Capitalism and Religion

There must be books written in this, but I've never seen any.

Everything arguably is about suffering. When we change position in our seat to get comfortable we are simply responding to a small amount of suffering. All the way up to engaging in a huge war to defeat some enemy is about fulfilling gnawing ambition.

Perhaps there is a proactive version of this reactive stance, that sometimes we don't let the suffering come and push us, but we are motivated by some ideals or knowledge of what is right.

I'm not thinking it out now, but is there any difference between a drug addict seeking their next high, and a drug addict running away from the void left by the low. Is desire really just the other side of the coin to suffering?

Anyway suffering is right in there in life. In Buddhism it would be the key crack in our existence that upsets everything and stops us from finding peace.

Not all is over though. In meditation we can quickly find non-suffering states. The problem of course is that meditation cannot go on forever. We must use meditation to discover what the real cause of suffering is.

Now religion in general has always been about suffering. In the Abrahamic religions suffering comes from God and you appease God by following His Law. Most other religions operate like this with sacrifices and incantations said to the god to gain favour and hope they will be kind and avert suffering. Buddhism as mentioned is the same, but with the slight adjustment that we can get to the end of suffering through diligent perfection of ourselves without a god being an integral part. Where other religions have suffering coming from a vengeful god, Buddhism may ask for help from other beings but understands that the suffering come from within not without. This is actually quite subtle. Both East and West have the same idea: Karma and Sin. Karma means 'action' and Sin means 'missing the mark' but they refer to the same thing. When our actions are unskilful (akusala) then undesirable outcomes arise, and when we Sin the same. The only difference is that the arising of unwelcome occurrences in Buddhism comes from "cause and effect" and is just a law of the universe: if you do X then Y will happen. While in the West a God decides what the outcome is. If you have done well and favoured the God then good outcomes happen, and otherwise you are punished. It is a subtle difference. But the East has another level to this that at the very root of all this suffering is a very subtle akusala thought namely "Self" from which all suffering arises. The wise do not have this thought and so are free from suffering. But this has a parallel in the West that submission to the will of God is the same as ignoring the Self. So there is really no difference between the strains of thought. 

Now what of Capitalism. Capitalism has been a variant of this very same endeavour. It is about reducing suffering. Particularly through the application of science and technology to fix our suffering. Its like Buddhism in this sense. We do not need to ask for help from divine beings as mankind has the ability to fix this problem itself. Such thinking began in the Renaissance where the accumulation of human knowledge by then (presumably because of writing) started to create a belief that "we can do it." Now people live in ever more comfortable conditions through the precise application of science and technology and also through the creation of an economy that promotes material production, labour and sales. When we suffer these days we just go and buy something or hire someone to fix it.

But isn't this masking the problem. When we buy something it never really fixes the problem, it just kicks the can down the road. The very act of getting up and going out to shop can become a problem in itself. And there is the work required to pay for it. And Capitalists aren't really interested in fixing the problem, it creates more wealth if they can keep you coming back. But without being cynical about Capitalism, could Capitalism really solve suffering itself? Could our lives just becomes so comfortable that suffering becomes a thing of the Past?

It's an ironic thing. In my lifetime I have seen extraordinary changes in welfare. My parents lived through a destructive war where there was unbelievable suffering throughout Europe. And in the years afterwards rationing still existed. Hunger was an every day thing even in the 1st world. People were cold all the time without air conditioning, proper insulation or efficient heating. When people fell ill it often meant death. And work in the 1st world was often manual, repetitive and unfulfilling. All these problems have now been exported to the 3rd world. And yet even after exporting all these difficulties we are stull left with suffering in the West.

Now a new wave of psychological insights is taken hold and a drive for happiness and mental wellbeing. At the top level mental health has taken centre stage in the West. And yet 1 in 10 children are self harming and anti-depressant use is on the rise. I hear again and again there is no substitute for physical exercise. For all the advances of the West a walk is still the best form of medicine.

But could we solve all these things with enough time and endeavour? Well I suspect no. The reason is that we live in a world motivated by suffering itself. Remove the suffering and the world stops.

This is why religions focus on Compassion and Kindness. If you wish to end suffering you need to also shift the reason for being alive from just suffering to something else, and particularly expand your focus from just yourself to other people. When Buddha ended suffering he ended up sitting under a tree for 6 weeks. In his words "there was nothing left to do." Capitalism would end over night if we ended suffering, the human world would literally stop. The Natural world would keep ticking just as it always has, but humans would suddenly stop.

What is needed is a shift to a global attitude, away from the day to day suffering of just me the individual. True I'll still change my seating posture to gain a bit more comfort, that is as natural as the sun rising in the morning, but my goal is no longer concern for the pain, it is rather a deep desire to end suffering in general. I may change seating position to help my body, but equally I will get a cushion for someone else I see who is uncomfortable. In my mind there is no difference. We end suffering. Interestingly with this mind Capitalism and Religion becomes the same. But the economics is slightly different. Gone is the investment for personal gain, or the entrepreneurial spirit driven by a desire for personal betterment and wealth.

What is all this Capitalist wealth for anyway? To end our suffering? But if you need Capitalist investment and wealth to end suffering then what are you going to sell and who is going to buy? Surely you need to buy and sell to end suffering? In which case why the investment? Investment in industry is just a way of magnify your wealth so you can spend even more and end even more of your suffering. But that means that industry is built upon foundations that are secondary to what it does, and that is the weakness of Capitalism. An economy must only be based upon sales and needs. Which means that private investment is a weak link.

An economy becomes driven by need and a desire to help one another. Science and Technology still grow, humans still live full and active lives but their heart is set upon All and not Me.

So Capitalism can learn from Religion and Religion can learn from Capitalism. But as usual the two are at war and everyone will lose.