This began as a (long) comment on a friend’s Facebook status.  I’m promoting it to a full blog entry, because I really want to share and hear what more people think.  The topic was Occupy Wall Street, and how some deep differences in philosophical views may be what keep the lefties and righties in sharp disagreement with regard to how they think the economy needs to be fixed.

Those who know me well will know that I’m a leftie, but one of the values I embrace is constructive conflict.  I try to resist getting angry and judgmental when hearing the same old arguments from righties again and again.  Both lefties and righties love to bitch about the other side but rarely do they actually engage in meaningful dialogue to try and understand their differences.  I originally posted these thoughts on the status of a rightie Facebook friend who opposes tax increases on the wealthy and anything that places more burden on private businesses.

As I see it, one of the real roots of the problem is the competitiveness that is pervasive in our culture.  Historically, Americans have been experts at winning the wealth game and staying on top.  This has arguably been good for the nation’s economy, and many people who weren’t born rich can learn to play the game and become a winner too.  These notions of “freedom” and “equal opportunity” at the heart of America’s pride are arguably good things, but let’s think bigger.  What kind of world is this creating?  If you strive to always beat everyone else by winning the game and getting the lion’s share of bounty before anyone else gets to it, then you are creating a world in which other people are forced to play that game as well, or be left in the dirt and have nothing.  It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Greed spreads like a virus.  There is a fear in our colonial minds that if we don’t get there first, someone else will, and so we’d better make sure we get there first.  It creates a world of scarcity and frenzied competition, when really there is more than enough to go around.  If everyone could realize how crazy this is and just slow down a bit, we wouldn’t all have to race and compete so much. This habit of competitiveness is so deeply ingrained in western culture that we don’t even realize that other possibilities exist.

The one time I went travelling in Mexico (Baja), it struck me just how laid back Mexicans are.  I really noticed a glow in their eyes and feeling of peace and enjoyment of life about them.  I had never seen such a beautifully simple lifestyle before.  I was jealous!  The people I met there were not racing to get to the top, and they were happy.  It was disturbing to realize how most people in our culture have lost this, and don’t even realize it because they’ve never seen anything else.  Even if they did see it, how could the ultra-successful Americans possibly have anything to learn from Mexican culture?

So, this is why I don’t like the idea that poor people should just be given equal opportunity and rights, and then be expected to play the game as well.  Admittedly, it’s better than nothing, but it still isn’t right.  It is this deeply ingrained assumption that competitiveness is a normal and necessary part of life that is flawed, in my view.  It’s like saying “here, if you don’t want to be exploited, you are welcome to join the game and then you can exploit others too, and you won’t have to be poor”. There is just something very wrong with that.  It is wrong to impose one’s culture on others, but it is even more wrong when the culture you are imposing is one that is unbalanced, greed-ridden, and unhealthy for both the oppressed and the oppressors themselves.

If the righties are still reading at this point, they may be thinking that I condemn Capitalism itself.  I do not.  To me, there is a subtle but key difference between striving to win, versus striving for greatness.  If one’s goal is to win, become wealthier than others, then what one is really striving for is inequality.  To me, striving for greatness has to do with making a large contribution that reaches many people.  There should be wealth that comes out of that, but wealth that is proportional to one’s contribution is well deserved.

Advertisement