THE RECORD

August 25, 1999

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Fear is one of the most powerful human emotions. Scared people often perform miraculous feats, but fear can also induce people to commit the most heinous crimes. The common tool used by the ruling classes throughout history has always been the building up of fear in their subjects' minds, then forcing them into criminal actions, covered up under false religious and ideological tenets.

History is full of precedents and examples of how phoney prophets used their powers to cause fear and lead whole nations into the tacit approval of robbery and mass murder justified by religious, or economic theories. Every empire of history was built on such false concepts and ultimately self destructed by the same ideas that gave them power in the first place.

We have had ample examples of this during this past century: the rise and fall of colonial empires; the rise and fall of communism, of nazism; and now capitalism. All built on the mountains of bones of their victims, and all of them brought down by the reactions caused by their crimes. Yet, all the theories justifying their criminal actions were once taught as sciences, just as neo-classical capitalism is being taught now, even as it's foundations are crumbling.

The common thread behind all theories, permitting and urging exploitation, are double standards based on fear. The artificially induced fear of being left behind in some war, or other competition for resource control, or the fear of being exploited, enslaved, or killed by some mythical enemies. This countered with the divinely ordained licence to: "Do unto others what you wouldn't want them to do to you."

We are taught that "Thou shall not covet thy neighbour's house...or his wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's" This is of course unless thy neighbour is a native Indian who has no bill of sale to prove that his land was bought by his forefathers 10,000 years ago or someone else with resources that you want that provides an easy target for exploitation.

The science of neo-classical economics which is being taught by a thousand universities to millions of students all over the world, financed by divinely blessed corporate power. This brand of economics provides the justification for the building up of fear of losing everything, the forcing of people to scheme, cheat and lie to remain "competitive" against others. It teaches us nothing more or less than beating the other guy on the head and stealing his ass, ox, house and whatever he may have, before he does it to you. In economic terms this is called a "competitive equilibrium."

Here's a very good example of the self destructing double standards, as written by the High Priest of neo-classical capitalism Professor Milton Friedman of the Chicago School of Economics. I quoted this sentence a few weeks ago, but here we go again to put it into context double standards at work: "..... both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange take place unless both parties do benefit."

Sounds beautiful. His followers, like the Fraser Inst., are shouting it as the words of the Prophet bringing on a new prosperous world. What is never mentioned that Mr.Friedman and his disciples are the most rabid opponents of all worker and environmental protection, all publicly controlled services, Medicare, unemployment insurance, welfare, all levels of governments and even minimum wage laws. The same propaganda used in the actions and literature of our so called National Citizens Coalition and Taxpayers Federation. Wealthy pro-corporate groups with tons of money, but hardly any members.

Here's Friedman on minimum wage laws: "The minimum wage law requires employers to discriminate against persons with low skills. ...Take a poorly educated teenager with little skills whose services are worth, say, only $2. and hour. He or she might be eager to work for that wage in order to acquire greater skills taht would permit a better job. The law says that such person may be hired only if the employer is willing to pay ( in 1979) $2.90 and hour. Unless an employer is willing to add 90 cents in charity to the $2. that person's services are worth, the teenager will not be employed."

In short, Friedman's "mutual satisfaction", originaly stolen from Adam Smith, doesn't extend to the mutual satisfaction at the workplace. There terror should reign, with the management sector entitled to force the weaker working sector to accept whatever they are thrown. For the worker it is be happy and shut up, or else. This is mutual satisfaction by fear, again following the footsteps of nazism and communism, but now called "free enterprise."

I seem to remember a certain corporate mill at Gold River exercising this kind of "mutual satisfaction" on the community.

Copyright (c) 1999, West's International