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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 12:19 |
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| Bill Walz |
When Bill Clinton was running for president he coined the term, “It’s the economy, stupid,” as the catch phrase that he rode into the White House. Now that Hillary is trying for her turn, she, and all other candidates, would do well to remember that advice. This said, I am not implying that Bill’s formulation for the economy was correct, or that Hillary has any magic understanding. What is true about the observation is that the economy really is at the heart of most every issue America must address. Behind the major issues is always an accountancy sheet measuring what a policy is going to cost whom, and who is going to benefit.
Please don’t believe for a moment that issues of war and peace or civil liberties and rights are not about profit and loss. They are. The major issues identified in the Presidential campaigns facing this country — health care, the Iraq War, terrorism, immigration, the environment, education, human values and decency, energy and certainly the myriad and growing economic challenges we face — are about economics. What has been only background noise in the debate, coming from the second- and third-tier candidates, is any questioning of the fundamental structure of the economy and how it affects decisions across the spectrum of issues. Republican/Libertarian Ron Paul and now-dropped-out Democrats Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards have challenged our particular brand of government-protected-corporate-for-profit system.
I applaud libertarian Paul, even though I disagree with his conclusions
in many areas. He believes in the market as the guiding force for the
society and that government is an anathema. He is wrong. The market is
an instrument. It is government that has the obligation to steer
market forces and we, the people, have the obligation to steer
government; thus it is imperative that this interaction have altruism
at its core. The mess we are in now is because the corporate market
forces have been steering government and the society, corrupting both.
The people have become the pawns of the market. Kucinich and Edwards
were warning of this and their voices in the debate had real value.
Ron Paul believes in what could be called the enlightenment of
self-interest — that people left to their own devices will eventually
arrive at enlightened conclusions and policies. I respond that this
theory is based on people operating from a level of enlightenment that
has not yet been realized. Americans have been led by the capitalist
ethic to be too identified with personal self-interest, power and
greed. It is these tendencies, unbalanced by a sufficient consciousness
of the collective interest, that has caused all the suffering of human
history. The work of authentic social leaders is to awaken people’s
altruism.
Revolutions are always about economics. Progress is always in the
direction of a collective successfully being expanded to include those
who were previously excluded. Be assured, I am not including communism
as a successful economic/political model. Communism was a disaster. All
communist revolutions have been failures at achieving the intent of the
revolution. They changed only who was the master doing the exploiting.
In totalitarianism of the right or the left, the privileged class
shrinks. The genius of democracy is that by its nature, the collective,
who are included in the benefits and security of society, grows.
This is why the natural economic companion of democracy in a world of
shrinking resources is socialism, not capitalism. To an American, of
course, this is heresy. But, it’s the economy, stupid! The capitalist
economy that worked for us in times of unlimited resources has now
brought us into crisis. A model that only works with unlimited growth
cannot address the need to begin stabilizing and distributing more
equitably the resources of this limited Earth. The capitalist market
works like a cancer, growing or dying. We need a new model that is a
cure — that balances energies and brings harmony, not endless
competition and exploitation.
The really big problem we face is that American policy is dominated by
those who profit from the existing market-driven system, and both the
policies and the system are broken, unable to address the issues facing
this nation and humanity.
The central guiding force of a government dedicated to humanism and
balance is not operating. Democrats, including Obama and Clinton,
incline toward understanding the importance of humanistic government
steering society and the economy, while Republicans vehemently oppose
the concept, but its true wisdom has not yet been embraced within
established American politics. This is not new.
The model already successfully exists in the democratic socialism of
today’s ascending Western European countries, but Americans refuse to
see this because of decades of propaganda. We must awaken to its truth.
The next great American leader will be the one who makes this leap and
can inspire America to follow towards a new vision less ambitious for
the individual and more ambitious for a total and shared quality of
life.
There is a fundamental question America must face. We must face whether
our loyalty to the free-enterprise market system has been a blind or a
wise choice. It is not that individual enterprise is wrong. It isn’t,
unless it is being primarily motivated and directed by the forces of
profit and personal power.
Individual enterprise, guided and motivated by true enlightened
self-interest, the understanding that ultimately the security of the
individual is dependent on the security of all, is the natural human
economic structure that we have lost.
Unbridled self-interest motivated by greed and exclusionism is not
good. In the transcendent issue of the 21st Century, climate change
(sorry McCain, not terrorism), this capitalist ethic will prevent us
doing what is necessary. I hope we can awaken in time.
In dealing with the spectrum of issues before us, Bill Clinton was
right. It is all about the economy, and it could be a fatal stupidity
not to recognize it.
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Bill Walz is a UNC Asheville adjunct faculty member and a private
practice teacher of mindfulness, personal growth and consciousness.
Contact at bill.walz-at-worldnet.att.net or 258-3241.
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