The gutting of Western morality
Our history and morality are definitive issues especially in dark times. We must be prepared to visit them frequently and punctually, and decisively.
“Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.”—Mahatma Gandhi
“A quiet conscience makes one strong.” –Anne Frank
“I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing.”–Mark Twain“
“The time is always right to do what is right.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
Morality, and the lack of it is an existential issue these days. It is a corner stone of our existence, individually and collectively, as societies and civilizations. It is a barometer of good and bad times. It takes the measure of us and especially of our stumblebum leadership.
Above are four very different perspectives on morality.
I like Gandhi’s comment as it is both magnanimous, eloquent and for me is an excellent definition of what is morality.
I like Ann Frank’s as it is beautifully concise, with the powerful implication that life purposely and morally lived results in a quiet conscience.
Mark Twain’s, similarly suggests that a “quiet” conscience can be attained by doing “the right thing.” Of course what is the right thing at the right time is always contentious. As the ever astute Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood suggests,— "The Human moral keyboard is limited…there's nothing you can play on it that hasn't been played before. And, my dear friends, I am sorry to say this, but it has its lower notes."
Martin Luther King’s comment has a pungent relevance and urgency to present times as the time is long past due for what is right. For him the right time was sixty years ago and we still haven’t exercised the essential moral righteousness when it glares at us, begging to end the decades old insurgency destroying Western civilization.
The West is suffering the death throes of a declining empire. Some go quietly into history’s dust bin, others rail against their fate and are so delusional as to think war, despotism and moral depravity are the road to salvation when it is an accelerated death sentence.
I write to bring clarity and understanding to issues and hopefully do the same for my readers. Before we can reach solutions we must have clarity and understanding. My writing is based on my life experience but also the writers I read in preparing my blogs. These are the powerful voices from the past and present we should be listening to in times of crisis. They have bequeathed us a rich legacy of humanism and great ideas we can never allow to be subverted. We are living in times where this great legacy has been subverted in too many ways and for many decades.
What also underpins my writing is that we must have a larger global view of the world and not allow it to be corrupted by ideologies. Imperialism, neocolonialism, neoliberalism and endless war fragment and debilitate our societies All of these are enduring assaults on our societal morality rendering us slaves to the corruptions of these ideologies.
To justify these endless wars are we taught to hate and our societies internalize this hate, so easily turned to violence. Our media and political leaders are deeply complicit in the wars that ravage the world.
Everything in this world happens for a reason, and there is always causation. Painful as it is we must take a long hard look at causation, especially when it is deeply rooted and destructive over all to our societies.
There is no perfect world but we can never give up the quest of pursuing it, especially when we have the faculties to pursue it; rationalism and moral values are the road forward.
Our history and morality are definitive issues especially in dark times and we must be prepared to visit them frequently and punctually, and decisively. We live in societies where wealth and materialism dominate over the spiritually and social norms that define us a people, especially when our political are economic hierarchies are determined turn us into consumerist auto automatons while suppressing our rights and freedoms.
I see myself as no more than a passing spectator taking a peek at the world as I see it.
How did we end up in the present crisis? It is the accumulation of prevailing corruptions, ruinous irrational ideologies, and societal unconsciousness— the repressed society enduring over decades. For the sake of brevity I list these in point form and I invite your comments on them.
Over the last hundred years we have seen the ascendance of corporate power such that it rules absolutely over national governments. Where Western politicians acted on behalf of their populations, they are now serve in corporate capture, as agents for their corporate and oligarchic elites.
With the introduction of neoliberalism in the 1980’s the so-called “free market economy” freed corporations and business from any constraints; but subjugated populations to where we are the “consumerist automatons.”
Where capitalism is freed from social and regulatory constraints it becomes a social predator, free to ruthlessly exploit the societies that host it becoming parasites stealing the wealth of nations, denigrating government , democracy and basic freedoms of speech and the press.
The purpose of political elites to is steer whole societies in service to corporate conglomerates and their profiteering, in other words neofeudalism—socialism for the very rich and predatory capitalism for everybody else.
Legislatures no longer have powers over war. Presidents and prime ministers are the straw dogs of war, silently condoning atrocity and genocide.
War is always an immoral act. Perpetual war and the pursuit of empire over decades hollows out whole societies. This is where we are today where we have had two atrocities back to back with no compunctions and no morality. Humanity has always had the ability sink into moral depravity etched deeply in our history, our failures now are more than ever existential.
As Margaret Atwood politely suggests we are hitting some very low notes.
The legacy of neoliberalism:
“The economic consequences of these policies have been the same just about everywhere, and exactly what one would expect: a massive increase in social and economic inequality, a marked increase in severe deprivation for the poorest nations and peoples of the world, a disastrous global environment, an unstable global economy and an unprecedented bonanza for the wealthy.”—
Chomsky, Noam. Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order (p. 8). Seven Stories Press. Kindle Edition.
The cabaret of Globalization:
“In the cabaret of globalization, the state goes through a striptease and by the end of the performance it is left with the bare necessities only: its powers of repression. With its material basis destroyed, its sovereignty and independence annulled, its political class effaced, the nation-state becomes a simple security service for the mega-companies … The new masters of the world have no need to govern directly. National governments are charged with the task of administering affairs on their behalf.”10
Bauman, Zygmunt. Globalization: The Human Consequences (Themes for the 21st Century Book 6) (p. 66). Polity Press. Kindle Edition.
When governments are beholden to corporate masters and eager to please corporate wants the condition is defined as fascism. History has shown fascist captured governments have no problem using violence against those who oppose their depravity. A government willing to destroy the property and culture and lives of the other will do the same to their own to please their masters. We have been warned.
This is well-argued and despite the utter darkness this post is describing, it at the same time fills me with hope that we can create something better. There are historical trends and overarching perspectives that if recognised can bring us all together in finding solutions and better systems that work for all people.