The Pope Calls Free Market Capitalism The Cult Of Mammon Responsible For Global Suffering
Another editorial on the Pope’s speech titled The Pope and Godless capitalism. I like this editorial because I have often characterized the corporate state as Godless, which it clearly is.
And lastly "The capitalist morality is a rejection of God.
I have decided to interrupt my posting schedule to put this up. I often wonder what level of human decency exists in the Vatican but apparently it is still able to rise to the level of a public lashing of corporate capitalist criminals and the criminal politicians who rig the system for them.
One of the Pope’s recent statements in his excoriation of the “cult of money” is that “money should serve rather than rule”. The only way that is ever going to happen is with democratic, public banking and democratic, public money that has an intent of serving democracy and human development. This is the moral crisis of our time as written on here literally hundreds of times over the years. And that means capitalism or private, for-profit capital must go. Human development, economic freedom and democracy will never be served by class-based, private, profit-driven interests. There is no precedence for it and there never will.
This speech is very important. There are over one billion Catholics in the world and most Catholics view the Pope as the Holy Father or moral leader. Whether he is or not is irrelevant. Beliefs create reality. And dare I say, it’s not too much of a stretch to state that most people on this earth view their spirituality as a higher authority than corporate capitalism or the corporate state. The Pope’s statement really isn’t something new. I have heard countless religious and spiritual leaders, priests, ministers, rabbis, monks, etc talk about the injustices and human suffering caused by corporate control and private capital. ie, Corporate capitalism. Prior Popes have rebuked capitalism and Marxism but never to this degree. At least not that I am aware of. But then never has the evil of private, for-profit capital been so viscerally exposed and never has their control over the world been so universal.
Really what this comes down to is the cult of money as noted by the Pope. Without money most corporations simply would not exist. Most companies don’t serve society or human development. They are vacuum cleaners that exist to do nothing more than suck up money. Without money most major injustices in the world would not exist. And organized criminal syndicates would likely disappear. Let’s be honest. Many corporations today are nothing more than organized crime syndicates. Whether that is a company that exists to patent food or a genome or a Wall Street firm that gambles with other people’s money or a fast food restaurant that pays nonliving wages and serves up toxins for profit.
I have had friends and readers laugh off my remark that someday money will disappear. Forever. They can’t see that world existing. Just because you can’t “see” it doesn’t mean it will never come to pass. History is full of changes and inventions that no one could see coming. This entire crisis is based on that dynamic. In fact, that is history. Most people’s minds become their prisons as they live in a fear-driven (control) reality created by the ego or manufactured self. And that prison steal’s the mind’s ability to create and dream. The day that money disappears will happen. It’s just a matter of when. And it will likely happen not because of virtuous choice but because of necessity or crisis. Do you need money to build a car or house or grow food? The only reason we need money is to create a system of class and control. A system of exploitation, violence and predation.
Rich and poor alike? The rich respect poor people? Are you kidding me? Even though the Pope and Vatican’s statement is rather pointed, there remains a vein of political correctness in their statements that veils truth. I would guess that is to protect the income stream from rich Vatican donors. Remember, the Vatican too serves mammon whether that is money, real estate holdings, investments, hierarchical power and control over other people, etc. Every hierarchical institution of the ego or of man serves a primary intent of control rather than discovery and truth.
The rich have seldom ever respected, protected or promoted the poor. Or more broadly, it’s really about respecting, protecting and promoting those whom the ego believes is of a lesser class. If they did, there would be no poor. I can think of a few examples. Eunice Kennedy Shriver started the Special Olympics. By the way, donating some part of a fortune is not really selfless nor is it about respect. That is, unless it’s done anonymously. Otherwise, getting your name on a new hospital wing is always about the donor receiving ego-stroking. How many people give away their fortunes anonymously to help impoverished people? And even when those cases exist, how much of it is simply ameliorating the ego’s guilt for having so much excess in a world where so many have so little? Is this selflessness that comes from the mind’s higher power? It is truly love, respect and concern for our fellow man?
The modern world of science and its associated productivity is a world of abundance and there is enough for everyone. Scarcity or lack of supply that exists today is a control-based myth perpetuated by class and illegitimate authority. When it comes to food, shelter and healthcare or the basic necessities of life, there is ample abundance. The patriarchal capitalist system that has existed for half a millenium doesn’t just not respect poor people, but its endless overt and covert violence preys on and exploits poor people. This class-based system of control could never exist without that predation and exploitation. Private capital sucks the excess work or intellectual capital, or as they like to call it, surplus value from those it exploits for monetary gain. That is only how class ever exists. And austerity today is the attempt by the world’s class-based capitalists and the class-based politicians who selfishly do their will, to steal literally every ounce of dignity and humanity that impoverished people have left in order to save their class rank and wealth.
Certainly all people are worthy but many are disconnected from their higher power or their humanity and thus are capable of tremendous ego-driven rationalizations and its endless evil. As John Dalberg-Acton wrote, many people of class believe they are more worthy than others – “great men are almost always bad men”. Once you understand how becoming “great” in a class-based society involves somehow taking from someone else or compromising your own humanity, then it’s not too hard to appreciate that money, class and power are the root of all evil and that great men are indeed almost always bad men. Or, at least most supposedly great men suffer from greater delusions of narcissism, psychotic behavior, greed, covetousness, exploitation, predation, violence, victimization, etc. In other words, the endless evils of the ego.
Actually if we are talking in “Christ’s name” as the Vatican remarks above, then one should consider what Jesus of Nazareth said as it pertains to topics that overlap with poverty, class and capitalism. That is, to release oneself from the evils and suffering of attachment to money, fame, worldly possessions, class and the ego-driven identity we derive by being part of the social system that exalts these ego-driven values. For the only way to achieve a higher level of enlightenment or divine connection to the universe is through releasing the ills of the ego. There is a reason that the documented teachings of Jesus of Nazareth were almost always from the countryside. Well, except when he went into the temple to confront those that had turned a sacred site into a free market capitalist moneychanger enterprise. There is some indication his sect of Judaism rejected society for all of its ego-driven evils and suffering and instead chose to live completely outside of society and its worldly influences. Social values are transient and generally determined by the values of class and title. Human values are timeless and are derived by our own divinity or higher power that exists inside all people. Even if we are disconnected from it. That is, mercy, respect, kindness, acceptance, compassion, equality, dignity, etc.
One cannot serve God or our higher power or selflessness or our own divinity and mammon as private, for-profit capital always has and always will through exploitation, predation and victimization. A world today driven by the exaltation of money certainly is evil. It is no coincidence we see truly unprecedented evil on every continent and nearly every country around the world today as global, deregulated, private for-profit capital terrorizes untold numbers of humanity, the natural world and our planet.
Any time anyone tells you that basic human needs and basic human dignity cannot be met for all people because there is not enough money available, as is the case today, even though the technology (productivity), food, shelter or healthcare facilities are available to meet those needs, that is nothing but ego-motive and its manifestation of evil. At least that is evil as defined by the Sermon on the Mount - the moral teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
Regardless of what or whom you belief Jesus of Nazareth was, he certainly was not a card-carrying member of class-based, profit-driven, free market capitalism. And apparently he died owning nothing nor having any money. I do believe that was a conscious decision from what I understand. Neither was Guatam Buddha nor any of history’s great divine, enlightened or spiritual beings card-carrying members of capitalism or its exploitative and predatory class-based values.
We know where Jesus of Nazareth probably would be if he were living in capitalist America today. He’d be living down at that local homeless shelter because he rejected all worldly possessions, consumerism and money. He wouldn’t be dining with the moneychangers on Wall Street or the criminals in Washington who wage endless war or do the moneychanger’s evil. In fact, good class-based capitalists would surely have him arrested if he happened to veer a little too far into their gated communities and rebuked them for their idolatry of mammon. And if he got too uppity and his message became too popular, thus threatening their power, class and authority, they would certainly destroy his reputation with lies and deceit or even murder him as has happened so often whenever someone threatens this system. Just like the ego-driven elites and the status quo did 2000 years ago.
I find it hilarious that power and the state has always exploited people of Jewish faith as those who killed Jesus of Nazareth. It’s the same type of exploitation we see of different “classes” of minorities in the U.S. be they black, red, yellow or white or the common trait of often being denied a living wage and human dignity and thus are unable to consume all of capitalism’s make-work. So, to the corporate state they are part of the disposable society I have written about. This mythology regarding Jewish people serves power’s purpose of dividing and controlling people by creating boogeymen and diverting responsibility. Of keeping people beaten down to maintain class and wealth as happened when the state adopted Jesus’ teachings for purposes of control. It’s such textbook behavior for predators.
The reality is all Semites loved Jesus of Nazareth during his life because he gave those who were exploited power through realizing and accepting their own divinity. It was the class-based status quo who killed him. Because it served their purpose of maintaining class, wealth, authority and control over society and humanity. It was the religious, state and business leaders of the day that his message of equality, kindness, mercy, freedom and detachment threatened. But what really chapped their ass was that Jesus of Nazareth taught people that the greatest power in the universe resides inside of each person and the world around us. That message sucks for those who wish to maintain class and control. Because the only way class and control can be maintained is if the masses outsource their own divinity or power to those who wish to exploit and victimize them. Once people realize they have the power within themselves to be free and worthy, class and authority can no longer exist. Only law based on natural rights. That’s what really threatens our masters. Because without emotional bondage placed there by those who wish to control us, the human mind is free, divine and all-powerful. True freedom exists within the mind. That’s why they killed Martin Luther King. It’s the reason tanks mowed down thousands in Tiananmen Square. The same would certainly happen to Jesus of Nazareth were he alive today. Or anyone else whose truth gained or threatened to gain a large audience against those who exalt the cult of money, control, class and power over discovery, truth, decency, freedom and human values. Just as they did 2000 years ago.
Class-based, private, for-profit corporate capitalism appeals to humanity’s most unevolved, unaware, unmindful, unenlightened, unspiritual part of our psyche. That is, the ego. Which, by the way, is why the most unevolved, unaware, unmindful, unenlightened and unspiritual people rise to levels of authority within the class-based system of control that has defined our world pretty much since the beginning of time. It’s also why modern capitalist society is dying. Because being driven by the exaltation of our unevolved psyche or the ego over our own divinity, it truly is Godless.
The time has come to rid ourselves from the class-based control of private capital over democracy. It is time for economic freedom, public capital and public money.
What we witness today is truly a battle between good and evil. Will we continue to live in a world driven by the unevolved ego? Or as our perceptions of reality are destroyed will we evolve to a world based on our higher power or the evolved human psyche? ie, The Age of Aquarius? The answer is B. But first we have some unfinished business. More on that in late June or July.
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