You will hate this post

Is capitalism a failure? If so, what’s the antidote? It doesn’t seem much of a stretch to say that capitalism is a failure when our market has crashed twice within the last 100 years. In both instances it seems to me the primary reason for the market failure lies in the fact that humans left to their own devices are selfish, greedy and opportunistic. I find it both ironic and sickening that big business put pressure on the government a decade or so ago to stay out of “their business affairs” moaning their mantra of deregulation, only to change their tune after deregulation had run its course leaving business to its own avarice. Now the new mantra is “bail me out benevolent government…save me from the consequences of my own sin for I know not what I do.” The last part of that mantra may seem apt as we see in the media top executives floating along the horizon on their golden parachutes, laughing maniacally as they hover over the rest of us, claiming in the press that they had no idea what was going on in their businesses, and seemingly not being held responsible on any level for the devastation they’ve caused. It makes me question whether “survival of the fittest” is the most humane and the best economic policy we can come up with. I mean, after so many thousands of years, can’t we do better than this?

The typical solution to the ills of capitalism is less business and more government. But is that really the solution? When it becomes status quo for congressmen to be engaged in illicit affairs, scandal, you-name-it how can we assume that these people are capable of making decisions “for the greater good” when they can’t make simple moral and just decisions in their personal lives, which is just another way of phrasing the heart of the problem of capitalism: that people are ultimately selfish, greedy and opportunistic. This is largely why I have remained aloof from politics. How can I have hope and faith in any person who is immersed in a system that is thoroughly corrupt?

There seems to me from what I’ve seen in the media to be a lot of good about Barak Obama. What I appreciate about this year’s election is that women and not-all-white men were contenders (and winners), and I think that’s something that’s been long over-due in our nation’s history. Put very simply, it’s about damn time. However, I have heard many people say that either 1) they voted for Obama because he was black and they thought it was finally time to elect a black President or 2) because Obama was elected it proves that racism is dead in America. Now the people who generally argue point #1 are usually democrats, and the people who argue point #2 are usually republicans, but despite how differently they each perceive their own points-of-view, they both fall prey to the same wrong-headed implicitly racists assumptions. The first argument does so by putting primary to Obama’s qualifications his skin color as justification for his election. The second argument by its very admission, speaks to the fact that race is an issue (methinks thou doest protest too much). I mean, by the very fact that the media makes such a big deal out of Obama being the first black President shows how entrenched race is on our collective consciousness. What is truly ironic about this is that Obama is only half black; he’s also half white. I mean, why the hell isn’t he touted as the first half-white President? It’s true that skin color has nothing to do with his qualifications, that’s not the point; the man is well-educated (Harvard), articulate, charismatic (all things our lame-duck President lacks), so it’s no wonder Obama was a shoe-in against McCain; any young, well-educated, articulate and charismatic Democratic nominee should have been, because ultimately what most Americans vote for is either a party or an image, and Obama did a spectacular job creating the perfect image and tapping into America’s dissatisfaction with the current administration. It was a real no-brainer, and McCain knew it and all honest Republicans knew it too (or should have). Really this is all beside the point. My question is that if Obama were a quarter black would he still be the first black President? What if he were an eighth? And ultimately if we as a culture have really transcended race then what the hell does it really matter?

What I do appreciate about Obama’s campaign is that he strove to be less party focused and more issue focused. I have never been a fan of either party, and what I find enormously funny is that what the elections seem to boil down to are issues that have nothing to do with the larger ideals of each party. I can’t understand why the Democrats aren’t pushing for fetal rights when they seem to be concerned with the underdog, the marginalized and those without a voice. And it’s equally crazy how the Republicans have tapped the Evangelical crowd and the gun-lovers who are generally middle class when the Republican economic policies are all favorable for the rich, not the middle class. It captures a whole voting block based on one or two issues about which nothing ever really gets accomplished, but it’s successful in getting those blocks to vote against their own economic interest and not even notice or care.

So what’s the point? I don’t really know. All I can say is that my “hope” is not in free market capitalism. My “hope” is not in a President or a political system. I find myself coming to the same conclusion Socrates figured out over 2,500 years ago when he said that anyone who wants to rule should not rule because by the very fact that they want that sort of power and authority means they’re egomaniacs who ultimately have their own interest at heart; at the end of the day they’re selfish, greedy and opportunistic. The people who should rule are those who flee from the lure of power and authority; the ones who are humble and honest. But there is no such place for people like that in politics. There never has been and there most likely never will be.
As an American, I wish Obama the best of luck. It may startle and amaze me that anyone thinks they have the power to save our country, to give us change and hope and all those things humans have desperately wanted from the dawn of civilization. I know that I would never want such a position nor would claim to be capable of handling such a position. I know myself too well. But I do “hope” now, as I had hoped for our lame-duck eight years ago, that our President does well, and I truly hope my cynicism is misguided.