On Veering Left – Capitalism Run Amok – Part 1

This post was first written by me on August 8, 2009…

Funny how we change our perspectives as our age, and hopefully our wisdom, increases.

I can remember those law school days at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., during Bill Clinton’s first campaign for president and his heated attempt at dethroning George H.W. Bush (Bush ’41).

I remember watching the debates in the student lounge surrounded by very liberal aspiring lawyers, just brimming at the opportunity to get their hands on some of that federal government largess.

I remember the vehemence I felt about this election and against the prospect of the philandering Bill Clinton and his robotic running mate, Al Gore, actually ascending to presidency.

Well that was then, this is now. Time and experience have gradually shifted my perspective and have me veering left these days…some might even say “far left”!

Why is that, I have to ask myself?

I can only attribute it to my time here in Costa Rica. The opportunity living here has allowed me to be someone “on the outside looking in.”

There are certain things about this place that have brought about this grand paradigmatic shift. First, I would have to say living here has ignited a deeply felt appreciation for nature and biodiversity and also a concern for how over-consumption threatens them. I no longer buy into the argument that human achievement cannot coincide with respect for and care of the environment.

Ignoring the symbiosis that exists between us and our environment and instead religiously adhering to the idea that “people matter more than trees, or the critters that live in them”, has set our planet on a course that threatens exactly what the idea was suppose to promote…humans. You see if we destroy our environment in the pursuit of more consumption and a higher social-economic position, we end up destroying ourselves. Al Gore, and not Rush Limbaugh, was and is right on that one. I didn’t recognize that back at Georgetown, but I certainly do now.

Second, there is a realization that U.S.-style consumption, driven largely by the bizarre notion of “American Exceptionalism”, has placed the country at odds with the rest of the world and set it on a course for disaster.

What do I mean “driven largely by the bizarre notion of ‘American Exceptionalism”, you ask?

Good question. Let me put it this way, the idea on the right seems to be along the following lines; that since the U.S. has done so much good in the world, it is privileged to exploit other nations and peoples in pursuit of a lifestyle that is at a level of luxury that is absurd in comparison to the way folks live in other places, like Costa Rica for instance. In other words, the rest of the world should just look the other way while we consume ourselves, and them, out of existence.

I have in many past posts to this blog cited examples of U.S. intervention into the affairs of other nations in pursuit of this ideal. That it has the right to pursue its own selfish interests, be it for oil (Middle East) or bananas (Central America), within your borders and if you try to stop it, well, then you’re a “communist” and that gives us the right to pressure you with our economic and/or military might, or just take you out altogether.

Third, I have come to realize that pure U.S.-style unbridled capitalism, “capitalism run amok” as I have called it, is as rotten to the core as the communistic or socialistic alternatives that its proponents rail against. The idea that the only thing that matters is “property” is all fine and good for the owners of the property, but how about for everyone else?

Can I as a poor, destitute person, who has not had the good fortune to have been borne with a silver spoon in my mouth, place my confidence in your altruism, Mr. Property Owner? I seriously doubt it.

The fact is that if you are so fortunate as to have accumulated great wealth during your lifetime, and I am all for honest achievement and believe the government should not get in the way of that, then yes you do have a responsibility to care for those that have not been so fortunate or blessed. AND if you won’t exercise that responsibility on your own, then government should step in and do it for you.

Why?

The right-wing of the powers that be in the U.S. have long been so obsessed with guarding capitalistic notions of private property that they have forgotten that those latter two things matter just as much, perhaps even more.

Maybe that is changing a little now…we shall see.

Post update: The recent election (and the rise of Donald Trump) is proof that nothing has really changed and that perhaps, it’s gotten worse.

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