The New Economics: Business, Laziness and Property

It is no accident that the word for Business is derived from busyness (Middle English). It is indeed the state of being active and busy, and later of having things to do. It is not a nice thing either deriving from the Old English "bisignis" meaning anxiety, one imagines it is an anxious state that motivates those in business to complete a task.

And if we combine this with the recent analysis of property we can see that those in busyness are set in motion by their landowners who ultimately derive from the class of people who conquered and enslaved them.

Now it is also interesting that in contrast to the anxious state of the employed, the ruling class distinguish themselves by being at ease and at leisure. In Georgian/Regency Jane Austin's time the key feature of an eligible bachelor in her books was their annual income. A quick search suggests that Mr Darcy was worth the equivalent of £3/4 million per year. But he did not get this money through his 9-5 job as a more modern image of a good husband might. This is income owed to him by workers on his estates (if he is landed gentry inheriting title and estate from the Norman Conquest) or, as was also the case by Georgian times, income from owning factories. The transition from Feudalism to Capitalism was well under way by the time of Jane Austin. A change of branding more than a change of system. It still meant that a class of owners were due an income from their subjects simply by virtue of owning the land or factories in which those people worked. It is such easy money that has always afforded the ruling classes the life of luxury, and it is capturing lands and workers to provide such easy income that has been a principle motivation for conquest and war.

Given the high status of leisure in society, it is interesting how the upper classes view those working classes who enjoy leisure. The tabloid journals of the 21st Century still heap loathing on the "freeloaders" of the working class who should dare to be so presumptuous as to enjoy lives of leisure. Working class people should be working! Only the upper class can dare to enjoy leisure. It is a very powerful class based element of society. When the working class enjoy leisure it is called laziness, and contrasts with the state of anxiety they should be experiencing which is business. The ruling classes despite gaining considerable free income and enjoying a leisure life are considered too well bred to be in a state of anxiety, their leisure is more like that of Greek Gods something deserved. They are never lazy.

Now I'm not necessarily suggesting that Business and Laziness are predefined. Within our ancient social order people might think that leisure does have some primordial value, that King's engaged in warfare and conquest of lands to provide income to support their lavish lifestyles. This may be partly true. Julius Caesar ransacked Europe not just for power, and not just to end the reign of the Celts, but also primarily because he had huge debts racked up by an extravagant lifestyle. But by the time of Julius Caesar leisure and opulent lifestyle were long, long established as signs of status. This is why Jesus was so arresting for the ancient mind: a king born in a stable! Completely incongruent. Christianity overturned the rules inherited from the ancient world. An eye for an eye was the law of King Nebuchadnezzar of what is now the Middle East. Jesus reversed this, turn the other cheek. As blogged already the Beautitudes is a sequence of heavy blows to break the mindset of the time. He smashed the old certainties much like Lao Tze did in China: many things depend upon the small, and so they are great. The "logos" (law, measure, word, standard, account book) does not come in fixed certainties like this would be very much the message of the Iron age across Asia. Already people were questioning the rigid system of accounts, debt and ownership that had been established.

Parallel to this analysis war, conquest, property and leisure is the religious culture in which work is not just business for a worldly master but is connected with our soul and God. Perhaps that should be a separate blog, but it is intimately connected to this one.

To finish here a moment with Nietzsche. This post very much supports his view of power being the driving force behind reality. Interestingly Nietzsche through his predecessor Schopenhauer was influenced by limited and misunderstood Eastern texts. Perhaps with better C19th scholarship we might never have had Nietzsche or Schopenhauer! Conquest of people is the opening act in history. Nietzsche would go on the explain Jewish thinking and Christianity as arising from the mentality of slaves rejecting the freedom of their masters and in so doing subverting what Nietzsche saw as the true nature of mankind. In the same way I'm suggesting here that the extant economics we have of business, employment, leisure and capitalism and under pinning this property are really just evolved from enslavement and conquest of people. A new economics, looking for peace, egalitarianism, happiness and security for the planet would not be derived from this poisoned root at all!