The Capitalist and the Greek Philosopher

by Tom Kando

Warning: this piece is meant to be light-hearted.

The world remains firmly stuck in the age of mass consumption and materialism.

America, Europe, and the developing world each contribute to humanity’s continuing plunder of the planet.

To be sure, ever since the 1960s, many people in the Western world have moved in a counter-cultural direction, becoming more “green.” A growing number of Americans are becoming aware that unfettered consumption is a dead end and that our voracious consumption habits need to be toned down. As to Europe, many people there have probably reached a somewhat more advanced stage of “green consciousness.”
However, all such progress is more than negated by an opposite worldwide trend, namely the all-out drive into consumerism by the emerging nations, including giants such as China and India. And of course, much of the growing green consciousness is more talk than action. America remains in the forefront of materialism.
And most telling is the continued worldwide consensus among all governments, all economists, all policy shapers, that economic growth will solve all our problems - poverty, hunger, inequality, war, crime, refugees...

The obvious and overarching problem with unhinged consumerism is practical: It will kill the planet, it will kill us all, the way it did the Easter Islanders.

But today, I want to talk about a different aspect of materialism : The fact that it is a bad VALUE, over and beyond its devastating physical consequences.

Remember Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Our basic needs are (1) physiological, then comes (2) the need for safety, then (3)love and belonging, then (4) (self) esteem and finally (5) self-actualization. (See Maslow).

Materialism means an inordinate focus on the pursuit of material goals (Maslow’s level #1), and the neglect of the higher values.

Beyond a certain level, the pursuit of material wants becomes bad. It becomes GREED, and it also includes lust, envy and gluttony. 4 of the 7 deadly sins.

The love of money for money’s sake is a central part of this, and a central part of our culture.

Once you have amassed several million - let alone several billion - what is the point of chasing after more? What need do people such as Jeff Bezos (worth $160 billion) and Donald Trump (who knows how many billion) have for more wealth? What can they do with more wealth that they cannot do with their current wealth? If you gave me a billion, I honestly wouldn’t know what to do with it, beyond giving most of it to some worthwhile causes.

* * * * * *

President Calvin Coolidge said that “the business of America is business.” Right. Our entire culture centers around making money.

This is especially so in our late capitalist economy, where most businesses no longer produce merchandise, but instead sell and transfer merchandise produced by workers (most of them in places like Vietnam). Such “business” is not productive; it is parasitic. Profit is the measure of success. This system is epitomized by Wall Street, which consists of paper (or e-file) shuffling.

Many philosophers have bemoaned materialism. For example, the ancient Greek Cynics admired Socrates for his indifference to his material surroundings. Diogenes (412-323 B.C.) was one of them, at least according to the many anecdotes about him. It is said that Alexander the Great once came by the old philosopher, who lived in a tub on a street in Corinth, and asked him if there was any favor he could do for him. Diogenes replied “Yes, get out of my sunlight.”

At the core of materialism and greed is the love of money, and its pursuit regardless of how much of it one already possesses. In other words, the love of money for its own sake.

One could envisage a conversation between a reincarnation of Diogenes and a capitalist:

Diogenes: “Money leaves me indifferent.”

Capitalist: “How can you say that? Money can buy you anything. Without money, you have nothing. Without money people starve and go without shelter.”

Diogenes: “True, but money is a means, not an end. It should not be loved for its own sake. Shit is also a necessity. But we don’t have to love it.”

Capitalist: “Are you equating money with shit?”

Diogenes: ““The metaphor isn’t new. It has occurred to many people. Take your famous Sigmund Freud for instance. He identified personality types such as the anally expulsive or “diarrhetic” type, and its opposite, the anally retentive or constipated type. Some of your experts on the human soul (you call them “psychologists”) say that the former tends to be a spendthrift, whereas the latter tends to be a miser.

Capitalist: “So what does this have to do with the love of money?”

Diogenes: “Well, both of these types love money too much, and both are wrong. Squandering and hoarding are equally wrong. As my friend Aristotle said: Always follow the Golden Mean. Avoid extremes. And as my teacher Zeno said, the paradox is that those who hoard are also those who squander.

© Tom Kando 2018;All Rights Reserved

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