Capitalism, Culture, Government – They’re All Part of the Same Organism
Channel: Daily Insight
Date: 2019-02-27

Humans love to categorise things, from animals, to plants, to diseases, and to systems of government. This is an alligator. This is a crocodile. This is an American and this is a Canadian. This is a liver and this is a kidney. We love categorisation.

Unfortunately, we seem to think that by categorising things, this makes two similar things completely different from one another. But the truth of the matter is, most things are part of the same overarching group. Humans have come up with these fictional categories to make it easier for us to deal with the world around us.

Many commenters would argue that if we could just take away capitalism, then the world would be a better place. (I have argued this point myself!) Others say that if we just get rid of government, then capitalism and the free market can reign supreme creating a fairer and more sane world for all.

But what people fail to realise is that all these things are part of the same organism. They’re not independent of one another. They’re not unique. They’re all part of this strange melting pot that we call, human society.

We can try to take certain things away from human society, but ultimately, it will either hurt us, or just be immediately replaced with an alternative.

Capitalism is simply an economic system. It’s a way to organise the production and distribution of goods and services. Society needs this part.

The next part of this organism that we call human society is the government, which we can basically relabel to Political System. Of course, governments can take on many forms, all of which are just human constructs, of course. We have democracy in the Western world. Democracy is often labelled, “Power of Many”.

There’s also Oligarchy, often labelled, “Power of Few”. Think Aristocracy which places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class.

Another major political system that we have seen a lot of throughout human history is Autocracy, often labelled, “Power of One”. Think of systems such as Despotism, Dictatorship, or Absolute Monarchy.

You see, wherever people gather, they form some kind of government. If you look at the simplest tribal band, you will see some form of hierarchy.

Ultimately, groups of humans instinctively form governments, or groups, or some form of political system. True anarchy will never exist, because human society will not let it exist.

Capitalists and free-market proponents who call for the abolition of government interference, are basically asking for this part to be removed from society. And quite frankly, that just can’t happen.

Perhaps if everyone behaved rationally, then yes, you could live in a government-less society without any laws and regulations. But we all know that realistically, this is simply not possible. There will always be ratbags, and criminals, and people willing to exploit others for personal gain.

The third part of society is Culture, or we could relabel it to Sociocultural System. Culture consists of things such as religion, kinship, social hierarchies, marriage, music, tool usage, cooking, etc.

Human society needs all of these parts. Think of it like a bowl of vegetable soup. We have carrots, onions, parsley, mushrooms, tomatoes, and potatoes. We blend them all together, add a bit of salt and pepper, and get a yummy broth.

Human society is like a big bowl of mixed up categories. We add some politics, religion, capitalism, hierarchy, and some kinship, and mix them all together to get a strange concoction of word salad or alphabet soup. If we try to take any single component out, we fail. It’s impossible. You see, all these components are just man-made labels or categories. They are just made-up descriptors of human social interaction.

The most we can do with soup is modify the recipe slightly. We can choose to add a bit more salt, or a few more tomatoes. Just as in human society we can choose to add a few more rules and regulations, or tweak the ones we already have.

Capitalism, or some form of producing and distributing resources, is vital for society. Democracy, or some form of political system, is a natural result of when people band together. Cultural systems organically grow from these individual groups. To say that we can simply remove government and then the free-market can prosper, is naive. To say that we can just remove capitalism and then society would be better off, is also naive.

Humans are humans. There are good people and there are bad people. Some people are rational, but many people are irrational. That’s just the way things are. Without rules and regulations, the whole system goes to hell in a handbasket.

FIND US ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/DailyRantAustralia/

IMAGE RIGHTS
Plantain and Banana
By Rhododendrites [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

#dailyrantaustralia #society #government #capitalism #socialism