about the impact of the war on different sectors of Iraqi society. There were numerous presentations around the city, including one in the Capitol. I attended one at a church, and the testimony was heart-rending, to say the least. My friends and I left the church feeling deeply ashamed of ourselves, and of our country.
But was there a word about these eloquent witnesses in the Washington Post? No. Nothing.
The disappearance of shame has been a serious blow to efforts to maintain the admittedly thin veneer of civilization. As we have learned, Karl Rove and his minions have no shame. Social strictures that would restrain more honorable men and women have no effect on Rove and his ilk. Once again, we see what a grave disadvantage one is at when one’s supporters still think they are dealing with an opponent who is playing by some set of rules, when the opponent in fact has thrown the rule book out the window some time ago and whose only bottom line is to win, regardless of whatever rules may once have existed.
Richard Bell
Jock’s really on to something here. In my reading there is a consistent theme of how balance is always required–Joe Fox in his book on quality talked about the opposite of virtue not being vice, but virtue carried to an extreme (e.g. the Crusades). From E.O. Wilson’s Consilience to Lionel Tiger’s the Manufacture of Evil, to John Ralston’s Voltaire’s Bastards, the theme is the same: science without humanities is destructive, secrecy is pathological, the market is NOT an *alternative* to the commons, but rather one that must co-exist with the commons. Both the Chinese and the Muslims understand that American capitalism has become immoral, predatory, and unsustainable. Some very smart people like David Rothkopf are starting to talk about the need for a Doctrine of Interdependence. He is right on target. Governments exist to nuture the Commonwealth and to do those things that are not “profitable” in isolation. This requires extraorindary integrity, strategy, consistency, and vision. Right now I do not see that in either the Republican or the Democratic parties.
Robert,
Your comment on my post says the truth to power, to Mammon. It is a truth the current politicians dare not speak as they are far too compromised by Mammon’s corporate money.
Look at the conventional wisdom, the candidate with the most money wins. Not the best ideas. Not the best team, Not the best platform. In America today, we have sunk to the low of the politics of Mammon.
“Both the Chinese and the Muslims understand that American capitalism has become immoral, predatory, and unsustainable.” The fact that you are well respected veteran of our intelligence profession, a political moderate, and a man of deep religious convictions makes your statement all the more powerful. I hope this is a common, if unspoken, understanding amongst your peers. I hope they will give voice to their views informed by their deep professional expertise.
I believe the pathological condition of the current state of American capitalism is generally understood in most of the 3rd and less developed world. They have been victimized for too long by immoral, predatory, unregulated capitalism - Mammon loose in the world - not to have figured this out by now.
For them, and I would argue us, it is now a moral imperative to right this wrong. Yet who amongst us stands up and asserts the basic truth that people have primacy over markets and never the other way around? Would that we had a political party that dared to speak this truth to Mammon.
Today, I am looking for such a politician in vain. Do you see one in the future?
Thanks,
Jock
I do NOT see such a politician anywhere.
The good news is that Collective Intelligence is emergent, and information is a substitute for money, it just has not come of age yet.
Karl Rove was surrounded by angry protesters in his home, and trapped inside. They chased him from room to room from the outside. The day is going to come when the White House will be blockaged by millions until the miscreats agree to resign and hold a special election.
The PROBLEM is NOT firing the idiots, the PROBLEM is finding someone actually intelligent enough and non-partisan enough to build a coalition cabinet, execute electoral, governance, budget, and national security reform, and move on.