Does Anything Ever Change In Politics?

I can’t believe people’s fickleness. At the end of the Bush era everybody got hoarse clamoring for CHANGE, chanting YES, WE CAN, and now, only 8 months later, people let themselves be hoodwinked by a bunch of self-serving party hacks in the Congress of the United States, who instead of representing their constituents, side up with their real masters - the guys of Corporate America – in blocking that very change the majority of the people had demanded. One can only hope that at the very end wisdom will prevail, and people will finally come to realize that public options, like public schools, public transportation, public parks, public television, public safety, and yes, public health (like Medicare and Medicaid) don’t constitute socialism. Rather, they are what a modern democratic government is supposed to provide its citizens. Other countries, like the U.K., Canada, France, Argentina, and most others provide them, and nobody believes they are socialist countries.

Capitalism and the need for a Revolution in Spirit

An article by Benjamin Barber titled A Revolution in Spirit, published in the weekly The Nation, caught my attention not only for being well written but because it touches an issue dear to my heart, one that impacted my life in my younger years. In his article, Barber talks about the need for a revolution in the spirit in its relationship to culture, democracy, and ultimately to life. This, in my post-World War II years, was what some called Humanitarism, a doctrine that puts the spirit—with its ideals of peace, equality, and good will toward all—first. It is something I’d like to call now social capitalism.

Much has been written about the spirit of America, the wonderful force that became a beacon of hope and a cause for envy in much of the world. A spirit that, to a large extent, evolved from the rugged individualism that characterized the beginnings of the American experience. A spirit that produced our brand of capitalism, a force that not only propelled our country to become the richest nation on earth, but also, in tandem with our democratic ideals, helped the less fortunate in the world to alleviate in some extent their pervasive poverty.

But as the collapse of our present economic system demonstrates, not all is well with capitalism. Having won the Cold War, that not so symbolic struggle between Capitalism and Communism, we emerged as the sole undisputed super power. With our victory came the arrogance of the victor. The American spirit became the American hubris, and with it we began to lose many of the values that had made us great.

And now, in comes Obama. Not only is he a novelty for being our first African American president. That by itself is a milestone in the American experience. But he is exceptional in that he brings to the White House a unique intellect that with few exceptions was absent in many of its prior occupants.

One can only hope that President Obama’s call for change will help us break our cold and ruthless attitude toward what is right and wrong in our society. We definitely need a revolution in spirit, a reawakening of the spirit that once made us great.

We Americans are afraid of socialism. Maybe understandably so. But reining in capitalism in its rudest, often inhuman forms, doesn’t constitute socialism. It simply means that the government is responsibly carrying out the regulatory and oversight functions it is entrusted to execute.

The issue at hand these days is not the death of capitalism. I’d like to say that the real issue is to strengthen and purify capitalism, and thus prevent it from destroying our Western civilization as we know it.

Capitalism without morality cannot endure.