Edgework

In my recent reading of Marcus Peter Rempel’s book, Life at the End of Us vs. Them (2017), I found some help in understanding the story of capitalism, especially the fact that capitalism seems to have flourished best in those parts of the world influenced by Christianity. I have always wondered how and why Christians could take credit for this gift to the human race.

Leaning on the works of René Girarde and Ivan Illich, Rempel sketches the story line which goes something like this: In pre-Christian societies, vengeance and/or scapegoating, whether practiced in rage or as sacred duty, served as a means of maintaining social control. That is to say violence resulted in at least relative and temporary peace.

With the rise of Christian influence came the duty to forgive and practice hospitality. Also, as the parable of the Good Samaritan extrapolates, anybody can reach out to anybody else, even one’s enemy, in the service of kindness. This new Christian impulse gave individuals freedom to pursue a variety of interests with fewer ties to the collective obsession of preserving ancestral kinship systems. The question that remained, however, was how this kind of lifestyle could work to maintain social control.

Rempel suggests that it was the marketplace that would take over this function. “Thus the modern market place opens out before us; a space where all buyers and sellers are welcome, without pre-existing obligations to one another, to find whatever relationships of exchange that we so choose” (187). With this kind of anonymity at play, Girarde argues that we embarked on a low-grade “war of all against all” as we all began pursuing our own enlightened self-interest. Potential violence was averted by pouring energies into production instead of wars and yielding to the new moral rules coming from Christianity.

It is fair to say that this gift to the world has, indeed, helped many of the world’s poor climb out of poverty. MEDA’s micro-loan program for poor entrepreneurs bears witness to this fact. So Capitalism 101, as envisioned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, can both claim some roots in Christianity and point to many examples of how it works well.

But this is where Ivan Illich appears on the scene with his famous declaration, “The corruption of the best is the worst” (188). As we survey the history of capitalism, we begin to notice evidence of “corruption” inserting itself into the story and we see the emergence of Capitalism 202, in which “enlightened self-interest” morphed into “human greed.” Smith had even warned of corruptions that could come from “monopolies, tax preferences, controls, and other privileges that producers extract from the government authorities.”

As we look around today, all these threats and more have to one degree or another affected the story of capitalism. As sanctified greed did its work, the initial low-grade “war of all against all” intensified. As the wealth of capitalists increased, so did their lobbying efforts to re-write the societal rules under which they were operating, in their favor of course. Friendly competition turned to cut-throat rivalry, often at the expense of overworked and underpaid employees. The need for ever-growing production to maximize profits created the ubiquitous advertising industry which in turn spawned a wasteful “consumptive society.”

Then along came “global, corporate capitalism” in which “disengaged” shareholders demanded profits at all costs, including tax avoidance using off-shore accounts, environmental degradation, the atomization of relationships disconnecting individuals from people and place and the raiding of the Commons with the demand that public services be privatized. And in many places where capitalism flourished most aggressively, drug addiction, alcoholism and suicide became more common than in the past. So Chris Hedges contends that, “The global system of corporate capitalism has created a world more unequal and more endangered than ever before” (197). Welcome to Capitalism 202 – to where the corruption of the best has become the worst.

Now what? The socialist option has also proven in the past century to be susceptible to a similar kind of corruption that capitalism endured. While the process may differ, even within socialism, inevitably human greed and the allure of power become the spoilers. As my late friend and president of Steinbach Bible College, Ben Eidse, used to say, “Both capitalism and socialism are ultimately human constructs bound to fail eventually.” And when they do, there is an inevitable regression into violence which Girarde would say such systems had the potential to avert..

It seems to me that we are presently in a massive, global struggle to find some kind of middle ground that both provides incentives to be productive while, at the same time, protecting all of us and the environment from the devastating impact of corruption. I will say more about this search in my next essay.

But for now, I will close with a quote from Aristitides to the Emperor of Rome in 137 AD in which he documents the economic practices of early Christians. It certainly gives us something to think about when considering modern economic models.

It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth. They acknowledge God. They do not keep for themselves the goods entrusted to others. They do not covet what belongs to others. They show love to their neighbors…It has become their passion to do good to their enemies. They live in awareness of their smallness. Every one of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one who has nothing. If they see a traveling stranger, they bring him under their roof. They rejoice over him as a real brother, for they do not call one another brothers after the flesh, but they know they are brothers in the Spirit and in God…If anyone among them is poor or comes into want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him. In this way, they can supply any poor man with the food he needs (190).