The Soul of a Man under Capitalism: The Economic Hard-Right and its Ethical Shortcomings

The Soul of a Man under Capitalism

The Economic Hard-Right and its Ethical Shortcomings

It is often heard said by the proponents of Capitalism that their system is supreme, providing the masses with every opportunity to succeed and elevate their socio-economic status. However, I would posit that its perspectives on social services and the ethical obligations of citizens to their fellow mammals is, when euphemized heavily – “limited”. Many of those whom I have met seem to be in favour of a mixed economy, despite their overwhelmingly austere objections to instilling any socialist tendencies into everyday life. The idea of the self-correcting panacea for the intelligent right-wing, suggests that any crash or implosion of the system can merely be reduced to minor pitfalls from which the public can eventually recover. This is an obscene conceit, and (at risk of sounding too Libertarian and New-Leftist) is a scathing indictment of our ethical standards as higher primates. By what right, do these individuals (out of whom the youthful members speak so dishonestly seeing as they more than likely have not yet endured or sustained a depression or recession) babble about their nobility and integrity? The depravities, suffering, and injustices of recession cannot be rhetorically reduced to mere and necessary byproducts of a glorious system that need only be tolerated. For whom are all these funds being accrued and conserved if the public is so marginalized and damaged? The alleged noble and persistent efforts here are not remotely related to valiance in the slightest degree; there is no gallantry in the conscious and willful disregard of your comrades. To profess otherwise in this case is to demonstrate misanthropy and fecklessness. These are the axiomatic positions of an ideology championing a rigid and transactionalist mentality. Solidarity and mutual concern are integral components of the stamps of our lowly origins and are essential to our survival. They are the hallmarks of the development of the one true gift from nature we do know we possess – the faculty of reason. Distribution need not be exacerbated to the point of communism, but it is a vital part of the hard and soft wiring of society and its constituents. To spurn the gift and the potential fruits that can be harvested from it is to reject and destroy the premise from which the endowment sprung – the inception of humanity. As Aristotle so lucidly and valiantly asserted, the goal of our existence and the human condition is to attain happiness – and not to confuse a conduit to it as the ineffable phenomenon itself.