Henry
Thoreau And
The Patrons Of Virtue
By
Charles Sullivan
03 December,
2007
Countercurrents.org
The
form of government we have is anything but the democratic republic it
purports to be. The more access to wealth a person has the more responsive
to his or her needs the government is. Justice and equality cannot follow
where access is denied or restricted. Far from a government of the people,
for the people and by the people, we now have a government that is the
exclusive domain of the rich and powerful and has the same level of
exclusivity as an expensive country club or resort. The poor and disenfranchised
are barred from entry and are thus marginalized.
Capital government
is the equivalent of a bank’s automatic teller machine. Corporate
lobbyists put their money into it and the machine prints out the legislation
they paid for. It is a system in which the creator of the machines is
no longer their master. We have become, as Thoreau said, “the
tools of our tools.”
The people
should not, and must not lend their material support to a government
that so obviously works in the private corporate interest at the expense
of the public well being. To do so is an exercise in self-deception
and futility.
Material
wealth is only rarely attracted to virtue. Voluntary poverty and simplicity
is the usual domain of virtue, as history attests. Conversely, immense
wealth is attracted to vice, to the mean-spirited, the selfish, the
very aggressive and the morally depraved. The best people throughout
history did not possess great material wealth. To paraphrase Charles
Dickens, “Humanity was their business.”
What could
be more incompatible than virtue and wealth, than business and morality?
What could be more opposed to beauty, to truth, justice; to art and
poetry, to life—than big business and capitalism? It is telling
that our cultural icons are people like Donald Trump, Bill Gates, George
Steinbrenner and other business tycoons, not virtuous men like Frederick
Douglas and Henry David Thoreau or women like Mary Harris—the
fiercely tenacious Mother Jones.
Corporate
governance and plutocracy are manifestations of capitalism that invariably
appeal to the worst in human nature. Expansive economic self interest
is resulting in an ever expanding private domain and a shrinking public
commons. The concentration of wealth and power into fewer and fewer
hands is not in the public interest; nor is the wholesale exploitation
of labor and ecosystems. A system in which means always justify the
ends—a values neutral system of production and waste is contrary
to the needs of the people, as well as the health of the planet.
The Holy
Grail of mature capitalism is the belief that markets should be the
final arbiter of all things, the greatest purity that can be attained
by unleashing the ravenous dogs of greed upon the world. Free market
capitalism does not account for anything that cannot be commodified
and traded; and so it assigns them no weight. Hence morality, honesty,
virtue, self-sacrifice and public service have no worth and no place
in capitalism’s economic formulations because they impose restraints
that limit growth. They are as ethereal as the ruddy glow of the morning
sky and as unmarketable as the mist rising from a brook.
Any belief
system that is not regulated by healthy societal values and the laws
of nature is destined to degenerate into a monstrosity. In reality,
ecological restraints always exist but they are ignored until catastrophe
results and force them upon the public conscience—as in the case
of global warming.
Capitalism,
with its dependence on ever expanding markets and continuous growth
behaves like a planetary malignancy that if left untreated, eventually
consumes the host and results in mortality. It persists by virtue of
its providing obscene wealth to a few through the exploitation of the
many. In this country it is the few who own the political system, not
the many. Capitalism would be quickly abolished in a truly democratic
society as surely as darkness retreats before the light and ignorance
yields to knowledge and understanding.
By participating
in capitalism we have created a culture that over emphasizes competition
and conquest; a culture that defines greed and lust as the highest expressions
of success and as the most desirable symbols of status. It is a culture
that feeds at the public trough and gorges itself on imperial wars;
a system that pays favors to the legal fiction of corporations while
rejecting social justice, the needs of the people and planetary health.
Thus we witness
coal companies blowing majestic Appalachian Mountain tops to smithereens:
destroying world class biodiversity, polluting streams and rivers and
poisoning the air in quest of profits while disregarding the social
and environmental damage they cause. The cost is always passed on to
the public but the profits remain private. Without massive public welfare,
what some might call socialism—capitalism could not exist. Capitalism
is always on the public dole.
It is beyond
bizarre that corporations enjoy the legal status of persons but without
the social responsibility required of real citizenship and personhood.
Corporations often serve as masks to hide the faces of criminals operating
behind the scenes, just as the white hoods of Klansmen conceal the cowardly
faces of those who burn crosses on black people’s lawns in the
night. Any force that operates out of public view is liable to criminal
intent, especially government.
Corporations
routinely commit crimes against earth and humanity but are rarely held
accountable. When was the last time that a corporation had its corporate
charter revoked for malfeasance? When has a corporation ever been executed
for murder?
Under capitalism,
competitive advantage is sought at any cost and it is used as a weapon
against the competition and the people. The status of the individual
is thus elevated above the collective good. The purpose of competition
is to rise above others and to lord power over them, rather than for
everyone to rise together and share the bounty equally through cooperation.
Ideologies that foster equality and fair play are dismissed as unattainable
Utopian fantasy or socialist propaganda. We are told there is no alternative
to capitalism, so we cease to look for them and make little effort to
create something better.
In purely
market driven economies—virtue, character and social justice have
no use unless they can generate wealth for their owners. Imagine the
life of Christ valued only by the income his carpentry brought to his
employer; his teachings dismissed as worthless because they did not
produce money in great enough abundance.
What remains
of the Jewish carpenter’s essence exists outside of the socio-economic
paradigm of today’s capitalism and in clear opposition to it.
Betrayed by the religious institutions of our time, the prophets of
religion have given way to the profits of religion, as documented by
Upton Sinclair and others.
With the
corporatization of the church, the teachings of Christ were discarded
and cast to the four winds in order to give religious authority to capitalism,
greed and exploitation. Rather than producing men of virtue like Jesus,
who called for restraint and shared wealth, it has yielded a morally
depraved leadership as exemplified by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson;
men who have risen to prominence to fleece their obedient flock, rather
than to enlighten and save them from the ravages of unregulated greed.
Rather than
imposing the moral restraints of Jesus upon an unjust society, Pat Roberson
and his kind champion the cause of aggressive exploitation, effectively
turning the teachings of Christ upside down and using them to justify
everything that Jesus Christ railed against and died for. How ironic
that the Christian church so often turns out an army of anti-Christs
rather than Christians in the image of the man they so eagerly idolize
but continuously dishonor.
And so it
goes. Virtue, arguably the greatest of human traits, has no presence
in the market place and it is slowly sinking into the oblivion of euphemisms
and the boiling cauldron of corrupted language from which nothing emerges
intact.
Due in part
to our unquestioned acceptance of capitalism, we are a people who pay
homage to concepts such as democracy, equality, social and environmental
justice and freedom, even as we continually undermine them in nearly
everything we do. Thus we bear a history of genocide, chattel slavery,
racism, sexism, ethnic cleansing, imperial wars and occupation and manifest
destiny that have flourished despite the Constitution, the Declaration
of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
Henry Thoreau
astutely observed: “There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons
of virtue to one virtuous man.” Thoreau hit the nail squarely
on the head, as he so often did. We Americans are patrons of virtue
rather than virtuous people. It costs nothing to be a patron of virtue;
but it requires character and effort to be a virtuous person. Apparently,
we have yet to learn the distinction.
We know that
Thoreau was a virtuous man rather than a patron of virtue, as demonstrated
by certain events in his life. Like Christ, he found himself in formal
opposition to the cultural orthodoxy; he lived apart from society—outside
of the social and political mainstream, an oddity to his neighbors and
often persecuted by them. Thoreau refused allegiance to money and wealth,
understanding that the most important things in life could not be bought
and sold. For him, property and possessions were burdens, not assets.
Thus Thoreau
wisely refused to waste any more time than absolutely necessary in earning
a modest living. He did not rent himself to factories and bosses or
to any of the respectable professions; he worked sporadically and only
when necessary—usually on his own terms. He was a man of principle
who refused to pay taxes that he knew supported an unprovoked war on
Mexico; a war that sought to expand the territory of slavery; and he
went to jail for his beliefs. Thoreau was also a fierce abolitionist
who, against the law, put many a run-away slave on board the Underground
Railroad to Canada and to freedom.
Like all
virtuous people, Thoreau lived by a higher law. He did what was right,
not what was legal or considered respectable or expedient. Unlike today’s
political leadership and contemporary Christians, he was guided by incorruptible
conscience that could not be bribed.
Thoreau’s
freedom from menial work also provided independence from possessions
and debt. Thoreau was a minimalist. His freedom to explore Concord and
vicinity gave birth to several literary masterpieces, including Walden
and Civil Disobedience—works that sold poorly in his time and
provided but little income; but are known worldwide today. World renowned
moralists such as India’s Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther
King were strongly influenced by Thoreau.
If Thoreau’s
life could be summed up in three words they would be, “Simplify,
simplify, simplify.” To simplify and reduce one’s wants
is a paradigm in stark contrast to the ravenous consumption required
by capitalism. It was a way of living that eschewed money and markets;
a way of being that afforded opportunity for intellectual pursuits and
life long learning. Above all, it was a spiritually enriching way of
life that was in harmony with the planet; it was gentle, sustainable,
and fulfilling.
In contrast
to Thoreau, most of us unthinkingly support a system that is fundamentally
unjust, unsustainable and superfluous. It is a system that has no room
for virtue and character because these characteristics cannot be commodified
and marketed; and they impose market restraints. Yet, these are the
very traits that can save us from ourselves and make a better world
possible. How ironic that the traits of character that are most valuable
to our survival as a species are the ones appreciated the least by capitalism.
Markets unregulated
by morality and governments unbounded by justice serve no useful purpose
to anyone in the long run, even those who champion them. Planetary destruction
is not in anyone’s interest. Sustainability is. Sustainability,
unlike its economic counterpart—capitalism, requires virtuous
people rather than mere patrons of virtue. Virtue requires people who
not only understand what is going on but who have the courage to do
something about it—a consciousness that knows the distinction
between patronage to virtue and actual virtue.
Our current
form of government is a spectacular failure because it is an arm of
business and capitalism rather than an institution of democracy with
powerful ethical moorings derived from the grass roots—a decentralized,
non-hierarchal power that radiates equally from the people like the
spokes of a wheel from a central hub. As such, it often attracts the
worst kind of people rather than the principled and just. The interest
of big business is now and always has been at odds with just causes
and the public welfare. Corporate interests and the people’s interests
must never be confused.
Charles
Sullivan is a nature photographer, free-lance writer and community
activist residing in the Ridge and Valley Province of geopolitical West
Virginia. He welcomes your comments at [email protected].
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