Too many Americans know little about market directed capitalism and how it has shaped the world and led to this moment where civilization faces mass destruction trigger by violent climatic changes. And most world leaders remain silent about the crisis we face.
At a time when the world should be uniting around a master plan to combat the crisis, we instead faces the possibility of nuclear war over Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine. Putin may be demented enough to try something along those lines. No one really knows how far gone he might be, or what his internal ability he has to do so is. Logic says he’s losing big and bluffing, but logic may not be in charge. Wounded animals are always more dangerous.
Climate Change and Capitalism
Understanding how and why capitalist industrial development and modern civilization led to global warming is essential. This dramatically unbalanced and predatory economic system is embedded into the developed world’s conscientiousness and history of empire building, along with patriarchy and authoritarianism, and comparable in influence to a global religion.
In America it claims to stand for freedom and human rights and has fought wars to stop any other system, socialist, communist or even reformist, to alter it. A war it is always fighting, both internally and externally.
It’s important to understand how advocates of capitalism often lump socialism and communism together with fascism, down to a point where all meanings of these terms are lost except they becomes “dirty” words associated with a renegade and repressive governments.
Optional Section
Read if you need more perspective on some aspects of capitalism and socialism or skip.
Truly socialist society has never been achieved in modern times, in my opinion. But even capitalist societies employ socialist leaning reforms and efforts, usually in response to struggle by the oppressed working classes. Including our own. Except if you listen to some Republicans, who characterize any benefit not destined for the capitalist classes, as socialism and oppose it. Democratic leaders often do the opposite and avoid characterizing any systematic class benefit as a socialist aspect of government like the plague.
An aspect of taxation, where the more you make, the more you pay, always incorporated a socialist potential. From the start it had to be kept from being applied as justly and widely as it could have. It had the obvious potential to develop into an income distribution system that could have tamed capitalist excesses if business were taxed at higher rates and the many tax deductions that developed for them were more limited and tax revenues were more targeted to benefit the working classes. The wealthier interests in capitalist society always used it’s influence over government to prevent more equal distribution of wealth under such a policy.
Section 8 subsidies, now almost extinct, also lean left and socialist on the scale. And given our worsening homeless crisis, needs to be revisited politically. Benefits like social security, under which both employers and workers paid into a retirement fund also has socialist aspects and potential.
Socialism for the Banks?
And ironically, so does a backwards policy of public money being used to insure and bail out banks when they fail qualify as socialism — for the wealthy! Although any government officials would have to be “tied to a tree” to be forced to admit it.
Towards a More Accurate Definition of Socialism
A more accurate description of socialism would be tying economic growth and balance to the welfare, wages and productive capacity of its workers and the environment. In this sense, wages must be in alignment with a living wage and production must eliminate as best as we can the damaging environmental and worker related consequences of what we create. How these issues are decided must be the center point of society and must be democratically arrived at.
All progress in the past in all societies, no matter what you called them, were based on a waning or waxing class war between labor and employers/owners for a share of the wealth or profits created. Major industries must also be owned publicly under socialism, which requires a much more direct kind of democracy and Constitution or public ownership would wind up being in name only. Whomever manages public ownership is in reality also the owner.
As far as defining communism, no one has even got near establishing a fully functioning socialist society. Marxists defined it as an advanced future stage of socialism. It became a “dirty” propaganda word for politicians in capitalist countries, one to be feared after nations that attempted to establish socialism failed to even achieve a measure of real socialism and degenerated into authoritarian societies that in many ways resembled fascist states.
Most Modern States are Capable of a Collapse into a Fascist-like Condition
Today, America is not so slowly degenerating into a fascist state. It’s not there yet, but there are dangerous and aggressive internal forces at a work. A force that is incapable of rejecting a man as demonstrably criminal and incompetent as Donald Trump. So we see that both capitalist and aspiring socialist states remain vulnerable to a collapse into a fascist-like condition. Mainly because both have a history of the same authoritarian and patriarchal tendencies.
Cambodia under Pol Pot being the best example, followed closely by the Soviet Union under Stalin. Both distorted and misleading propaganda and actual occurrences of failing socialist attempts admittedly did much to undermine support for building authentically socialist societies.
It should be remembered that authoritarianism has dominated most nations throughout the history of civilization and proved to be one of the biggest obstacles to socializing modern nations. Authoritarianism and it’s brother, patriarch, are a hop-skip-and-a-jump from a dictatorship, which as we already know, typically employs a tyrannical leader guilty of directing major atrocities.
End Optional Section
Capitalism as a Religious Cult?
Capitalist ideology it comparable to religious doctrine and does as much as it can to make sure that society blesses capitalism as the best system possible. I am most familiar with capitalism in America, so I will simply remind Christians of the numerous socialist leanings of Jesus as reported in New Testament writings and how little of that doctrine today survives in practice.
The freedom they are talking about, is less about our Constitutional freedoms, and more about the freedom of capitalist ideology and the profit motive to defeat most efforts to elevate social priorities and the health of the planet as the driving consideration for any given society.
Truth be told, capitalism has elevated the world’s privileged minorities to kingly levels of wealth, power and privilege and left the rest of the planet mostly in abject poverty and environmental crisis. Over the years, corporate capitalism has done much to erase the relevance of our Constitution and maneuvered the wealthy capitalist sectors into a power behind government which subverts and undermines democracy and has major elements it its upper classes working to dissolve our nation into a corporate dictatorship.
World Poverty: The Flip Side of Empires
Developed countries have fairly large middle classes that are unaware firsthand of how this incredibly rapid development was financed and made possible. Giving them the appearance of great capitalist successes. But even within these countries are large pockets of poverty, bias, racism, homophobia, dramatic inequality, out of control cancer rates, corporate domination, runaway costs of living for many and of course, environmental destruction and species extinction. These are governments which equate capitalist health with the health of the rest of society and the world.
Fossil fuels became the engine of capitalist industrial development because it was cheap and abundant. It’s harmful effects soon became known and by the time the 20th Century began, it was known by science that fossil fuels could alter the climate, damage the environment, cause cancer, lung and other diseases.
Capitalist health is also dependent on perpetual expansion and unbalanced development to keep up profit rates as high as possible. Both major reasons why so much environmental damage has been done to the planet. It has been long been polluting and destroying the environment to make those profits and obtain cheap fossil fuels to power it.
Incapable of Balance
It is fatally resistant to a slower and more balanced form of development and does things like rip mounts apart to get coal and other natural resources and does as little as possible to repair or prevent the environmental damage they create.
Numerous cancer-causing and toxic chemicals are leaked into food, the Earth and the water supply constantly at so-called “safe levels” even in the industrial nations. Much higher levels everywhere else. Many of the products we consume are in this category. The environmental protections we’ve won through struggle are still on the corporate hit list to be removed and poorly or rarely enforced.
Climate Change Environmentalism will be Resisted
Despite overwhelming evidence of recent climatic change threatening eventual destruction of most of the planet’s species, environment and ecology, there has been no major steps taken by our leaders to acknowledge or change this path. Yes, President Biden has spoken out as some other leaders have, and has managed to take some small but important steps, and that should be acknowledged. But it is presently far from being enough.
Like a substance abuser on heroin or crack, capitalism knows no other ways but their present addiction and destructive ones. It is not inclined to allow other ideologies to have a voice in directing society. We should not expect our world leaders to step up to the plate in a way the situation calls for without tremendous pressures.
Make Our Voices Heard
Much has been done in terms of pressure, and is being done, here and across the globe by environmental groups. We are not alone. The popular movement, one that votes, may be key to prompting decisive action.
There is a large demonstration scheduled for September 17th at the U.N. in NYC.There may also be local demonstrations across America on that date. If you’re from NYC or can make it there, be there!
I’d also like to see local activists consider setting up tables on community streets to engage people in conversation. Recently we called a repairman to the house, somehow global warming got mentioned in our conversations. He was obviously informed by Fox News or someplace like it that it was a hoax. I said “If only that were true.” It started an interesting conversation as he did not know a single fact as to why that might be either true or false.”
He was aware of the record boiling heat wave in the South Central part of the country. We went on to get into an interesting conservation. Turns out he does visit the Weather Channel as he does outside repair work.
I remarked that the Weather Channel relied on weather experts, science and scientists. And that he should keep following what’s happening here and across the globe and think about whether or not it’s a hoax. He was more than polite with me as a customer. He seemed to be really interested in what I had to day. Time was not wasted.
Broaden the Movement
I also think that every progressive group and organization (from Black Life Matters, Unions, and Gay Organizations to Women’s Organizations, Native Americans, Office Workers and Immigrant Groups), should be brought into the environmental movement in some fashion. As climate change effects every single one of us! It must not be allowed to be a niche movement just for progressives in the middle class.
Professional climate change deniers are easy game to be exposed. Let’s do it.
Final Thoughts
Whatever criticisms of President Biden I might have, he has both spoken out on global warming and passed legislation, although only a fraction of what’s going to be needed.
Towards that end, It is also imperative we keep the Republicans and fascism out of the White House in 2024. The direct of our environmental movement as well as the world’s will be greatly influenced, for better or worse, by the 2024 elections.
Always remember to vote!