To:
Guardian CiF
Re: The analogy of
free-market consumer capitalism as a form of
CANCER Date: Tuesday 27 February 07
In the animal organism, any cells or
tissue which grow and expand without control or limit is called
CANCER.
The analogy of our growth-dependent economy, free-market,
consumer capitalism, being a kind of cancer that is eating into and
destroying the organism from which it has sprung, originally in Homo europaeus, is a valid one which, rather than being dismissed out of
hand, needs to be taken very seriously.
It is an extremely frightening analogy, of course, making it very
difficult to recognise and face up to. But once one does, it is a very
useful analogy (model of socio-economic reality) indeed.
Just as with human cancers, the more we understand about the cancer
of consumer capitalism (i.e. the better our models of the reality behind
it), the better we will be able to tackle and eventually cure it -
hopefully (and optimistically) before it kills us.
The capitalist economy HAS to grow, being driven by the individual's
need and desire to make MONEY. Because human desires (as opposed to
needs, and being rooted in our animal nature) are insatiable and without limit, so too is economic growth. This
is what makes it CANCEROUS.
The economy produces much that is necessary, but far more that is
simply desired, or for which a desire has been manufactured
through advertising, or a need has been artifically (and
unnecessarily) created.
In the modern world, MONEY is the most versatile and important form
of POWER. Homo sapiens' struggle for survival and advantage in the
natural environment - for which, within the family group, human
behaviour evolved - now largely boils down to the struggle for power
(not just, but principally MONEY, the most versatile form of power) in
the artificial, "socio-economic environment", which has replaced it and
where free-market capitalism developed, naturally enough, to serve,
exploit and depend upon our blind, dumb-animal nature and behaviour.
The analogy of our growth-dependent economy, free-market, consumer capitalism, being a kind of cancer that is eating into and destroying the organism from which it has sprung, originally in Homo europaeus, is a valid one which, rather than being dismissed out of hand, needs to be taken very seriously.
It is an extremely frightening analogy, of course, making it very difficult to recognise and face up to. But once one does, it is a very useful analogy (model of socio-economic reality) indeed.
Just as with human cancers, the more we understand about the cancer of consumer capitalism (i.e. the better our models of the reality behind it), the better we will be able to tackle and eventually cure it - hopefully (and optimistically) before it kills us.
The capitalist economy HAS to grow, being driven by the individual's need and desire to make MONEY. Because human desires (as opposed to needs, and being rooted in our animal nature) are insatiable and without limit, so too is economic growth. This is what makes it CANCEROUS.
The economy produces much that is necessary, but far more that is simply desired, or for which a desire has been manufactured through advertising, or a need has been artifically (and unnecessarily) created.
In the modern world, MONEY is the most versatile and important form of POWER. Homo sapiens' struggle for survival and advantage in the natural environment - for which, within the family group, human behaviour evolved - now largely boils down to the struggle for power (not just, but principally MONEY, the most versatile form of power) in the artificial, "socio-economic environment", which has replaced it and where free-market capitalism developed, naturally enough, to serve, exploit and depend upon our blind, dumb-animal nature and behaviour.
My Homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org