Capitalism is all find and dandy, until you run out of people and resources to exploit. But, let’s let Ronald Wright do the talking from his book “What Is America?: A Short History of the New World Order,” on this one.
“The experience of a relatively easy 500 years of expansion and colonization, the constant taking over of new lands, led to the modern capitalist myth that you can expand forever,” Wright said. “It is an absurd myth. We live on this planet. We can’t leave it and go somewhere else. We have to bring our economies and demands on nature within natural limits, but we have had a 500-year run where Europeans, Euro-Americans and other colonists have overrun the world and taken it over. This 500-year run made it not only seem easy but normal. We believe things will always get bigger and better. We have to understand that this long period of expansion and prosperity was an anomaly. It has rarely happened in history and will never happen again. We have to readjust our entire civilization to live in a finite world. But we are not doing it, because we are carrying far too much baggage, too many mythical versions of deliberately distorted history and a deeply ingrained feeling that what being modern is all about is having more. This is what anthropologists call an ideological pathology, a self-destructive belief that causes societies to crash and burn. These societies go on doing things that are really stupid because they can’t change their way of thinking. And that is where we are.”
And as the collapse becomes palpable, if human history is any guide, we like past societies in distress will retreat into what anthropologists call “crisis cults.” The powerlessness we will feel in the face of ecological and economic chaos will unleash further collective delusions, such as fundamentalist belief in a god or gods who will come back to earth and save us.”
Ah the resurgence of religious belief – colour me unsurprised that it heralds the doom of the society in question.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
11 comments
January 31, 2013 at 11:03 am
Lavender Blume
“Capitalism is all find and dandy, until you run out of people and resources to exploit.” Well said.
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January 31, 2013 at 11:25 am
syrbal
I think the crisis cult phenomenon is well under way already. I think the whole Holy 2nd Amendment is one version of it. I recall a trend where the fall of Rome was blamed on lead poisoning; I rather wonder what they will someday claim was in OUR water or drinking cups…the plastic carcinogen?
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January 31, 2013 at 11:25 am
Laura Cole
Too right. The Idle No More vs. Harper administration conflict is an ideological conflict more than a social one. This Conservative government needs to conserve or else face some pretty big changes in the next 50 years.
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January 31, 2013 at 11:30 am
Stew
And just as absurd is the claims made to its being efficient, which for some perverse reason demands that we throw everything out it uses and makes, no matter how destructive and unethical it maybe.
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February 1, 2013 at 10:41 am
The Arbourist
@Lavender Blume
Thanks. It’s hard to find the correct line to use and not set off all socialism/communism dog-whistles. Capitalism is what we are indoctrinated with and thus looking at its flaws is tough in most of North American society.
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February 1, 2013 at 11:02 am
Lavender Blume
@The Arbourist That’s a great point. We can discuss capitalism critically without necessarily confining ourselves to a particular ‘ism’. I can’t count how many times I’ve been dismissed on the grounds that I must worship Fidel or Chavez. Who says we can’t talk openly about the flaws of all leaders and develop a system that answers the concerns of all stakeholders? It’s time for fresh thinking.
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February 1, 2013 at 11:03 am
The Arbourist
@syrbal
Is the cold dark hungry end what you prognosticate for us srybal? I think that way myself often as we are deluged by stories of people hurting themselves, their interests and the environment for the just cause of money. I know some of what anthropologists think of ancient cultures, what if we are still around, will they think of ours?
I’m thinking the whole industrialized meat eating thing will make them boggle because of the vast amount of waste and cruelty inherent in the system. Consider the prison system and of course the root cause of prison explosion, poverty and the basic unwillingness to care for our fellow human being. I think they will see some places where they were working toward a better society, Sweden for example, and others that seem to think that 19th century capitalism is just *awesome* (see China and retrograde elements of US politic).
What will make the most cringe worthy showing will probably be the vast inequalities that condemn most of the world to live and die in poverty while a small section lives in relative grandeur. 6.9 million children died in 2011, mostly from easily preventable diseases (oh why oh why my pro-life friends you aren’t wailing about this untidy statistic is beyond me). It is a tragedy that plays out the same way every year. I’m changing my mind; its not the inequality that will be the most cringe worthy, its going to be the cultural-political-ethical make up of our societies that allow people not to think about the welfare of others and take the appropriate actions to help them.
That will be our historical legacy, if we are to have one.
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February 1, 2013 at 11:33 am
The Arbourist
@Laura Cole
The Harper Conservatives are conservative in name only. I would argue that they are doing their best not to conserve the social democratic tenets of our society and instead, are embracing the neo-liberal ideology that is currently enriching the upper classes at the cost of everyone else in society (see the US).
The INM movement is what labour activism used to look like in this country and the US. Large blocks of people standing up for and demanding their rights. This in the face of brutal repression by the Police, Army and hired thugs all working for the interests of the class vested with power. It was through dedicated bloody collective action of others that we enjoy the rights we have today. The INM has just started down that road, I hope we have enough courage as a society to join with them and demand what is right.
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February 1, 2013 at 11:35 am
The Arbourist
@Stew
In a society that is based on consumption, it is hard to find the absurdity involved in the notion that we “throw everything away”. I would argue that it is precisely what is intended and thus a structural feature of corporate capitalism.
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February 1, 2013 at 11:42 am
The Arbourist
@Lavender Blume
Precisely. It is a pattern that I’m sure you have noticed, the quick pert answers designed to shut down debate, either by vilifying the speaker or some variation on an argument from incredulity. Works when discussing Feminism too, all the time. When this pattern emerges one knows that you’re up against what has been deemed “truth” by the system. It is their version of truth that serves them well and thus is perpetuated in the system and is defended against all criticism because other arguments, regardless of their validity, threatens their (the elite) hold on power in society.
Thus, when arguing for social democracy, or feminism or environmental stewardship et cetera, one is always arguing “uphill” because of all the approved assumptions must be negated first, even before reaching the actual argument. For the holder of dissident views, it is usually a lengthy voyage of frustration, anger and rage. Necessary of course, but it wears on a person.
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February 1, 2013 at 11:56 am
syrbal
Yes, that pretty much is what I fear will be out dark and hungry end. The bits that survive will eventually pick themselves out of the rubble and start over; but I am both grateful that I am old enough not to survive the fall and guilty that I will not be of any help to the children I leave on this rock.
Many cultures have a belief in cyclic cataclysms…and looking at history and the habits of mankind? I can see why that particular mythic trope is so prevalent.
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