The finance industry crashed. With it emerged again, and again the unethical and illegal conduct of those governing the affairs of companies. Where did such permission come from?
John Calvin was a theologian of the reformation of 1600s. His theology was disciplined, individualistic, and intense, as fitted the agreed personality of the man. His theology is alive and well, in the modern Presbyterian and Methodist Churches. He was a concerned and ethical man.
In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith gave the world the idea of the invisible hand of the market. He was a concerned and ethical man.
Darwin gave the world the survival of the fittest. Darwin was a concerned and ethical man.
Economic growth to improve the lot of people emerged as a social priority, a commendable goal, adopted by governments around the world. Three sets of ideas fitted together like hands in hand-made gloves.
There emerged the idea of ‘robber barons’ focused on growth, productivity, and output. Self-absorbed, unconcerned with community, since the invisible hand takes care of that, aggressive and often ruthless to be the fittest in the race for survival, who attended church, pious as fitted disciplined, intensity, given salvation in Hallowed Halls, while using and abusing community and ‘common’ people. The term ‘robber baron’ reflected their ethics, unconcerned by their actions that for them were justified within the philosophical framework.
From the collision of ideas came accepted duality of ethical standards. Within their worldview, sometimes referred to, somewhat unkindly, as Calvinism, they saw themselves as ethical people. They justified their greed, and to its shame offered salvation by an unethical Church. By my standards, these were not ethical people.
It was all within the Law. However, legislation cannot resolve all and cannot establish a balanced sensibly fair society. Ethics in the form of self-responsibility to fairness and reasonable dealings must be the backbone of social structure.
In response to this greed still with us today, came Marx. A most passionate man, concerned at what he saw, writing of such fervor as to drive a movement called ‘socialism’, so the left wing is born. Unfortunately, the intellectual core of the work of Marx is seriously lacking. The culmination of the socialist view Russia, predictably collapsing under the weight of the same greed and privilege, arising from the ethical considerations that Marx attacked.
The central questions remain today, what is a fair society, how is wealth to be distributed and by what means? Marx did not succeed with his answers they do not work.
A founding principles of Western thought, if not the founding principle, is the inalienable right of every human being to pursue fulfillment of their spirit in the way they choose, merely being required to ensure ethics whereby in so pursuing their own ends they do not hinder others pursuing their ends. This is a fulfilled life for all, a worthy social end in which I believe.
Economics needs be a servant to spiritual social end, not its master, economic philosophy subservient to the fulfillment of our spirit. If we do not answer the questions that Marx failed to answer, answer in depth based on sound and secure social science, then regulation will progressively ensure the necessary discipline, and more and more, we will cease to be free.
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