Mentatul

Tag: capitalism

  • Thank You, Capitalism. It Could Be Worse…

    Thank You, Capitalism. It Could Be Worse…

    My readers know all too well that I’m no fan of capitalism. Throughout the past years I’ve attacked^ several attributes of this economic system (consumerism^, the stock market^, income inequality^). This year, I’m about to step it up a notch, going into how capitalism has facilitated the slow and insidious rotting of most democratic countries. I intend to write about how a broken economic system can drag down education and create immeasurable suffering on a planetary scale, most of which is hidden from sight by the mainstream media so that the machine can keep marching.

    But this doesn’t mean that I lack appreciation towards the enormous benefits that have burst from the minds of countless entrepreneurs who, thanks to a free market, succeeded in advancing our culture and civilization. After all, I write these words using capitalist products!

    Evolution

    Capitalism is just another system that evolved from others before it. Perhaps it’s not the fairest, but it’s definitely more efficient than some that existed before. The gradual development of economic systems that has given birth to capitalism also implies that capitalism will not be the last economic system. And that’s precisely why I’m writing about its flaws. It’s not because I hate it, it’s because there are things that I believe can be improved.

    Capitalism will eventually give way to another, better economic system. It’s inevitable. The question, however, is if that system will be better for humans and our ecosystem. It is entirely possible that capitalism will evolve into a system that is even more efficient at squeezing the life out of this planet and transforming it into objects, technological advances (for its own sake) and gargantuan projects.

    I believe one such gargantuan project is the development of artificial “intelligence”, in quotes because it’s not really intelligent^. It lacks and will continue to lack sentience, which I consider a prime ingredient of intelligence, for at least until such a time when we have achieved major advances in quantum computing. I went through some of the dangers posed by this sort of artificial non-intelligence in the linked article, or here^, on the more concrete topic of stock markets.

    Better life through technology

    One of the main long-term goals of capitalistic entities is to discover tools and technologies that allow them to produce more. These discoveries eventually trickle down through all social layers and can improve quality of life. It doesn’t always happen so, but it’s not usually a problem with capitalism per-se, but with the human element (corruption, greed^).

    Capitalism has brought a number of major advances in all sorts of fields: manufacturing, delivery, recycling, retail & customer experience, product diversity, the list can go on and on. I honestly believe we’d be far less advanced without the explosion of knowledge that resulted from setting human intellectual capital free to associate in whatever form.

    Less is more

    Because our civilization is still at a stage where the survival instinct is dominating^ our choices and policies, we can’t expect any economic system to reach a sort of moral high-ground. Communism used to look good on paper. History tells a different story about its implementation. It’s a case of “change yourself before you change others”.

    In other words: we have to fix our way of thinking and how we go about daily life before we can even expect a highly efficient and in the same time ethical economic system to emerge. Capitalism is, simply put, the best that some societies are capable of. They wouldn’t tolerate it otherwise.

    Capitalism embodies our instinctual thirst^ for more. The problem is that “more”, in this case, is usually not something that contributes to human happiness, but rather provides tangible results (objects, technologies). Even though life in most (truly) capitalistic countries has improved from a material standpoint, psychological health has declined. People feel disconnected and disengaged. A culture of extreme individualism is being promoted, probably because it produces better consumers.

    Would less production and less consumption be anti-capitalistic? Perhaps from a purely financial standpoint. But a situation where capitalism “eases down” might actually be the smartest investment ever made: an investment in nurturing human capital. Healthier, happier humans can not only produce more, but will also invent more.

    Diversity is beautiful

    One of the things I’m most thankful about with capitalism is the fascinating product diversity it led to. But too much of a good thing is not a good thing at all anymore. And while I appreciate the diversity, I also recognize that in the past decades it has started to resemble the behavior of cancer. Too much diversity is a tumor that feeds on our ecosystem, running amok with almost no planetary governmental oversight. Even so, I do believe that with capitalism we’re closer to the ideal product diversity state than with, say, communism.

    Economy influences our society and, not only by extent, our way of government. Politics, economy and culture are all intertwined with other pillars of human development to form what we call civilization. As a prime ingredient of civilization, economy shapes not only how we trade, but our attitudes as well.

    For example, in capitalism, it’s not profitable to reject minorities of any kind (sexual, racial, religious). This, slowly but surely, trickles into society. True capitalistic societies are more tolerant towards minorities, partly as a consequence of this being the most profitable behavior.

    My first 7 years of life happened before the fall of communist Romania, during one of its worst periods (which was still way better than places in less developed parts of the world). I then witnessed the gradual implementation of capitalism, during a slow, painful process during which a number of sly Romanians became rich overnight through various forms of abuse. 20 years later I moved to Sweden, a country renowned for its socialism, but which has become increasingly capitalistic during the turn of the millennium and even more so under my very eyes in the past decade. All these varied economic landscapes have shaped me in all sorts of ways.

    I am thankful to the diversity that capitalism has exposed me to. I’m thankful for its contribution to the civilization that I enjoy being a part of. I couldn’t imagine myself happy in a system that would restrict my freedom of speech (even though censorship is definitely on the rise everywhere in the world, including the proud Western democratic block).

    I’m even thankful for capitalism’s flaws, for without flaws, there is nothing to improve. I’m one of those humans with a pull towards perpetual improvement. My work on this website is not only about improving the society I belong to, but also about improving myself. Throughout this process, it is vital for me to emphasize that despite my criticism, I am not blind to the luxury I am granted simply by having a roof over my head and warm, clean water at the tap. Oh, and fancy gizmos to play with.

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  • Happy Consumerist New Year! Featuring, Bottled Water

    Happy Consumerist New Year! Featuring, Bottled Water

    Fresh on the heels of my Christmas & Consumerism article^, here’s something else to whet your thirst (pun intended):

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/06/liquid-assets-how–business-bottled-water-went-mad^

    I’ve always been amazed by the bottled water industry – and not in a good way. This wonderful article sums up pretty much everything I ever wanted to know or say about bottled water. Very well written, documented and presented.

    For me, it would be hard to maintain objectivity when it comes to this topic, but the author managed to pull it off quite well, kudos for that. There are very few things that can highlight the abuse of consumers as well as bottled water.

    Like I highlighted in my article about consumerism, our misshapen implementation of capitalism is built upon keeping customers in the dark. Articles such as the one I just recommended have the potential to bring meaningful change in consumers. So what if just a few people read it? What’s important is that the word is out there.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/01358-HappyConsumeristNewYearBottledWater-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Happy Consumerist New Year! Featuring, Bottled Water’ desc=’I’ve always been amazed by the bottled water industry – and not in a good way. This wonderful article sums up pretty much everything I ever wanted to know or say about bottled water.’]

  • Christmas as Avatar of Consumerism

    Christmas as Avatar of Consumerism

    Cultural war is tricky business. As a living entity, culture needs mechanisms of protection from external threats. But intellectual defensive systems can become an obstacle for evolution especially when a culture has fallen in love with itself to the point where criticism is no longer seen as a mechanism for progress. For all its merits, Western culture is affected by a plague of intellectual rigidity.

    There is no need to generalize. There are many Westerners who are quite open to change and new ideas, perhaps more-so than any other major culture on Earth. This is only sufficient if these people can trigger an evolutionary step forwards by reaching a critical mass enough to spread a wave of change throughout society.

    Why Christmas?

    What does all this have to do with Christmas? It’s quite simple really. Changing the way we interpret Christmas is probably a litmus test for cultural evolution. Why do we need to reinterpret this cultural event? Because it is the avatar of a way of doing business that may have made sense in the 20th century, but will only lead to worsening the quality of life on this planet for future generations of human beings.

    Welcome to one of the many "Christmas factories" in China
    Welcome to one of the many “Christmas factories” in China

    Christmas and the surrounding period has become a sad proof of how masses can be manipulated into doing whatever the manufacturers of fake value desire. Peer pressure drives people into shops, irrespective if their friends or family require the presents they are (socially) forced into buying.

    Healthy products, made by happy workers (Santa's elves) in excellent working conditions
    Healthy products, made by happy workers (Santa’s elves) in excellent working conditions

    Adding insult to injury is a plethora of consumerist traditions such as Black Friday. All in all, Western culture is chiefly responsible for the environmental destruction of dozens of countries that occurs while shopping malls have transformed Christmas carols into soundtracks for consumption. Perhaps organized religion deserves its fate of being defiled by capitalism.

    Our environment, our heritage, our children however, do not deserve this fate. Perhaps we should do something to stop this rampant consumerism from wrecking our future. This is not to say that we should stop purchasing gifts or merchandise. It simply means that perhaps we should think twice about the value we will extract from a purchase. It also means that we should avoid buying wares from manufacturers that are clearly designing their products in such a way that forces us into a lifetime commitment of perpetual upgrades and spiraling costs.

    "But thanks to us, they have a job" is the worst excuse for manufacturing fake value
    “But thanks to us, they have a job” is the worst excuse for manufacturing fake value

    The trick

    Does upgrading a phone every two years even make sense? I’ve used my Galaxy Note 3 for almost 3 years now and, thanks to the replaceable battery, will probably use it for more time to come. Even though Samsung’s software is very bad (fixed via installing custom, de-bloated firmware), they used to produce quality hardware some years ago (no longer the case, new Samsung phones are built to be fully replaced). Actually, most phone manufacturers now-a-days build these devices in such a way that replacing the battery is difficult and costly.

    It’s the same racket that the printer industry has been engaged in for decades, but with a more devious implementation – observe how corporations have become masters of milking the population. Almost all industries have various ways of coaxing consumers into purchasing pieces of our planet’s minerals, usually taken from countries that are exploited by developed nations.

    Take a deep breath, close your eyes and repeat after me: "This isn't the job a human being in the 21st century should wake up to"
    Take a deep breath, close your eyes and repeat after me: “This isn’t the job a human being in the 21st century should wake up to”

    Even though the Earth will probably survive us, we should not be so sure that we can survive what a broken ecosystem can do to us. And don’t think that those that are chiefly responsible for the destruction of our ecosystem will suffer alongside us. With their money and power, using today’s technology, it’s quite easy to build paradises for the rich & privileged. In the meantime, the rest of the planet will suffer the consequences of having been fooled into turning the Earth in a factory of products built for becoming obsolete, engineered to break as soon as the warranty expires.

    In our family, we design our own Christmas decorations. Because maybe he should not breathe toxic fumes.
    In our family, we design our own Christmas decorations. Because maybe he should not breathe toxic fumes.

    Solutions

    As usual, the solution is spreading knowledge. It’s very easy and everybody can take part in this. Encourage people to think about their purchases. Investigate mercilessly and purchase only those products that are known to deliver quality and can be easily repaired. This will encourage the companies of tomorrow. Such companies do exist.

    There are clothing companies that strive to recycle and reward customers for bringing in old clothes, giving them discounts. There are phone manufacturers that design their devices so that the batteries can be replaced. There are software companies that are not obsessed with finding ways to trick users into new purchases with fake features, but instead are happy to remain as small, driven teams, focusing on quality and enjoying the loyalty of satisfied customers.

    Ready to bring the joy of Christmas into every home. Would Christ approve of the way Christians celebrate his birthday?
    Ready to bring the joy of Christmas into every home. Would Christ approve of the way Christians celebrate His birthday?

    Many times, people end up buying useless gifts due to social pressure. Material gifts are not the only way to reward a relationship. I have purchased no presents this year, even though I love a lot of people in my life. Instead, I have gifted experiences to those that are close to me. I have gifted words, time, love and care. What I received in return was more love, sometimes even tears of joy.

    To know exactly what to tell somebody in order to cause a positive emotional response takes knowing that person, or at least knowing how to appeal to something that is a common denominator for us all – love. The effort invested in reaching another’s heart, and the reward thereafter is more worth it than anything any shop will ever offer for sale.

    In a certain Nordic country, Westerner consumers are enjoying the "Santa run", a sort of convenient pilgrimage for the religion of capitalism. They will then proceed to throw away these garnments, with little regard to those who made them or the wasted material. So much for Western "civilization".
    In a certain Nordic country, Western consumers are enjoying the “Santa run”, a sort of convenient pilgrimage for the religion of capitalism. They will then proceed to throw away these garnments, with little regard to those who made them or the wasted material. So much for Western “civilization”.

    Except the last one, the picture for this article have been taken from this beautiful and enlightening photographic essay over at Lens Culture:

    https://www.lensculture.com/articles/ronghui-chen-christmas-factory^

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  • Super-Sized Agriculture

    Super-Sized Agriculture

    On the topic of “we are what we eat”, here’s a fascinating photographic essay:

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/09/magazine/big-food-photo-essay.html^

    Regardless of what you think about “in balance with nature”, the images are quite staggering. This is one of those situations when a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Industrialized agriculture has definitely reached some impressive heights (or lows, depending on who you ask).

    There are a lot of humans to feed on this Earth, that’s a given. However, my personal opinion is that such pictures speak at length about the way we’re abusing the ecosystem. I don’t think our agriculture is particularly impressive on the engineering side. My amazement stems from the sheer size of it all and the way it’s been optimized through the centuries. The problem is that we’re still being cruel towards creatures of all kinds.

    I choose to remain optimistic though. I put my trust in the fact that ecosystems are self-balancing things. There are many signs that we’ve started on our way to find a healthier relationship with nature. In many regions, people are having fewer children than they had hundreds of years ago when there were all sorts of risks waiting to decimate a community. Hopefully, in time, these horrendous industrial farms will disappear and we’ll see something like permaculture^ becoming widespread. Until then, at least we can try to buy organic foods^.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/01346-SuperSizedAgriculture-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Super-Sized Agriculture’ desc=’On the topic of "we are what we eat", here's a fascinating photographic essay.’]