This may be my most brilliant realization yet.
It’s simple, really. There are men (primarily men, but there are women as well) who are psychotically driven to grab all the power they can and instill their own particular sense of order over a given people., and often, these men are exceedingly violent.
We label them power mad control freaks, Dictators, Tyrants...
Hitler, Hirohito, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Amin, Hussein, Bin Laden, Assad…those are the extreme examples, but these men, they exist on a much smaller scale too - Mafia Dons, Street Gang leaders, Cartel Chieftains…all of those men exhibit the same characteristics as the more well-known murderous tyrants…
They must have power and will go so far as to kill to achieve and maintain it.
I posit that the economic model developed in the western world known as Free Market/ Capitalism has saved countless lives, and, in fact, enriched countless lives, by giving men with those characteristics a way to indulge their drive w/o having to kill or enslave people.
Oh sure, there are those operating the western world's economic system who do hurt people in one way or another - the arms dealers who supply weapons for the actually murderous types are one example, as are the slum lords that evict poor and unfortunates out into the cold.
The thing is though, those are extreme examples of the effectiveness of the system.
The bigger picture shows that the men who would ordinarily ruthlessly manipulate others in murderous games of conquest and acquisition that would have entailed wholesale slaughter of untold innocents in the past instead now get their kicks by acquiring property and prestige via manipulation of stocks, controlling property or means of production, and acquiring wealth.
The occupy movements and the various other attacks on the Free Market/Capitalist system? They are missing the primary benefit of giving the narcissistic, power hungry insane dudes a means to achieve their ends w/o killing millions.
Those people have always existed, and no doubt always will. Until there exists a method of cauterizing that particular drive so the rest of us can live in peace, I'm putting my faith in Capitalism to keep those greedy Fcuks in check.
Now that I really think about it, It's obvious that the recent attacks on Capitalism by various means - the aforementioned occupy movement, the anti-capitalist rants in various media, etc., could have been orchestrated by those who are most threatened by it.
Nearly every socialist, state controlled economic system in Europe is bankrupt or close to it, yet there are no documentaries by Mr. Moore to slap the public awake about the shortcomings of such.
Why no detailed, in depth analysis of the 40% (or better) unemployment rate among 18 - to 35 year old males in Spain? or France?
I'd mention Greece, but why bother...
Seriously - haven't all the attacks on Capitalism over the past two hundred years or so been orchestrated by men who want to control the means of production? Does not the written record show that as being the specific reason?
People who are possessed by that drive for power, but lack the means or ability to acquire power in the world of legitimate business resort to brutality and thuggery of every sort to achieve their ends.
The activity of Mobsters in every nation on the planet bears that truth out.
It's the basic criminal mentality - eliminate your rival, acquire more power, territory, etc.
If it wasn't for Capitalism, who knows what Warren Buffett may have wrought...
*Update*
I awoke this morning to a comment on this particular post, or rather a criticism, that was so insightful, so intellectually honest and so above rebuttal that I have to lay my cards on the table and walk away. Concede the issue without a word of contention.
I refer, of course, to the comment, "I call bullshit.", left by an anonymous reader.
That right there, that concise, well-researched, rooted in incontrivertible-facts-and-sound-logic statement is precisly the tactic the most successful attorneys spend a lifetime learning to present successfully in court in order to free clients and establish precedent.
Hot shot Attorney: "Your honor, if it please the court, I call bullshit."
Esteemed Judge: "Counselor, this court recognises your unarguable perceptivity and hereby awards you and your client an unimpeachable victory."
That right there is why Ivy League Law Schools can demand such exorbitant tuition rates - they have the faculty that is most capable of teaching the difficult and demanding art of "calling bullshit' and proving beyond all reasonable doubt that your opinion of a given subject is correct in one short, quick sentence, and is therefore the only acceptable opinion.
It is such a timesaver too. Not having to state which specific errors in logic, distortions of fact or gross misrepresentations of historical record that I may have made in my little essay quickly settles the issue and frees up the whole afternoon.
I only wish I was capable of same.
But no, I'm stuck researching topics, evolving my opinions, and digging for relevant facts. Dang.
Oh, and I should apologise to Warren Buffett for using him as an example of a potential power mad control freak who may have been a murderous tyrant in a system that would not have allowed him to acquire incredible wealth and power without resorting to force/violence. He actually has committed the majority of his wealth to charity.
I should have used Bernard Madoff or Kevin Trudeau.
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