The Ugliness of Economic Fundamentalism

Last week Juanita and I saw the musical “Billy Elliot” on the stage of the Civic Center Auditorium here in San Diego. Great evening! Cashing in a Christmas gift from kids! They know we like musicals, so they got us tickets last December.

What I didn’t know was the political context for the story: Margaret Thatcher’s closing down of England’s coal mines to destroy the unions. No caution is spared toward Thatcher in the musical. She’s thoroughly lambasted, including a sarcastic song wishing her Merry Christmas. (All music composed by Elton John.) Experiencing the musical against that backdrop was all the more relevant given Maggie Thatcher’s death April 8, 2013. At the time of her death, I was not surprised that many praised her; but I was surprised that courtesies in the hour of death were cast aside by her critics who lambasted her.

I’m in agreement with her critics. Thatcher was a fundamentalist—an economic fundamentalist who believed there was no other way to economic salvation for countries than to privatize as much as possible, deregulate the financial sector, end labor unions and worker rights to organize, and to separate social obligations from business. She was a disciple of Frederick Hayek’s neoliberal economics (Britain’s Milton Friedman) as were those who surrounded Ronald Reagan in the U.S.

At the moment, the MultiEarth economic religion continues to be Thatcher-like. It is controlled by the global corporations and financial institutions. Its theological spectrum is narrowly fundamentalist. Ask the question, “Is there another way of salvation for Earth and her inhabitants other than the religion of The Market?”

Margaret Thatcher and the fundamentalists in charge of today’s austerity programs and global economy are firm: “No, there is no other way than the current global economy.” They insist that alternative religious paths are deceivers and not to be trusted. And so we see what happens as fundamentalist austerity is imposed in selected countries around the world.

Fundamentalism distorts whatever belief system it invades, be it a church or a government, a theology or an economy. The distortion ruthlessly puts some on the outside while others are privileged to be on the inside. That so many persons with economic power currently ascribe to it bodes ill for billions of poor people, other species, and also big numbers of us who thought it important to be in, or close to, the “middle class.”

There are, of course, many other economic voices that express flexibility in how The Market behaves. They see The Market tolerating variation and alternatives as long as The Market and its pantheon remain supreme. They, however, are not currently in charge.

Why Wealthy People Give Less

In the MultiEarth economic religion, to give away too much is wrong because it reduces one’s capacity to participate more fully in the marketplace which is the primary activity of our spiritual practice. If you give money away, it deprives you of contributing to the greatest good which involves investing as much capital as possible for the greatest return. Such investment is more important than charitable donations in measuring faithfulness in stewards. 

Ever wonder why wealthy people (with some exceptions) give a lower percentage of their income and wealth than poorer people? A big reason is their religious devotion to the virtues of The Market.

The Highly Aggressive Religion of the Global Economy — Unmatched

Adherents of The Market sell its beliefs and benefits worldwide. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, other global financial institutions, and global corporate chains all spread their influence aggressively throughout the world to proclaim the gospel and make disciples.

• They train their personnel on how to bring the good news to all nations. 
• They commission advertisers to put the good news into symbols, sound-bytes, and irresistible invitations to accept the way of salvation proclaimed by this MultiEarth economic religion. 
• They promise that dedication to The Market will satisfy the deep human longings to improve life, add to self-worth, and be fulfilled. 

The missionary zeal of the governments of the U.S. and other wealthy nations goes unparalleled as they coercively engage poorer nation states to convert, especially if they are strategic in location or abundant in resources. This zealous missionary activity is lumped into and hidden in such words as “globalization,” “spreading democracy,” “exports,” and “market expansion.”

Many managers of corporations, economists, financial advisors, business school faculty, owners of businesses, and business media provide a massive, skilled faculty of education and advanced learning in the religion of The Market.

Advertisers join in through the corporate owned media, instructing all readers, hearers, and viewers in the religious creed of global economic benefits. The training and indoctrination by advertisers is psychologically well researched. They know exactly how to engage the conscious and unconscious desires of consumers. No expense is spared in producing attractive curriculum. Testimonials reinforce their instruction.

This worldwide instruction and indoctrination in Multi Earth economic religion is unmatched by any of the other world religions. 

Working with Editor, Nikki Lyn Pugh, Makes Me a Better Writer

It’s been said that authors hate their editors. I don’t hate mine. But I sort of get where the sentiment comes from. During the past weeks I’ve been working with Nikki Lyn Pugh on the book I’ve been blogging about here at the One Earth Project. When how I’m saying something doesn’t make sense to her, she tells me. She’ll challenge the order of my paragraphs and ideas. Sometimes she questions a phrase I’m in love with. Arrgh!

I assure you, I don’t go, “Oh goody!” when Nikki challenges what I’ve created. But most of the time I’m thinking, “Well, if Nikki doesn’t flow with this, there’ll be plenty of other readers who won’t either.” Thinking about you, Readers, motivates me to improve how I express myself. I want most of what I write to flow for you. Not that I don’t want to startle you sometimes, stir your feelings (whether you like or don’t like what I’m saying matters less than that you feel something), and evoke changes in how you think, relate, and engage life. Nikki also tells me where what I’m writing has the power to evoke such responses.

Last week I wrote an endorsement for Nikki’s new website, As Your Word, (you’ve heard it said, “you’re as good as your word”) about her work as a writing coach and editor. Here’s what I said:

Nikki has a new website about her coaching and editing of writers. I wrote and endorsement for her last week and said: Nikki improved my manuscript immensely. She showed me where a different arrangement could smooth the bumpy, jostling sequence of my ideas and give them a stronger flow. Doing so, I know, is not only kinder to my readers, but it increases impact as well. Where my paragraphs took intuitive leaps, she’d tell me that I’d lost her. Then I knew I had to take reader-sized steps, sequencing how I got to where I had leapt. Repeatedly, she called for examples that seasoned my conceptual sentences with experiences from the sensory, daily world. Even when I disagreed with a suggested change, I knew I needed to make some kind of change at that point in order to connect stronger with my readers. I know that I am a better writer today than I was before I began working with Nikki.

Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Places

I love the title of this blog entry, but the credit for it all goes to Jon Pahl who wrote the book on it. If you’re already quite aware of the religious worship underway at malls, well and good. If not, consider. Because humans are defined first and foremost as consumers, buying is our primary act of worship. No other ability, interest, or desire that we have is as important to our participation in economic religion as purchasing. Fulfilling our acquisitive desires will improve our lives.

The products available for purchase are the result of human and corporate processes that take nature’s wild capital, extract it as cheaply as possible, and transform it into commodities for sale. It is shopping mall religion’s sacred, sacramental, and transformative process by which the natural world is reshaped for the holy use of accumulating wealth and delivering to humans what we need, desire, or can be talked into.

Sometimes we shop for products online or by going to stores. But malls can take us to a new level. Large malls are excellent sacred places for worshipful rituals of looking, touching, comparing, and buying. Music and restful fountains provide worshipful ambiance, getting us in the mood for the maximum experience.

One of the most important rituals is finding a bargain. Bargain buying floods malls and goes far beyond them. It fulfills our innate rational selves who are intent on getting the best quality for the lowest price, whether the purchase is an upperend house or an item in a 99 cent store. To pay more than someone else did is to have underperformed in this key ritual and may evoke shame.

The moment of payment becomes an especially close interaction with The Market and others gods in the pantheon. There we exchange something of ourselves for something distributed by the deities. Our new purchase can stir feelings of joy and gratitude that impact our sense of purpose, meaning, and self-worth. 

Beyond simpler acts of worship, there’s sacrificial worship. It factors large in the pantheon of the global economy — most notably, the deity, War, who is the protector of the powers that roam Earth seeking resources and markets. War demands the sacrifice of able-bodied men and women. Though controversial, human sacrifice continues to be an important part of economic religion. It is carefully prepared for. When sacrificial deaths happen, they are highly ritualized.

The Temples of Economic Religion

Insurance company towers, bank buildings pointing skyward, and corporate headquarters are inhabited by the priests and staff of economic religion. Among the most hallowed shrines are Wall Street, the Federal Reserve Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Close behind are other stock exchanges and the financial and corporate institutions which have achieved the status of too-big-to-fail — a status of accumulated wealth, power, and control that assures their salvation by government no matter their mistakes.

The Market lavishes grace on these large institutions in that they are rarely held to full accountability for their failures. Their functions are holy to The Market — so sacred in the marketplace that governments step up to insure their continuing security. They have achieved eternal life.

The priesthood and staff of treasury departments and governments, joined by the teaching ministry of corporate media, explain to citizens that redistributing some of their financial assets to these sacred economic players is a reasonable sacrifice they need to make to the gods of the economy. Legislators, functioning as adjunct staff of economic religion, get in step with the financial priesthood and offer a concurring vote. Citizens are assured that The Market will bless them for their support.

Our dissent, on the other hand, encounters the wrath of The Market. It is a serious transgression for anyone, from citizen worshipers to occupants of the shrines, to block the holy path of increasing wealth as measured by stock exchanges, Gross Domestic Product, and the global economy. You can’t expect The Market to reward a dissenter. The way of the transgressor is hard.

Who's the Pope of Market Religion?

The chair of the Federal Reserve Bank occupies the seat of The Market religion’s high priest or pope. Heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Treasury Department, Goldman Sachs, large financial institutions and too-big-to-fail banks are leading clerics. They interpret to others the mysteries of The Market and its “invisible hand.” They decide on what theology of The Market, Mammon, Growth, and other deities fits the orthodox creed of the present and what does not. They determine what is right and wrong practice for the priesthood, as well as the staff they supervise throughout the economy.

They get a hand from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which oversees the Wall Street traders and fund managers. But given all the speculation and corruption, the oversight has a lot of overlook in it. Nonetheless, just watch what the markets do when Pope Bernanke talks.