Dr. Nicole Morgan, CACOR Board of Directors, writes:
No libertarian theoretician has challenged the great Aristotelian principle that affirms that “man is a political animal”. But they have managed the remarkable achievement of reconciling the individual devoted only to himself with involvement in a social dimension by creating a type of religion from the ground up, as Harvey Cox, in a celebrated article which appeared in 1999, has so amply demonstrated[1].
For this former Harvard professor of theology, there was a sense of déjà vu when he came to read the business newspapers. All the themes of the financial pages, he found, were direct parallels of theological texts. They were constructed around giving a sense to human history and ideas such as the “fall” and “redemption” of man. Put “God” in the place of “the Market” and all becomes clear: the market is omnipotent. Cox defines this term as “the ability to define reality”, “the power to create something from nothing and nothing from something”. The reality created by the market leaves no other space available since everything can be reduced to figures and traded on the stock exchange, whether it be sacred sites, human body parts, traditional methods of nutrition or Tibetan prayers. Its omnipotence is such that proofs to the contrary (for example, monetary losses in billions of dollars) are interpreted as simply doctrinal corrections and a supplementary proof of its existence.
The market is omniscient. Like God, it knows man and his most secret needs (the proof of which is the sale of a product or service that corresponds to these). Only the market can determine the value of goods and services through the indicative processes of the international stock exchanges. Financial experts have become high priests and prophets whose advice must be heeded on pain of excommunication and damnation. Every political initiative must pass by its judgement.
The market is omnipresent. It has invaded everywhere, including private life (family, couple relationships, friendships etc.) which hitherto had escaped its ambit.
Cox fails to add that the market is also a promise of paradise which attributes this time to the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith the powers of divine reward. Thus can the logic of the proposition be drawn: when individuals are finally left free to choose, they will meet their interests on a free market and eventually will find a state of dynamic equilibrium which is for the greater benefit of each and every one, since prosperity, unencumbered by governments and bureaucracy, will be able to spread its benefits to a greater and greater number of individuals. Such is the promise made by the prophets of futurology like Alvin Toffler[2].
Transgression and fear
Without realizing it we find ourselves back in 1515, for with the individual who is the sole master of choice returns the individual solely responsible for his actions. The modern-day “thieves” now have the weapons that a free firearms market can procure for them. But just like their miscreant forebears, they bear alone the weight of transgression should they use them wrongfully. The slogan is constantly repeated “Guns do not kill people, people kill people”. No other explanation of crime is tolerated, whether one points to social class divisions, a deficient education system, the age of the perpetrators, the easy accessibility of firearms or advertising which drives up their sales. The firearms dealer (the market) is innocent and cannot be held to blame for the criminal who is free by definition to heed or not the voice of the devil.
[1] “The Market as God: Living the New Dispensation”, The Atlantic Monthly, March 1999
[2] Alvin and Heidi TOFFLER, Creating a New Civilisation: the Politics of the Third Wace, Atlanta, Turner Pub. 1995
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