Illusions

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

“Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all.” ~ John Maynard Keynes

I disagree with Keynes that capitalism is a “belief”. If one were to strip away all belief, and leave men to their essence – what you would have could be called capitalism, laissez-faire brand. The nastiest of men would rise to the surface and come to dominate us all. In fact, that is what happens in spite of higher belief systems. It’s a simple working principle of human existence that power accrues to those who desire to be powerful, and that those who harbor such desires often (not always) do so for malevolent purpose. In fascist states, beasts take center stage for all to see. There was no mistaking Franco or Pinochet for a democratic ruler.

In democracies, the beasts are often off-stage, holding strings, putting up friendly faces to cover their essential nastiness. Such were the roles of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush – front men, velvet gloves covering steel fists.

So philosophies have sprung up over the years, the goals of which are to somehow harness this system of nastiness so that we can all benefit. Some systems go so far as to crush our spirits under collectivism. But the beasts are waiting in the bushes and spring upon us again in the collectivist systems, and we end up with communism. It was identical in all aspects to tyranny everywhere and through all time, except for that name.

Odd, however, and contradictory, that communism toppled with hardly any bloodshed. That messes up my pretty picture. All it took was a congealing of popular movements, and the beasts stepped aside. That’s an interesting phenomenon – I beg for any conservative to explain it. And then I ask if any popular movement, be it for single-payer health insurance or unionization or to simply get our country to stop its brutal occupation of Iraq – if any of that can succeed in our country. We may be the majority, but we do not rule.

It appears on the surface that people of Russia and Ukraine and Romania had more ability to command their own fate than do we ours. Is all of this democracy around us really an illusion?