“The Great Chain of Being” [Subservient]

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If ever there were a clear case of ubiquitous déjà vu, it is The Great Chain of Being Subservient. Not in the sense of being subject to authority for the maintenance of social order balanced with individual liberty, but in the subjugation of one’s life, gifts, talents, and yearnings for the sake of money—whether for one’s own gain (or survival) or for the gain of an employer or master.

History has seen men, women, and children cycle through soul-crushing subjugations to every type of master—with reforms and revolutions mostly just empowering some new over-lord.

We pretend The Great Chain (vis-à-vis humans) was broken with democratic and industrial revolutions yet we seem to have merely extended the reach of a harsh, unmerciful over-lord—debt. An over-lord, extant from ages past, loved by the market-place, oft fed by inadequate wages, and now bloated with manufactured desires.

Why do we, too often, sacrifice gifts, talents, dreams, soul, and integrity to over-lords like debt, pay-checks, perks, bonuses, loyalties, prestige, possessions, security, etc.? Perhaps the chief cause is Fear, as in “What will become of me if I leave my soul-depleting employment?” How long before oppressions and stress manifest in mental illness?¹ Can one prosper in doing what nourishes the soul?

Haven’t we endured long enough the dogmas of competitive capitalism? Don’t we have enough evidence that cooperative capitalism is the more sure means to widespread prosperity and to the pursuit of happiness for the majority? Why is our excess (if we have any) locked in investment reserves (managed by financiers) instead of “kick starting”² projects WE deem worthy?

Thankfully, more and more activists are challenging the discredited ideologies of omniscient markets and global glorifications. Until we reject the false extremes of “free-market competition,” self-interest, and profit-primacy, The Great Chain of Being Subservient will persist in its various manifestations from the most elite HyPEs (Highy Paid Employees) to the working poor to the involuntary unemployed.

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1. http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/12/20/the-high-cost-of-workplace-mental-health/
2. http://www.kickstarter.com/

See also http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2009/12/lucky-you-lucky-them.html

Thoughts sparked in part from studying The Great Courses “Foundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western World,” with Professor Robert Bucholz; from David C. Korten books; and from Yes! magazine.

Which Hand? — Invisible? or Learned?

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Adam Smith’s invisible hand (in its present, contorted multinational condition):

By preferring the support of [global] to that of [domestic] industry, [the multinational] intends only [its] own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce [and branding] may be of the greatest value, [it] intends only [its] own gain, and [it] is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of [its revealed] intention. Nor is it always the worse for the [political] society that it was no [transparent] part of it. By pursuing [its] own interest [it] frequently promotes that of [its Highly Paid Employees, i.e., HyPEs] more effectually than when [it] really intends to promote it [for its shareholders and VIFriends]. I have never known much good done by those who affected to [manufacture globally] for the public good [of poor nations/peoples]. It is an affectation, indeed, not very [un]common among [modern corporate PR] merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it [because Ayn R. and Milton F. have done such a persuasive job through idea-branding and bull-sales].

What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, every individual [small business owner or state], it is evident, can, in [their] local situation, judge much better than any [big lender, IMF or World Bank] can .... The [Financial behemoth that] should attempt to direct private people [or sovereign nations] in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load [itself] with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no [profit-obsessed] council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a [global corporation] which had folly and presumption enough to fancy [itself] fit to exercise it.¹

ON THE OTHER HAND:

Learned Hand ² (1872 – 1961), U.S. Judge and judicial philosopher; and the lower-court judge most quoted³ by legal scholars and SCOTUS:

What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty:

▪ is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right;
▪ is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women;
▪ is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias;
▪ remembers that not even a sparrow falls to the earth unheeded;
▪ is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind the lesson that it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.⁴

In the déjà vu recyclings of this world, which hand are we presently holding? Or are we (and our various nation states) being choked by hands which have become more than visible?

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1. Original 1776 quote found in Adam Smith’s, The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 2 “Of Restraints Upon the Importation From Foreign Countries of Such Goods as Can Be Produced at Home”
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand
3. For some of those quotes, see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Learned_Hand
4. This portion of his speech (21 May 1944 in Central Park, New York City) can be found under the section “World War II” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand . This author has amended the original printed layout of the speech.

Broken Pillars

Author: A. Sobkowski
ruins of a Roman Temple
from Wikimedia Commons
Creative Commons Attribution/Share-alike license

In the Great Courses^®, Foundations of Western Civilization II series, Professor Robert Bucholz reminds us in the very first lecture, that “Above all, European culture produced certain ideas that have become pillars of our culture:

1. ‘All men are created equal.’
2. ‘No taxation without representation.’
3. ‘The people united can never be defeated.’
4. A free press.
5. Limited government.
6. Innocence until proof of guilt.
7. Judgment by a jury of peers.”

Prof. Bucholz does not ask this question, but this writer does. Why are these foundational pillars of our democracy so transparently broken in this sophisticated 21st Century? Consider:

▪ [Faux*-]Citizens United that entrenched even further the plutocracy of a corrupted system wherein corporate power and wealth make a mockery of equality.

▪ Plutocratic corporations that complain of unfair tax rates, yet seldom pay the rate and seldom suffer significant consequence, leaving the middle and lower classes to take up the tax-slack in a corrupted government in which real citizens have only faux representation.

▪ Corporate HyPEs (Highly Paid Employees) who beat the media drums of culture and social war against any who dispute the legitimacy of illegitimate reign—dividing citizens into divisive camps of beloved propagandites and reviled fact-finders.

▪ A press caught in the spin of false witness, half-truths, mammon-mongering, pandering, fear-baiting, ratings wars, and Murdoching. Where is press freedom when ad dollars kill stories, ideology trumps analysis, job security buys soul, and profit reigns supreme?

▪ Where limited government means—“too weak” to control the excesses, crimes, and corruptions of multinationals, but unlimited enough to bail out avarice; subsidize corporate profits; grant massive favors; and then to pass the costs to the people.

▪ When proof of guilt is in the mind of the Chief Beholder; when habeas corpus means to bring the body secretly to Guantanamo (et other secret places); where guilt is presumed and thereafter “confirmed” via torture.

▪ Where a “jury of peers” means authoritarian elites in secret, hearsay- or speculation-driven sessions. Where fair trials are precluded by national security claims and rights exclusions, though sometimes (preferably?) pre-empted by assassination. By what low road have we come to openly cheering assassination and defending torture in the “land of the [formerly] free”?

The pillars are shattered and broken, folks! Another déjà vu!

The only hope to rebuild and restore them is in a united, informed citizenry—rejecting the abuses and propaganda of the far right and the far left and the 14th Amendment-based person-hood of corporations. And to ask ourselves at every step: Can we ever rebuild if we fail to honor, in every instance, the virtues of those pillars (especially in relation to perceived opponents or enemies)?

How grateful we should be for the many unsung, relatively unknown activists who are in the trenches, already at work in various aspects of restoration. Fifteen have been profiled in the recent issue of Yes! Magazine.**

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* Author's contention: Every corporation is a faux-person and thus a faux-citizen despite the alleged 1886 SCOTUS ruling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood
** Winter 2010: for other positive works see, http://www.yesmagazine.org/