Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way, Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world. - Tao Te Ching

Saturday, October 9, 2010

A Christian Defense of Socialism

Socialism. What a dirty word. It conjures up pink and red images that strike our inner Joseph McCarthy with paranoid precision. Not everyone, of course. But enough of us to communicate to the rest of the world that backward thinking is the status quo in America.


I don’t believe that any one type of government is right or wrong. We are so far away from perfection that it is silly to assume we will get there in the next 100 years. The travesty is the “good vs. evil” mentality that plagues American government and its politics like a ravenous cancer – unmitigated and relentless as it eats the raw talent and creativity of our increasingly disillusioned populace. Draped in good intentions, our leaders’ blind ambition leaves a trail of unintended consequences in its boastful wake, leaving people wondering why. Why are one-fifth of homeowners foreclosing on their homes? Why have banks gotten away with murder, and somehow proven that their victims are responsible for their own deaths? How is that even possible?


It is the failure of capitalism and the disastrous effects of an unrestrained free market and an incompetent government with ridiculous policies and economic demands. Make no mistake, whether the democrats or republicans are in power, neither will create a policy that hurts business, and why should they? Capital is the driving force of the modern economy. It’s not commodities or services, there is no scarcity anymore. It’s a manufactured scarcity, an elite propaganda that represents the fall of humankind and the strength of Babylon.


I’m sure I sound crazy to many people. That’s fine, I don’t mind that perception. What’s crazy to me is that we have all bought into this system, a system of valueless currency and manufactured scarcity. A system of vertical integration and underhanded monopolies. We accept our ridiculous fate because our own demands on our own lives are too much to reconsider, and to actually create substantial change would put our lifestyles at risk. It’s a style of life that we have manufactured, and that’s why we accept slaps on the wrist as consequences for murder. If we seek blood, we may have to do our part of the cleaning up, and that’s asking too much of us. We have our own blood to clean up.


This is the mentality that will be our destruction. This illusion that our individuality is more important than our infinite and primal connection to each other. It is here where I should quote Karl Marx, but in his stead I choose to paraphrase C.S. Lewis. We are all ships in a fleet heading towards the same destination. If one ship goes down, the entire fleet is hurt.


This is why we have law, isn’t it? To protect individuals from hurting themselves or from hurting society, right? Let’s say there is a man who consistently hurts himself – a perpetual perpetrator of “victimless” crimes such as drug use. Sure, he’s not directly hurting anyone other than himself, but what about the ramifications? Who is he hurting indirectly? Family? Friends? Coworkers? Strangers?


An odd element of life that I find fascinating is the ripple effect of our actions and how necessarily ignorant we are of the infinite consequences associated with even the most mundane tasks. Anyone who uses drugs to escape the pain of their existence has admitted to the world that the world is not worth dealing with and creating an alternate reality is their best option. Just being in the same room as this person, even if you never even make eye contact with him, takes away from your own ability to cope with reality. If he’s off in his own world and you’re here in the real world, doesn’t that make the real world that much more difficult? As if the daily rigors of life aren’t enough, now we have people who have decided their own rigor is not worth worrying about. It’s like trying to lose weight and being surrounded my overeaters. Life is difficult enough without others making it more difficult by the residual effects of their individual choices.


Think about it. Say you’re the only sober person in a room full of stoners, or acid trippers or smack heads, whatever. Is your experience going to be easier than their’s? The same? Harder? Of course there are numerous approaches to this situation, depending of course on your personal disposition. You could have the best time in the world. You could make your own fun at their expense. You could pity them and try to show them the way. You could run away in anger and disgust. Suffice to say people are already quirky enough in reality, and to deal with them during their moments of escape adds unnecessary stress and strain to the fledgling human condition.


This applies to “legal” pharmaceuticals also. Anything that effects our body chemistry in an unnatural way subjects our minds to alternate perceptions. Sometimes this is good, but it’s an easy answer to a long-term problem that only meditation and prayer and human interaction can truly cure. You can suckle on a tree all you want, but only a mother’s milk can make a baby grow naturally.


So where is the Christianity in all this? Everywhere. Yehoshua, also known as Jesus, spoke plainly about the importance of being your brother’s keeper. According to Yehoshua, the greatest commandment is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. To love your neighbor as yourself means that we should not separate ourselves from our neighbors, that we are united in one body.


The apostle Paul wrote scores of letters addressing this very issue. In his letter to the church of Ephesus, Paul asks the people to “Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to persevere the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together... If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love.”


The only difference between Christian philosophy and socialism is the apex of each ethos. Christianity has Christ, socialism has the state. The workers unite to work for the common good of the state just as Christians are called to unite to spread the light of Christ. Karl Marx asks for people to put aide their personal ambition and strive for societal equilibrium. Yehoshua asks for people to be reborn in the spirit, put aside their childish ways and love your enemies. Although Marx is credited with establishing the atheist state, in reality all he did was attempt to replace God with the state and replace worshiping God with worshiping your fellow human beings.


Communism failed in its idealism. It fails to see the effect of power on an institution’s ability to rule. It failed to grasp the power of power, whereas capitalism embraces our weaknesses. Capitalism exploits human desire and takes advantage of our innate selfishness. Neither path is correct for people. We can’t force people to be equal when our egos tell us otherwise, and we can’t expect equality when people will do whatever it takes to push themselves ahead of the others.


But socialism, without the political effluent of communism, is more meaningful and just for a society that calls itself Christian than a capitalist system. Again, socialism is not the answer, but it is part of a solution if carried out in a democratic fashion utilizing certain workable elements of capitalism. One could argue that the impotence of our social security system is evidence that socialism is wrong. I would argue that a bad policy doesn't destroy a good concept. Just because some Christians are lunatics and scream for war with Islam doesn't mean Christianity is a religion of hate. Bad apples.


To fear socialism is to fear ourselves, it’s to fear the very call to be united for the survival of each other.


I’d like to propose a scenario. Imagine if 50 years ago, the United States invested more money in its education system than in the military. What if we made it mandatory to learn three languages in elementary school? What if it were mandatory for high school students to spend one year in a developing country before graduation? What if we taught the essence of religion and philosophy through exploration and active community engagement? What if we taught math and science with practical applications using engineering and modern medicine as teaching platforms? What if the public educational experience became the one and only thing that was talked about during a political campaign? Imagine if those children grew up and took the reigns and led our country forward and were our leaders today. Would we still have had this mortgage collapse? Would we be hovering at 10 percent unemployment? Would we be at war in Afghanistan and in Iraq? Would Vietnam have happened? Would Watergate and McCarthyism have happened?


Obviously these hypothetical questions are pointless to ponder, but the possibilities are fascinating. Taking care of each other and each other’s children is vital for the survival of the human species and our planet. We want more people to become doctors, right? More doctors means lower health care costs, right? We want more people to become teachers and social workers and engineers and technology experts, right? Doesn’t that improve a society by having more skilled professionals? Or is it better to let people figure it out themselves, and thus perpetuate our Darwinist class system and deepen the divide between individuals and society?


Without each other what are we? A collection of atoms randomly floating in a mass until we are recycled back into the universe. That’s depressing. I prefer to be considered as part of a whole, a functional arm on the body of society. Not only are we responsible for each other, but for every living creature and inorganic molecule that has been entrusted to us. We are stewards of the earth and of each other, not self-absorbed tourists infatuated with consumption at all cost.


RenĂ© Descartes’ concept that thought creates existence is incorrect. It is positive interaction with life that creates existence. Existence without meaning is not existence, it is immaterial being. No man or woman is an island, and until we can learn that we are each a functional ship in a fleet trying to make our destination before sunset, we will continue to hurt ourselves – either consciously or otherwise – in our attempts to improve our individual situations.


The only true path to enlightenment is to lift someone else up. Until the day comes when all hands are held together and falling will be a distant memory.