Free Market Fundamentalism
No. 1.1 April 2001
THE UNIVERSAL CURMUDGEON– A Voice of Outrage
by David B. Sutton, Ph.D.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Have we had enough yet ? What will it take for us all to see that our society is in the grip of the most powerful secular cult in the history of human kind, the cult of “free-market fundamentalism.”
Free-market fundamentalism is the unquestioning belief in the manifest destiny of technological development and the canons of corporate capitalism. It is the most pervasive cult in the world today where means have become the ends in themselves– no discussion of what we should be doing, only absolute devotion to the system that is doing it. Just let the godly orchestration of the “invisible hand” direct the market to where we should go and Divine Providence will reward the faithful.
Evidence that this intolerant belief system has taken hold of our senses is no more evident than in the current “energy crisis” in California. How many times do we have to go through these manufactured energy crises until we learn? Whether collusion on the part of an OPEC Cartel or a “Confederate Cartel” of Enron, Reliant Energy, Dynergy and Duke Energy, withholding supply to raise prices is not a crisis of the consumer’s or environmentalist’s making.
It is just another greedy grab to control the market– you know that “free-market” that is suppose to look to the intersection point of the demand and supply curves to affix a price. I have news for you folks — that’s fiction. Yes, I know that’s what we all learned in Economics 101 but that was just the beginning of our introduction into the liturgy of free-market fundamentalism.
You see all this talk about supply/demand/price/profit,…etc. is nothing more than the tenants of a BELIEF SYSTEM, not a body of science. Yes, I admit it is a nice, tidy, self-contained, very internally consistent (that’s what numbers do for it) belief system, but a belief system none-the-less. It is not based on any kind of external reality. Economics, unlike the biological science of Ecology, is NOT a science. While it pretends to describe the way things are, it does not. It prescribes the way the belief system would like it to be. It appears to be right only to the degree that it can get us all to act the way it prescribes. While, it has virtually no predictive power, it does have enormous prescriptive power— power, through the wholesale belief in free-market fundamentalism, to influence people to follow the faith and create the outcome those in control want. And we allow it.
The current model of economic reality is as baseless in fact as are the Star Trek fantasies. Combine one or two pieces of comfortable familiarity with massive amounts of fantasy and wishful thinking and the most essential input of self-interest and you’ve got an acceptable virtual reality that serves the interests of the elite and continues to entertain the masses. But it isn’t real !!!!
It is popular because it reinforces the fiction of human control over Nature (Free-market fundamentalism’s First Commandment), is profitable (they both have the ability, as Alan Greenspan would say, to incite “irrational exuberance”) and it allows us to continue the mindless assault on the earth’s life-support systems thinking that our brilliance will repair the damage or allow us to escape to outer space.
While the deficiencies of this world view are legion, it still rules and we should all be stopping to ask why? As Economist Herman Daly has succinctly argued for decades that until standard economic theory and practice include biophysical reality and a consideration of moral responsibility, it will be seriously flawed. It will be just the basis for another script for another Star Trek episode.
Daly, in his many writings, shows us that standard economics primarily confines its attention to the study of how best to allocate given means among given ends. It does not inquire very deeply into the nature of means nor the nature of ends. Yet without a clear conception of the basic means at our disposal, of what in the physical world provides the “natural capital” we depend on–all the useful stuff which we ultimately use and cannot ourselves create, our narrow economics is likely to commit the error of wishful thinking (i.e. assuming that just because something is desirable it must be possible).
Likewise, he shows that unless we inquire into the nature of ends and face the questions of ultimate value, ethics, and the ranking of our ends, we are likely to commit the opposite error, that of technical determinism (i.e. assuming that just because something is possible it must also be desirable). Daly reminds us that the extension of economics into the biophysical world is a corrective to wishful thinking, while a consideration of ethics is a corrective to this technical determinism. But free-market fundamentalism will have none of this. How dare anyone challenge the sacred doctrine. And with blind faith, we continue to allow it to rule the world.
The fact is that the sacred truths we hold to be self-evident are actually conscious, self-serving distortions of social reality intended to reduce thinking human beings into compliant consumers. The fiction is that consumption is the expression of democratic will. Through a cash-register democracy the role of citizen has been reduced to that of mere consumer.
What I have come to learn is that this does not require a critical mass of people who fully believe in the entire doctrine, they only need to accept the first assumptions and allow the rest to play out. In other words, the whole thing is almost automatic. A corporation is analogous to a set of code–like a computer program–a recipe for making money. The human beings enacting the code, from executives to marketers to consumers become part of the machine. Although corporations have the legal rights of humans (What a mistake that was), they assume none of the responsibility. In fact, as we shall see, they are specifically shielded from any responsibility.
Currently, trillions of dollars and man-hours are being spent to lock in this belief system, in the words of Noam Chomsky to “manufacture our consent” of the presented reality. We have empowered these corporate money machines with the most advanced techniques of persuasion known to science, such as neurolinquistic programming, regression and transference, pacing and leading and other forms of hypnosis. All of this conditioning is employed towards the only corporate command set–higher profit. There is no need for human intervention or ethical considerations that would only get in the way.
An Archbishop of Free-market Fundamentalism, George Soros, in his book on global capitalism, is very clear on another one of the cult’s Commandments. “There is no meaningful place for individual moral behavior in the context of financial markets, because such behavior has no consequence other than to reduce the financial return to the ethical actor. Those in charge are duty bound to uphold the interests of the company (to follow the command set). “If they think that cigarettes are unhealthy or that fostering civil war to obtain mining or oil concessions is unconscionable, they ought to quit their jobs.” Their place will be taken by people who are willing to carry on. Due to the command set, corporations are incapable of distinguishing between private corporate interests and broader public interests. Not much room here for all those working so hard on socially responsible business practices, Is there ??
While free-market fundamentalists are quick to point out the irresponsible behavior of single welfare moms, homeless drug addicts and child prostitutes, they have very carefully created elaborate Faith-based Corporate Welfare Programs to shield corporations from the costs of their irresponsible behavior. Large public subsidies and government contracts are standard offerings to help kick start a new enterprise or help maintain market dominance as are frequent and massive financial bailouts to plug hemorrhaging bank accounts as the cash flows upwards and away. No end of assistance available there, while an expenditure on a public work to repair our society’s infrastructure, well that would be unthinkable, another dangerous move towards socialism.
This “minor” involuntary public tithe is a small price to pay to maintain the “free-market,” they say. As a heathen friend of mine would say, in reply, “What vomit !!” It is nothing more than the regurgitation of the undigestable, self-righteous, pap from the latest free-market prayer meeting, sometimes referred to as the Council of Economic Advisors.
To realize how strong and pervasive this dogma has become you only need to see how its detractors are treated. If not immediately discredited as ignorant, uninformed revolutionaries the critique goes like this, “Those of us taking a stand against the market place as the dominant social paradigm are only doing so in order to make money.” That’s right ! — Ralph Nader and all the Greens are in it for the money, the whole ‘lefty’ thing is a disingenuous scam to sell books, posters, and magazines to a big ‘market of dissent.’ We’re actually in it for the profit.! How about that friends ?
This kind of circular, self-perpetuating analysis is symptomatic of a society in serious ideological trouble. We are so inundated by free market liturgy that we have become possessed by the dynamics of a cult: a belief system that can’t tolerate any opinion or event that doesn’t serve the speculative economy. Its adherents can’t understand motivation in any other terms than profit-mindedness: they can’t imagine alternatives to the logic of corporate capitalism.
Those who would so blasphemously question profit over people become the latest-variety “enemy of the state.” Indeed, one of the organizing groups of the Seattle WTO protests now tops the FBI’s “Terrorist” list. The state itself, of course, is to be reduced to facilitating the free flow of capital and protection of property. Market opponents must be eliminated or, better, assimilated– saved by an ever-growing force of cult missionaries.
In future columns, The Universal Curmudgeon will explore this rampant form of mind pollution as it plays out in almost all aspects of our daily lives. While universally proposed as remedy for virtually any problem, it is my contention that it can be shown to be the fundamental cause of the problem in the first place. Through blind faith we have become locked into a closed-loop of cause being continually applied as cure. There is only one consistent winner in this on-going contest — the money changers. The house bank ultimately always wins. In this casino capitalism, they let you win just often enough to keep you playing, for without your accepting participation and personal resources there would be no game, at all.
In the next Universal Curmudgeon we will return to the energy mess in California. Suffice it to say here that this “crisis” is an example of free-market fundamentalism run amok. There is more money to be made by commodifying and corporatizing the system–The only actions being taken are those that serve the MEANS of making money supplying energy for profligate use and waste. The alternative of providing for essential ENDS at the lowest cost is not considered because it challenges free-market dogma–it is sacrilegious. It would cost the oil boys and their Washington puppets money.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
I hereby disclose that I profit daily from the blessings of a living Earth. I take stock in the life-supporting systems of Nature that sustain us. I am heavily vested in the preservation of this Natural Capital. I have a strong self-interest in the common good and believe that rights come with responsibilities. I support those who speak truth to power. I am loyal to those who authentically lead the way to equity, justice, personal integrity, human dignity and compassion. I realize that this represents a significant conflict of interest with the free-market fundamentalism and technological determinism that dominates thought and action today. These vested interests of mine do not permit my silent compliant acceptance of unfounded beliefs in the market and man and the mindless destruction in pursuit of profit and privilege.