Comments on: Ian On Sunday http://www.stabroeknews.com/2008/features/12/07/ian-on-sunday-67/ Guyana News, Sports, Businesss and Entertainment Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:55:29 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Pantha http://www.stabroeknews.com/2008/features/12/07/ian-on-sunday-67/comment-page-1/#comment-67400 Pantha Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:26:24 +0000 http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=32115#comment-67400 Capitalism and compassion are mutually exclusive. The only reason a businessman will exercise what you might term compassion is when it motivates his workers to work harder due to some kind of perceived benefit (like day care for kids, or the crazy dot-com office culture of technology startups). For you to believe that it can come from the heart when the bottom line is at stake is naive and undercuts your analysis. I am also intrigued why you would ignore the 4+ billion human beings who are not Judaeo-Christian. Does the concept of Muslim zakaat not figure anywhere? Or the Vedic morality underlying the Hindu artha? The eightfold path of Buddhism? Capitalism harnesses greed as a basic motor of achievement. Nothing wrong with that if practiced well (not that I really know of any such instance), but the true curb on its excesses is not self-imposed purity of thought and mind (which in any cases is much too subject to rationalization for me to ever trust it), but a prudent and pragmatic understanding of that greed, and stringent state regulation to keep it in check. Capitalism and compassion are mutually exclusive. The only reason a businessman will exercise what you might term compassion is when it motivates his workers to work harder due to some kind of perceived benefit (like day care for kids, or the crazy dot-com office culture of technology startups). For you to believe that it can come from the heart when the bottom line is at stake is naive and undercuts your analysis.

I am also intrigued why you would ignore the 4+ billion human beings who are not Judaeo-Christian. Does the concept of Muslim zakaat not figure anywhere? Or the Vedic morality underlying the Hindu artha? The eightfold path of Buddhism?

Capitalism harnesses greed as a basic motor of achievement. Nothing wrong with that if practiced well (not that I really know of any such instance), but the true curb on its excesses is not self-imposed purity of thought and mind (which in any cases is much too subject to rationalization for me to ever trust it), but a prudent and pragmatic understanding of that greed, and stringent state regulation to keep it in check.

]]> By: Shaun Michael Samaroo http://www.stabroeknews.com/2008/features/12/07/ian-on-sunday-67/comment-page-1/#comment-66280 Shaun Michael Samaroo Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:36:34 +0000 http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=32115#comment-66280 Competition and striving to be the best offer any good-hearted individual the best training reins to achieve success as a human being. So we cannot start thinking about economics - and by extension the state of the world - with the presupposition that economic competition fuels bad results. To be a competitor means to strive to be the best, and therefore the world cannot be an equal place. Orwell was right, Mr McDonald. I think your article published here and "widely circulated on the Internet" makes a fundamental mistake in its presuppositions. And I believe that you are way too intelligent not to be troubled somewhere deep in your soul by your thesis. First of all, no "new ideology" has emerged in the world that generates a grabbing, greedy commercial class who scorns the poor and suffering. The new generation has become post-ideological. Humankind, with the medium of the Internet, is getting the message that such confining structures as ideology are bad, bad, bad. So we are rejecting such structural confines. What is actually going on - of course not reflected in the mainstream media AS YET - is that "capitalism" is evolving into a more social tool. That in itself frightens me, because to socialize society is to "commonalize" human beings. But "capitalism" is finding a heart of compassion and care. So we are seeing in developed countries like Canada, and even poor places like Bangladesh, the emergence of "social entrepreneurship" and "social innovation" and a growing philanthropy class, including Bill Gates, one of the richest in the world. I very much believe that pure economics should be absolutely free and unhindered. But we do not live in a one-dimensional world. The economic structure must be a lower tier in society, answerable to its boss - the justice system, which itself must be fair and credible and clean as a whistle. What the world community needs is not a reform of the economic system of wealth generation under the freedom of "capitalism". What the world needs, rather, is to discover our soul's purity - our compassion and kindness and a sense of caring for our neighbors. This is decidedly a Judeo-Christian need. As the centers of social conscience have failed us, we have degenerated as a human society. We cannot blame the titans of industry and commerce for such societal failures. Let those who have the genius to create wealth be able to do so. And let the other PILLARS of society set the parameters for the race to be fair and equitable, without causing the race to be a place where medals are freely handed out to the lazy, uninitiated and uninspired. Contemporary society fails to the degree that its 'social VALUES' structures fuel greed, profit-at-all-costs and wanton economic waste. This is where the problem lies - not in wealth generation and wealth creation ring, but in the social values we are cultivating in our children through culture, education and the overall nurturing of inhumane desires. Let entrepreneurship flourish in a laissez faire garden where a thousand beautiful flowers may bloom. Do not put social structures in that garden to stifle the creative genius of the cultivators. But, please ensure that the gardeners go in there with the ethical and moral value system of being cultivators of the soil, rather than rapers of the garden. The world needs good men competing, using their genius to strive for the best that we as a human society can achieve. Let us, therefore, build a society that cultivates good men and women. And then the greed and selfishness would not rule the world. Competition and striving to be the best offer any good-hearted individual the best training reins to achieve success as a human being.
So we cannot start thinking about economics – and by extension the state of the world – with the presupposition that economic competition fuels bad results. To be a competitor means to strive to be the best, and therefore the world cannot be an equal place. Orwell was right, Mr McDonald.
I think your article published here and “widely circulated on the Internet” makes a fundamental mistake in its presuppositions. And I believe that you are way too intelligent not to be troubled somewhere deep in your soul by your thesis.
First of all, no “new ideology” has emerged in the world that generates a grabbing, greedy commercial class who scorns the poor and suffering. The new generation has become post-ideological. Humankind, with the medium of the Internet, is getting the message that such confining structures as ideology are bad, bad, bad. So we are rejecting such structural confines.
What is actually going on – of course not reflected in the mainstream media AS YET – is that “capitalism” is evolving into a more social tool. That in itself frightens me, because to socialize society is to “commonalize” human beings.
But “capitalism” is finding a heart of compassion and care. So we are seeing in developed countries like Canada, and even poor places like Bangladesh, the emergence of “social entrepreneurship” and “social innovation” and a growing philanthropy class, including Bill Gates, one of the richest in the world.
I very much believe that pure economics should be absolutely free and unhindered. But we do not live in a one-dimensional world. The economic structure must be a lower tier in society, answerable to its boss – the justice system, which itself must be fair and credible and clean as a whistle.
What the world community needs is not a reform of the economic system of wealth generation under the freedom of “capitalism”. What the world needs, rather, is to discover our soul’s purity – our compassion and kindness and a sense of caring for our neighbors. This is decidedly a Judeo-Christian need. As the centers of social conscience have failed us, we have degenerated as a human society.
We cannot blame the titans of industry and commerce for such societal failures. Let those who have the genius to create wealth be able to do so. And let the other PILLARS of society set the parameters for the race to be fair and equitable, without causing the race to be a place where medals are freely handed out to the lazy, uninitiated and uninspired.
Contemporary society fails to the degree that its ’social VALUES’ structures fuel greed, profit-at-all-costs and wanton economic waste. This is where the problem lies – not in wealth generation and wealth creation ring, but in the social values we are cultivating in our children through culture, education and the overall nurturing of inhumane desires.
Let entrepreneurship flourish in a laissez faire garden where a thousand beautiful flowers may bloom. Do not put social structures in that garden to stifle the creative genius of the cultivators. But, please ensure that the gardeners go in there with the ethical and moral value system of being cultivators of the soil, rather than rapers of the garden.
The world needs good men competing, using their genius to strive for the best that we as a human society can achieve.
Let us, therefore, build a society that cultivates good men and women. And then the greed and selfishness would not rule the world.

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