The book launch went very well, and it looks like things are off to a great start. To that end, it appears the first batch of books at Amazon are now out of stock. So I was given the following links for those interested. One is for the paperback, and one is for the hardcover. Again, spread the word, tell a friend, and remember, there are only 274 shopping days until Christmas!
Hardcover Link is here.
Paperback Link is here.
Thanks again!
OK, let's do it one more time, for clarity. After all, there are tons of fun posts I'm itching to get to, I don't want to get mired in a debate I'm not really having. So for clarity's sake, let me say I'm not attacking, nor necessarily blaming, capitalism for the hot mess we see.
I understand capitalism the same way I understand democracy. That is, the best humanity has come up with - provided: Provided there are safeguards and buttresses keeping it along the straight and narrow.
We've seen that with democracy. Democracy is a great way to do a country. But we've also heard the old jab that democracy is the form of government that votes for Barabbas. We've seen clearly that you can't wander into some other country and plop democracy on the table and expect it to work. We heirs of the Christian Western tradition are truly blessed in having so many of the elements that, having converged in time and space, made for the best humanity has been able to produce on this side of heaven.
Same with Capitalism. Compared to other historical options, capitalism stands head and shoulders above them all. Yet clearly, like democracy, it won't work to have it and nothing else. You need the same safeguards and bumper rails for capitalism like you do for democracy.
Our problem is that we've been letting those safeguards (the myriad foundations inherited from the long history of the Christian Western tradition) be stripped away. So it shouldn't surprise us that, just as we see an increasingly corrupted view of what democracy and freedom are all about, so we're also seeing the same corrupting of capitalist ideals.
The problem I noticed was that as this happened, conservatives dug their heals in and decided to defend corporate interests and corporate profits at all cost - in the name of defending capitalism. Even when it was pretty clear that what corporations were doing was not beneficial for anything but the corporate interests - not beneficial for capitalism, democracy, the Christiaan West or anything conservatives should value - they would go to the mattresses to defend the right of the corporations to do anything.
By doing that and, more to the point, doing it in the name of defending capitalism, we have generations coming up that see anything done by corporate interests, no matter how egregious or counter to the ideal results of capitalism, as what capitalism is all about. My sons have said, listening to their peers, capitalism is now when vast corporate interests give as little, produce as little, and shaft as many people as possible, in order to line their own pockets.
Conservative appeals to 'look what capitalism has done for us!' fall on deaf ears. That's ancient history today. Today, because so many things done by corporations were defended in the name of defending capitalism, people - especially young people - see capitalism chained with the good and bad and ugly, and increasingly little of the good.
So that fellow I referenced who wrote a book in order to save our youth from the terrors of post-gender manipulation. Fair enough. I've said the gender crazy of today was the eugenics of yesterday. So an important book, by his insistence. Yet when the interview came around to Amazon banning his book, he immediately deferred to the cherished ideal of capitalism and nothing else. In the name of a corporation being free to do it's thing, he might not like what Amazon did, but by golly he would fight to the death Amazon's right to do it. And so by his own admission, while saving our children is one thing, nothing is more important than running left tackle for corporate interests - and all in the name of defending capitalism.
Now, stand back and think how that looks to almost anyone under the age of thirty today. And remember, no matter how we try to insist the 'bag of air for five bucks' joke we're seeing today is because of anything but capitalism, it happens while corporate CEOs and corporations rake in the big bucks. It isn't like the Great Depression, where many a corporate executive took it in the throat along with the farmer and the steel worker. This is where no matter how crappy the product, the service, the diminished quality, the slashed benefits, or the ruined little guy, those CEOs are making bank. When this is defended in the name of defending capitalism, it is what more and more younger (and other) Americans see as the legacy of capitalism.
My advice, therefore, is that if we are going to defend capitalism - a good thing IMHO - then we must stop confusing defending bad, wrong, counterproductive, or anything else negative in the name of defending capitalism. We should call those things out. I'm not saying bring in the government, we need socialism, hail Karl Marx, or more regulations. I'm saying call those things out as what they are, and insist they are antithetical to what capitalism is or should be.
Just like a country that would vote for a terrorist should be called out in the name of saying that's not what democracy should be about. Shafting employees, diminishing quality, bilking the consumer, or just promoting evil, is not capitalism's selling point, nor should they be defended in the name of capitalism.
Especially since it isn't hard to see many corporate leaders appear to have diminishing concerns for both democracy and capitalism. In fact, the cynic in me almost wonders if those corporate execs who seem fine warming up to more socialist and authoritarian sensitivities do what they do precisely to make the capitalist and freedom in the marketplace look bad.
In looking at a few of the comments on this post, I need to clarify things. I am not saying capitalism has utterly failed, or we need to bring in the State, or it's time for socialism, Marxism, communism, or anything else.
I'm saying it's OK to call out corporations and corporate executives when they do bad things, even if they are doing it to make more money. Or make their companies more money Or make their investors more money. It matters not if they happen to create a few extra jobs along the way. Wrong is wrong, and should be called out as such.
That's all. I don't think that's too much of a stretch. It should have been done far more often than it was. Because now those corporations have turned coat and become part of the anti-Western juggernaut, which has moved the ball halfway down the field against what conservatives value.
To be honest, of everything conservatives have defended, from a 'defending capitalism' vantage point, the worst thing was defending corporations cutting corners and diminishing the quality and quantity of goods while pocketing the money at the top. Because among young people today, so my sons have assured me, they see capitalism as that which gives less, produces less, and results in less, just so those at the top can have it all. Since this practice was defended in the name of defending capitalism, it's not exactly unfair for them to link the two. And when that is what they see, it's also not hard to understand why they are casting their nets in other directions.
Again, it's OK to call out corporations. Not only is it acceptable, in order to defend capitalism, it should have been done every time corporations were doing things antithetical to what capitalism is supposed to accomplish. Doesn't mean bring in the government or invoke our inner Stalin. It just means let people know that when corporations do such things, even if it does help their bottom line, it is not what capitalism is all about.
