Normalizing Inhumanity and Corruption
Human Development
A New Normal
As we redefine and begin to institutionalize this new normality, we redefine what it means to be a human being in this nation and on this planet. As we are asked to redefine the genocide in Gaza as only national defense by Israel, we are redefining what it means to be a human being with the right to exist. We are asked to reject the idea that all individuals are significant deserving respect, justice and inclusion into the human family, as a treasured part of the great web of life of this planet.
As we redefine and normalize corruption, we lose our connection with truth and honesty. In this new normal we allow what goes on with political lobbying, with dark money in politics, with what is allowed in advertising, with what is allowed by lack of disclosure by businesses, corporations, judges, and politicians. Anything seems to be OK as long as you do not get caught or exposed, and even then, there may be no consequences.
Even intimidation has become somehow acceptable, as long as it leads to the desired result (any means to an end). Deceit and corruption seem to be acceptable as long as they result in profit or power.
We are in the process of creating a new reality for human beings. It is a reality in which anything is acceptable if it results in an increase in wealth, power, control, and predictability. It is a new morality.
Morality
I just want to stop and define morality as being connected with what is seen as the ultimate goal within the prevailing system. Our ordinary sense of morality in this nation has traditionally been defined by the Christian ethic about good and bad. But we have seen that ethic being replaced in our modern American life with an economic god of wealth and profit engendered by Capitalism, a system in which economics becomes the spiritual center of human life on this planet. The new morality elevates the accumulation of wealth as the most moral goal of all.
Capitalism as a Civic Religion
In this new religion of Capitalism, the greatest heresy in our modern nation is to suggest that there might be some other approach to economics besides free market capitalism or even that Capitalism should serve and support democracy and not ask democracy to serve Capitalism. And in that system, wealth is the goal and the measure of success, and indeed to a kind of saintliness, to be honored and worshiped. We even have churches of that religion in every community, the Chamber of Commerce. We have the daily worship of the stock market and there is prayerful attention to those gods of commerce and wealth in the news daily. There are even a plethora of special programs about how to create and deal with wealth, not to mention the ads for financial services, and, of course, ads as to how to spend whatever wealth you may have. It is practically anathema to have any gods before it. We spend our lives worshiping at the altar of Capitalism in the hopes that we will be deemed acceptable. In our wilder dreams, we might hope to attain some higher level in the church hierarchy. Indulgences can be purchased with the proper campaign contributions. Sainthood is reserved for those who have already reached the pinnacle of economic success. Many others may strive for sainthood and occasionally one makes it, but it is rare.
There is monastic training to be had in the schools of economics and the granting of MBAs. There are apprenticeships at banks, financial institutions, tech companies and Wall Street brokerage houses. You may graduate into the highest levels of government, or a hedge fund, or even entrepreneurial enterprises, especially if you can find a V. C. (Venture Capitalist) to fund you. You can become one of the “rulers of the universe”, with billions or even trillions at your personal disposal. You can truly do anything you want without restrictions. You have the unlimited wealth and control to manipulate the world. And globalization has extended that religion to cover the entire globe.
It is the purity of that dream that provides the new definition of morality in terms of the unimpeachable goals of Capitalism, the true religion of the modern world.
The Human Spirit
And where is the human spirit, or any sense of humanity, in that new religion. It is non-existent except as a distraction from what is truly important. And the capitalistic campaign against it is not unlike the early attempts of the Roman Empire to defeat the barbarians, or the attempts of Christians to do away with paganism.
The problem, of course, is what happens to the individual human being in this new scheme. The individual is redefined as an economic unit with value only as long as that individual contributes, at least in some small way, to the vitality of capitalism and that takes the form of mass production and mass consumption to endlessly feed the system. As an individual there is only disempowerment and relegation to the masses who worship at the feet of the Lords of Capitalism.
Ultimately the fate of humanity is of little concern, except to the degree that it can produce enough economic units to keep the system functioning at full potential.
As far as corruption is concerned as that system becomes normalized and institutionalized, it is totally moral and acceptable in the pursuit of the goals of Capitalism.
Choices
We are left with a choice. We either become the willing drones of a dehumanizing system or we reassert our humanity, taking our role as empowered citizens seriously and rejecting the attempts to normalize inhumanity and corruption and, instead, reawaken the human spirit. It is time to renew and refresh the civic religion of democracy in which we value and support the human spirit, honesty and openness and humanity itself.
It is time to reestablish a new morality, putting the survival of humanity itself at the center, as the ultimate goal, connected to the planet and to the web of life.
It is time to normalize and institutionalize humanity itself.
I agree with your thesis and support your call for the reawakening of the human spirit and the reestablishment of a "new morality". But it might help for all of us to reflect on the Age of Enlightenment (particularly the Scottish Enlightenment) and how it shaped the thinking and motivations of our American "founding fathers". When reading the works of Thomas Paine (including his pamphlet, "Common Sense") and those of Thomas Jefferson and James Adams. We may find that the "new morality" we are seeking today was already envisioned in the morality of their early times.
But, then came the Industrial Revolution that "required" the amassing of large amounts of capital to build productive capacity and the removal of accountability to the local communities that engendered the creation of corporations. Worse yet - was the growth of "Evangelicalism" that replaced the prevailing original secular "Deism" of the founding fathers and morphed into the Christian capitalist dogma that you describe.
In search of the "New Morality", perhaps we need to become "originalists"!
Onward & upward! - Rob