More to come
Truth and Reconciliation.
A well produced Truth and Reconciliation public process for capitalism would be newsworthy. Just the idea is newsworthy. Given the condition of our society and the environment, Truth and Reconciliation for capitalism and its servants is totally justified.
Historically, the purpose of a truth and reconciliation process [TRP] is to acknowledge the long term systematic wrong doing a powerful entity has imposed on a much less powerful entity. The goal is to reach some kind of accountability for that wrong doing. Punishment of those responsible for the wrongdoing may or may not be a part of the process.
TRPs have taken place all over the world. Perhaps the best known was in South Africa established after the end of Apartheid, to address the many years of official repression and discrimination committed by the white minority government on the black majority. Other countries have called on truth and reconciliation to account for historical wrongdoing. Canada, Australia, Norway and Sweden have all made use of the TRP in regard to past government policy that purposefully discriminated and oppressed the lifestyles and culture of indigenous people. A TRP in Chile addressed the disappearances and human rights abuses committed by the regime of military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
A truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body and its course of action is to
(1) investigate a pattern of not ok events that took place over a period of time;
(2) engage directly and broadly with the affected population, gathering information on their experiences
(3) set up a temporary body, by the will of the people with the aim of concluding with a final report
America's TRP candidate has both similarities and differences compared to previous TRPs. America's candidate has delivered a higher level of material abundance to a greater share of its population than any other country in history. Cars, suburbia, mini storage units and entertainment exist in super sized amounts. At the same time, to many observers, it has severely and tragically degraded social, political, economic and eco logical well being. There is good reason to believe the lifestyle of middle class America, not to mention the well off, is far from sustainable and can share responsibility for just about every major front page problem we read about.
America's truth and reconciliation candidate is capitalism. Capitalism's work is to create as much want and desire for its vast array of products as possible and then sell that stuff to as many people as possible. Starting at a young age with clever and incessant commercial messaging, it shapes the values and lifestyles of hundreds of millions of people so they conform to their roles as consumers. Important terms that describe the methods of capitalism are social engineering, credit, external cost and consumer culture. HERE is more about social engineering.
The outcome of this social engineering and consumer culture is a society based on staggering over-consumption of resources and energy, a remarkable concentration of economic and political power, climate change, lost human potential and a lot more.
A truth and reconciliation for capitalism would address how and why this consumer culture came into being, identify the damage to people and planet and who and what has been responsible. A concurrent task of the TRP would be to generate sets of recommendations for individuals, communities and nation to mitigate the damage and move towards sustainability and social up lift.
A fair assessment of capitalism can be a powerful boost forward for humans moving towards sustainability and uplift.
An important difference between capitalism's TRP and those mentioned above, is that capitalism is not a government, its an economic system. Capitalism is not a singular entity yet its principles and methods result in a consistent set of behaviors by the world of business, particularly in the US and that is to promote as much consumption of resources and energy as possible and not be distracted by ethics, damage to public health and honesty.
Excess is the calling card of American style capitalism. Extremely important to add, capitalism receives the full blessing and encouragement of government, both administrative and elected, from national to local. Government is an essential partner to capitalism and fully shares responsibility for the degraded condition of this society and the environment. A T and R process should include all particpants who had/have a major role to play.
Another primary difference with capitalism's wrong doing compared to the governments mentioned above is those governments targeted specific people and groups, such as indigenous populations and political opponents. Capitalism's target is the entire population. Young, old, well off, not well off, in shape, out of shape, male, female, white, black, red, everyone. That said, the less well off are less insulated from the depredations of capitalism.
Still, another difference with capitalism's truth and reconciliation is that its process would not be limited to wrong doing to people, it would also take great interest in capitalism's damage to the natural world. A TRP would examine the cause and effect of social engineering, over consumption, external costs and their damage to the natural world.
Another important task for capitalism's TRP is to assess the harm it has caused to positive human potential. For example, what could have been accomplished if literally billions of hours of person time lost to passive and even violent entertainment – sports, concerts, TV, social media - were applied instead to personal uplift, community service and planet repair. Extreme social and economic dis equity, well known to this society, means reduced opportunity for millions of people to manifest their positive potential. Individuals miss out and so does society on the positive potentials of millions of people.
Such a measurement would be difficult to make but the idea of an immense amount of lost human potential is, with no doubt, an outcome of this economic system.
What might a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for capitalism actually look like?
A T and R process for capitalism might combine the elements of a graduate school seminar, court of law, think tank and traveling road show.
The cost for a T and R process could amount to tens of millions of dollars. Who would organize it and raise that kind of money? There are many well endowed foundations and individuals with an interest in these issues. There are civic minded organizations that could take the lead and/or participate including faith groups, labor, business, academic, institutions of all kinds Perhaps groups and individuals would apply with an essay describing their interest in T and R.
A commission, thoughtfully brought together, would map out a plan for the T and R process with wide ranging input on a wide range of issues. The process could take many months, would certainly have twists and turns but there would be an awareness of the importance of the process and the need to be deliberate but timely and accountable.
The commission could visit places that help tell the story of this nation's contrasting conditions at this point in history. Perhaps a clearcut, industrial brownfield, wealthy neighborhood, crisis center, factories, country club, migrant workers, urban blight, a penthouse, confined livestock feeding operation, schools, worker owned business, suburban permaculture, eco village, homeless camp, Times Square, a reservation, a neighborhood bisected by an urban freeway and more. Experts and every day people from those visits would be invited to testify.
Testimony could be gathered from people interviewed and submissions invited from the public and any other way to make the process inclusive. Testimony could also be include by those who support capitalism. Content could range from strictly science and fact to personal anecdotes, philosophy and theory. The commission would produce a document of all writings and correspondence and make it available to the public.
Here are several basic questions for the TR process to consider.
1] What is the mission statement for capitalism and the consumer culture?
2] Examine the term external cost and why its important.
3] Does capitalism bring out the best in positive human potential?
4] What might a society look like if the price we paid for products and services covered the cost of the damage caused using
that product or service?
5] Does advertising as we know it qualify as propaganda and social engineering?
6] What are the implications that this economic system promotes and sells products known to kill people
and damage the environment?
7] What examples do we have of corporate mal practice such as sub prime lending and buy now, pay later.
Other issues for the T and R to consider.
Are capitalism and democracy compatible?
Should profits be more important than affordable housing and healthy food?
Is this statement accurate? Millions of jobs exist to repair the damage caused by millions of other jobs.
Is this statement accurate? Almost every social, economic, political and environmental problem we have can be traced to capitalism and its consumer culture.
What benefits of modern life could be sustainable?
Contact me Donate to the Primer
Truth and Reconciliation.
A well produced Truth and Reconciliation public process for capitalism would be newsworthy. Just the idea is newsworthy. Given the condition of our society and the environment, Truth and Reconciliation for capitalism and its servants is totally justified.
Historically, the purpose of a truth and reconciliation process [TRP] is to acknowledge the long term systematic wrong doing a powerful entity has imposed on a much less powerful entity. The goal is to reach some kind of accountability for that wrong doing. Punishment of those responsible for the wrongdoing may or may not be a part of the process.
TRPs have taken place all over the world. Perhaps the best known was in South Africa established after the end of Apartheid, to address the many years of official repression and discrimination committed by the white minority government on the black majority. Other countries have called on truth and reconciliation to account for historical wrongdoing. Canada, Australia, Norway and Sweden have all made use of the TRP in regard to past government policy that purposefully discriminated and oppressed the lifestyles and culture of indigenous people. A TRP in Chile addressed the disappearances and human rights abuses committed by the regime of military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
A truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body and its course of action is to
(1) investigate a pattern of not ok events that took place over a period of time;
(2) engage directly and broadly with the affected population, gathering information on their experiences
(3) set up a temporary body, by the will of the people with the aim of concluding with a final report
America's TRP candidate has both similarities and differences compared to previous TRPs. America's candidate has delivered a higher level of material abundance to a greater share of its population than any other country in history. Cars, suburbia, mini storage units and entertainment exist in super sized amounts. At the same time, to many observers, it has severely and tragically degraded social, political, economic and eco logical well being. There is good reason to believe the lifestyle of middle class America, not to mention the well off, is far from sustainable and can share responsibility for just about every major front page problem we read about.
America's truth and reconciliation candidate is capitalism. Capitalism's work is to create as much want and desire for its vast array of products as possible and then sell that stuff to as many people as possible. Starting at a young age with clever and incessant commercial messaging, it shapes the values and lifestyles of hundreds of millions of people so they conform to their roles as consumers. Important terms that describe the methods of capitalism are social engineering, credit, external cost and consumer culture. HERE is more about social engineering.
The outcome of this social engineering and consumer culture is a society based on staggering over-consumption of resources and energy, a remarkable concentration of economic and political power, climate change, lost human potential and a lot more.
A truth and reconciliation for capitalism would address how and why this consumer culture came into being, identify the damage to people and planet and who and what has been responsible. A concurrent task of the TRP would be to generate sets of recommendations for individuals, communities and nation to mitigate the damage and move towards sustainability and social up lift.
A fair assessment of capitalism can be a powerful boost forward for humans moving towards sustainability and uplift.
An important difference between capitalism's TRP and those mentioned above, is that capitalism is not a government, its an economic system. Capitalism is not a singular entity yet its principles and methods result in a consistent set of behaviors by the world of business, particularly in the US and that is to promote as much consumption of resources and energy as possible and not be distracted by ethics, damage to public health and honesty.
Excess is the calling card of American style capitalism. Extremely important to add, capitalism receives the full blessing and encouragement of government, both administrative and elected, from national to local. Government is an essential partner to capitalism and fully shares responsibility for the degraded condition of this society and the environment. A T and R process should include all particpants who had/have a major role to play.
Another primary difference with capitalism's wrong doing compared to the governments mentioned above is those governments targeted specific people and groups, such as indigenous populations and political opponents. Capitalism's target is the entire population. Young, old, well off, not well off, in shape, out of shape, male, female, white, black, red, everyone. That said, the less well off are less insulated from the depredations of capitalism.
Still, another difference with capitalism's truth and reconciliation is that its process would not be limited to wrong doing to people, it would also take great interest in capitalism's damage to the natural world. A TRP would examine the cause and effect of social engineering, over consumption, external costs and their damage to the natural world.
Another important task for capitalism's TRP is to assess the harm it has caused to positive human potential. For example, what could have been accomplished if literally billions of hours of person time lost to passive and even violent entertainment – sports, concerts, TV, social media - were applied instead to personal uplift, community service and planet repair. Extreme social and economic dis equity, well known to this society, means reduced opportunity for millions of people to manifest their positive potential. Individuals miss out and so does society on the positive potentials of millions of people.
Such a measurement would be difficult to make but the idea of an immense amount of lost human potential is, with no doubt, an outcome of this economic system.
What might a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for capitalism actually look like?
A T and R process for capitalism might combine the elements of a graduate school seminar, court of law, think tank and traveling road show.
The cost for a T and R process could amount to tens of millions of dollars. Who would organize it and raise that kind of money? There are many well endowed foundations and individuals with an interest in these issues. There are civic minded organizations that could take the lead and/or participate including faith groups, labor, business, academic, institutions of all kinds Perhaps groups and individuals would apply with an essay describing their interest in T and R.
A commission, thoughtfully brought together, would map out a plan for the T and R process with wide ranging input on a wide range of issues. The process could take many months, would certainly have twists and turns but there would be an awareness of the importance of the process and the need to be deliberate but timely and accountable.
The commission could visit places that help tell the story of this nation's contrasting conditions at this point in history. Perhaps a clearcut, industrial brownfield, wealthy neighborhood, crisis center, factories, country club, migrant workers, urban blight, a penthouse, confined livestock feeding operation, schools, worker owned business, suburban permaculture, eco village, homeless camp, Times Square, a reservation, a neighborhood bisected by an urban freeway and more. Experts and every day people from those visits would be invited to testify.
Testimony could be gathered from people interviewed and submissions invited from the public and any other way to make the process inclusive. Testimony could also be include by those who support capitalism. Content could range from strictly science and fact to personal anecdotes, philosophy and theory. The commission would produce a document of all writings and correspondence and make it available to the public.
Here are several basic questions for the TR process to consider.
1] What is the mission statement for capitalism and the consumer culture?
2] Examine the term external cost and why its important.
3] Does capitalism bring out the best in positive human potential?
4] What might a society look like if the price we paid for products and services covered the cost of the damage caused using
that product or service?
5] Does advertising as we know it qualify as propaganda and social engineering?
6] What are the implications that this economic system promotes and sells products known to kill people
and damage the environment?
7] What examples do we have of corporate mal practice such as sub prime lending and buy now, pay later.
Other issues for the T and R to consider.
Are capitalism and democracy compatible?
Should profits be more important than affordable housing and healthy food?
Is this statement accurate? Millions of jobs exist to repair the damage caused by millions of other jobs.
Is this statement accurate? Almost every social, economic, political and environmental problem we have can be traced to capitalism and its consumer culture.
What benefits of modern life could be sustainable?
Contact me Donate to the Primer