Nov. 17, 2008
MANN TALK: Worst Prophecy of the Century?
By Perry Mann
Time magazine judges as the worst prophecy, so far, of the century one by Karl Marx: “Capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of nature, its own negation.” And Time adds: “By 2000, communism had won and lost a world.” Time was wise to modify its judgment by “so far.”
Man’s being is divided between Capitalism, the ultimate producer of material wealth, and Christ, the ultimate source of spiritual wealth. They have nothing in common. In fact, they are antipodal and antithetical and antipathetical , the former tending to seduce and subvert and crucify the latter. The compatible juxtaposition of Christianity and Capitalism in the same nation is not just an oddity, it is an egregious example of man’s capacity to delude himself in order to have the ephemeral comforts of this world and the prospects of eternal security in the next. There is no possibility of reconciliation between Capitalism and Christ. There is only a compromise that produces in most humans a daily variation of pleasure, guilt and shame, except in those by nature exempt from empathy, conscience and scruples.
Man is split between self-preservation and altruism. Nature programmed self-preservation in him prior to adding altruism, the device to perpetuate the tribe and thus the individuals in it, so egoism still is a superior motivation in most humans but it is humanized by altruism in many others. Self-preservation exhibits itself in competition; altruism in cooperation. Capitalism is competition; socialism is cooperation. Christ without question was a socialist.
In every society there is politics and in every society the politics manifests itself in an identical spectrum: ultra-conservatism to ultra-liberalism, reactionarianism to radicalism, materialism to spiritualism. It is the same because man has been, is and will be the same wherever. There are those in a society that will hew their way to their goal with a bloody ax; and there are those in society that will build a house beside the road and become a friend to man or that will play the role of Johnny Appleseed or Francis of Assisi. Every generation has them and they reflect in their living where they fall within the political spectrum and vote in accordance with their dispositions. The ax-hewers are egoists and capitalists; the bird feeders are altruists and socialists.
Man does not live by bread alone. He is distinguished from baser species by his love of truth, his appreciation of beauty and his legacy of empathy. And his moral nature reached its epitome in the ineffable life and message of Christ, who taught that material wealth was an insuperable obstacle to gaining the kingdom of heaven.
Capitalism produces bread in abundance, though it is unjustly distributed; but the process of production and the things of production leave man spiritually malnourished. Christ furnishes man spiritual sustenance in abundance but advises the rich man that in order to gain heaven or spiritual purity he must give his riches to the poor and follow him.
If man as a species has a future it is not as one that is preoccupied with self-preservation and long life in order to acquire wealth and things, but it is as one that recognizes that the level of his altruistic nature is unique and the most godlike aspect of his nature and is that aspect that he must nurture, refine and cherish, not that baser aspect that induces the masses to migrate to Las Vegas.
Capitalism alienates man from nature, the source and sustenance of his spirituality. It degrades nature inexorably in the process of making things and building an environment antithetical to that of nature and to the nature of man. Capitalism’s agents hawk products inimical to man’s health in a manner insufferable to anyone with a sense of cosmic propriety. How can such a system endure when it is, in the very process of success, becoming a cancer on the beauty of nature and the body of man and all the while smothering man’s nascent spirituality?
Marx knew Christ and he knew that capitalism not only was unjust economically but that it was spiritually enervating. Worst prophecy? Time will tell.
* * *
Perry Mann is a former teacher, a lawyer, a former prosecuting attorney of Summers County and a columnist for Huntington News Network. He lives in Hinton, WV.
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MANN TALK: Worst Prophecy of the Century?
By Perry Mann
Time magazine judges as the worst prophecy, so far, of the century one by Karl Marx: “Capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of nature, its own negation.” And Time adds: “By 2000, communism had won and lost a world.” Time was wise to modify its judgment by “so far.”
Man’s being is divided between Capitalism, the ultimate producer of material wealth, and Christ, the ultimate source of spiritual wealth. They have nothing in common. In fact, they are antipodal and antithetical and antipathetical , the former tending to seduce and subvert and crucify the latter. The compatible juxtaposition of Christianity and Capitalism in the same nation is not just an oddity, it is an egregious example of man’s capacity to delude himself in order to have the ephemeral comforts of this world and the prospects of eternal security in the next. There is no possibility of reconciliation between Capitalism and Christ. There is only a compromise that produces in most humans a daily variation of pleasure, guilt and shame, except in those by nature exempt from empathy, conscience and scruples.
Man is split between self-preservation and altruism. Nature programmed self-preservation in him prior to adding altruism, the device to perpetuate the tribe and thus the individuals in it, so egoism still is a superior motivation in most humans but it is humanized by altruism in many others. Self-preservation exhibits itself in competition; altruism in cooperation. Capitalism is competition; socialism is cooperation. Christ without question was a socialist.
In every society there is politics and in every society the politics manifests itself in an identical spectrum: ultra-conservatism to ultra-liberalism, reactionarianism to radicalism, materialism to spiritualism. It is the same because man has been, is and will be the same wherever. There are those in a society that will hew their way to their goal with a bloody ax; and there are those in society that will build a house beside the road and become a friend to man or that will play the role of Johnny Appleseed or Francis of Assisi. Every generation has them and they reflect in their living where they fall within the political spectrum and vote in accordance with their dispositions. The ax-hewers are egoists and capitalists; the bird feeders are altruists and socialists.
Man does not live by bread alone. He is distinguished from baser species by his love of truth, his appreciation of beauty and his legacy of empathy. And his moral nature reached its epitome in the ineffable life and message of Christ, who taught that material wealth was an insuperable obstacle to gaining the kingdom of heaven.
Capitalism produces bread in abundance, though it is unjustly distributed; but the process of production and the things of production leave man spiritually malnourished. Christ furnishes man spiritual sustenance in abundance but advises the rich man that in order to gain heaven or spiritual purity he must give his riches to the poor and follow him.
If man as a species has a future it is not as one that is preoccupied with self-preservation and long life in order to acquire wealth and things, but it is as one that recognizes that the level of his altruistic nature is unique and the most godlike aspect of his nature and is that aspect that he must nurture, refine and cherish, not that baser aspect that induces the masses to migrate to Las Vegas.
Capitalism alienates man from nature, the source and sustenance of his spirituality. It degrades nature inexorably in the process of making things and building an environment antithetical to that of nature and to the nature of man. Capitalism’s agents hawk products inimical to man’s health in a manner insufferable to anyone with a sense of cosmic propriety. How can such a system endure when it is, in the very process of success, becoming a cancer on the beauty of nature and the body of man and all the while smothering man’s nascent spirituality?
Marx knew Christ and he knew that capitalism not only was unjust economically but that it was spiritually enervating. Worst prophecy? Time will tell.
* * *
Perry Mann is a former teacher, a lawyer, a former prosecuting attorney of Summers County and a columnist for Huntington News Network. He lives in Hinton, WV.
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