1998 Series 1 Number 26 Page 9
Human Values and Capitalism.
[Note: This is a truly profound essay we all should read and revisit from time to time. Ed.]
This was a reprint (with permission) of an article by Dr. Henryk Skolimowski in the journal World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues (Vol. 1, No. 4, 1997).
[See < World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues | JSTOR >. Ed.]
“As both capitalism and communism have failed, we have to seek new paths beyond selfishness and aggression. We have to transcend our present limitations and we need to liberate our human nature from the constraints of capitalism.”
[One might say that in so many ways, industrialization—represented in both capitalism and communism—has both provided the capacity to grow the human population to such an immense scale and to do so much to destroy the natural ecosystems of the earth. Ed.]
The article was full move profound observations, such as: “Selfish is stupid. The term ‘idiot’ comes from the Greek word idio—the self.”
The last two paragraphs were as follows:
“The next transformation is our new journey. We need to transcend all the messes we have created. Evolution is transcendence…[a]nd it wants us to transcend our present limitations. We need to liberate our human nature from the letters of capitalist ideology. We need to create together—all of us—patterns of cooperative behavior, where by spiritual nature of the human will flourish, unconstrained by religious divisions and dogmas, unhampered by greed and divisive nationalism, and freed from hunger and destitution.
“We can do it…[a]nd we shall do it…[b]ecause it is in our evolutionary destiny…a desire of our burning heart… a yearning of our soul…essentially [why] we were created.”
[Dr. Henryk Skolimowski was a Polish philosopher who completed technical studies, musicology, and philosophy in Warsaw. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Oxford U. He died in 2018. See < Henryk Skolimowski – Wikipedia >. Ed.]
[Professor Jerzy Wojciechowski arranged for the journal’s reprint permission and submitted this article to CACOR on behalf of the author. Ed.]
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