CHAPTER XV.
THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF CAPITALIST EXPANSION.
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So far we have observed briefly and in general terms the natural laws and mechanism in the expanding spiral of capitalist production and development. What follows is mostly from K. Marx writings.
It should be evident that this spiral, as it developed, has thrown aside or eliminated all impediments which stood in the way of its natural expansion. "Ancient values and traditions have been cast aside. Old virtues have become vices, old vices nave become virtues".
Capitalism could not expand within the limits of feudal values, customs and politics; therefore, it had to replace them with its own.
The capitalists, while struggling for their own freedom, could not deny the freedom of the rest of society; they had to proclaim their support for the general idea of Human liberty.
The capitalists, while struggling for equality with the nobility, could not deny these rights to the rest of the population; they had to proclaim the ideal of general equality, not so much before God but before money.
Capitalism needed a plentiful and mobile work force; therefore, the serfs were freed from feudal bondage, and were pushed towards a different kind of servitude.
Capitalism needed literate workers to work in the factories; therefore it had to promote a minimum level of education for most of the population.
The capitalists had to have a say in the process of government and decision making, therefore, they organised their political parties against the conservative feudal establishment. With their mastery of the press and the professions, and the support of the rest of the population they gradually took over the State. They instituted a capitalist democracy with a capitalist constitution.
They needed to expand trade and find new markets; consequently they went to every corner of the Earth. In so doing, they brought all nations face to face, and forced them, on pain of extinction, to adopt the capitalist system of production and exchange.
Old dormant societies and cultures have been shaken from their slumber.
With the development of transport and communications, space and time have been reduced. The world has become a melting pot in which all races, nations, cultures and religions are being forced to face one another and solve the problem of coexistence or amalgamation.
While we are still ignorant and confused, already the embryo has emerged of a 'global' economy, a 'global' society and culture.
The capitalists during the last three centuries have gradually remolded the world and society to their own image. They have promoted their own merchant class values and logic as the unchangeable laws of the land: their world is the world of the merchant, in which everything must be subject to the law of profit as it was the law of Nature.
The capitalists, while they are complaining about the deterioration of basic Human values and of the family, are commercialising all aspects of Human life and, therefore, are undermining and destroying these same values. All relations have been reduced to 'money relations'.
Motivated by the search for profits, and compelled by competition, in their irresistible drive for change and innovation, they have broken the natural links between the generations: the experiences of one generation become obsolete even before the advent and establishment of the next. Only the technology which brings them profits is allowed to develop, consideration for the future of Human kind are secondary and incidental. Because of competition, technology is brought hurriedly on the market without much thought about long term social and Ecological consequences.
The speed of change has overtaken the capacity of society and of individual Human beings to adapt to continually new situations, and this is producing all sort of negative features in our lives: insecurity, confusion, insensitivity, breakdown in Human communications, etc. Material success has become the only measure of personal value. Even the gangster, if successful, is glamorised and respected, and today he probably divides his time between crime and legitimate business.
The honest man is derided and called a 'sucker'. Individual selfishness and aggressiveness are essential qualities or virtues for success in capitalist competition; consideration for other people and good nature are handicaps; yet everybody is complaining and asking why people are becoming more and more insensitive and ruthless, lacking feelings and compassion.
In all important issues, questions of principle have become secondary and subjected to money considerations there is a progressive bastardisation of Human society. The rule of the bankers, merchants and manufacturers today is almost complete. They influence the media, the law and justice, the army, the State and the majority of the public; capitalist democracy is in fact the disguised dictatorship of a minority the capitalist class.
The academic world, with few exceptions, is in the payroll of capital. People working in the professions have a place in the middle class of capitalist society. As critical as they may be at times about the present world situation, they are not allowed, and do not dare, to challenge directly the basis of the capitalist system: blindness and hypocrisy have become prominent features in capitalist society.
It is the nature and mechanism of the system which are producing most of the problems that we are facing today.
Karl Marx was not far from the truth in his assessment of capitalist economic and social development. In his terse and concise description of capitalist evolution up to his time over one hundred years ago we find already present all the main features of saturation and crisis that are so evident today: diminishing markets, ever faster technological change, wasteful consumerism, a widening generation gap, etc..
It should be evident that our present problems are not temporary, they have started long time ago; they are the direct results of capitalist evolution. As we continue to follow the capitalist philosophy so the problems increase and become compounded.
Like all preceding socio-economic organisms, civilisations and cultures in Human history, capitalism is a natural stage of Human development, a development which has always been and still is affected by our original ignorance. A combination of historical factors has brought Capitalism to life; it has evolved from previous organisms, and it has overtaken and displaced them as they became obsolete.
Today it has reached the limits of its natural development, it has changed the environment that has brought it to life, and it has become obsolete itself. Now it is in decline and it has become an impediment to further progress. Our present problems cannot be cured within the system that is causing them.
In the nature of free competition, the law of the market, the drive to maximise profits and wages, we find the causes for the development of monopolies, corporations, unions and associations which render impossible the capitalist dream of free enterprise and free trade; we find the causes for the explosive expansion of productive forces and technology, the saturation of world markets, the disregard for social and ecological harmony.
In the nature of capitalist production we find the causes why there must be at all times an abundant pool of poor people in search of work ".....the labour of the poor being the mines of the rich..... "
In the nature of capitalist property relations we find the causes why the abundance of capitalist production must be wasted and will never be shared with equity within society; we find the causes for the continuous antagonism between capital and labour, and we find also the causes for greed and the alienation of a mass of Human beings.
Finally, to preserve a 'double standard' social system in which a minority is motivated by the incentive of profit, which is an increase in personal wealth, and the majority is motivated by the fear of unemployment and misery, the capitalists must attempt to limit the degree of education and information to a level which does not produce the capacity for objective thinking within the general public, and does not stimulate a deeper questioning of the system.