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The Cancer Stage of Capitalism

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Question: What's the difference between Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, George Bush ... and Jack Kevorkian?

Answer: Those receiving death treatments aren't asked first. And one could add - the dying is not painless. Homelessness, poverty, pain, misery, and preventable sickness come first, and all in the name of 'market freedom.'

"The Cancer Stage of Capitalism" by Professor John McMurtry, Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, covers the history of "value programs" as well as the disciplinary methods which can either presuppose or expose them. (By a "value program" McMurtry means a locked set of unexamined principles which select against evidence which refutes it.) It is an anti-dote to the affectations of 'disciplinolatry,' and the global market wisdoms to which we are daily exposed. As a thoroughly knowledgeable examination of the economic and political determinants of the world system it provides a clear dissection of the root problems, causes and consequences for the world of globalization and neo-conservative policy. Its arguments are thorougly documented. (See also the companion: McMurtry, John, "The Global Market as an Ethical System," Toronto: Garamond, and Westport Connecticut: Kurmarian, 1998).

With a diagnostic kit-bag and an argument that is impossible to refute, this book is ideal for social consciousness raising! All those concerned with strengthening and maintaining their communities, (more generally their respective 'civil commons'), and with how to practically come to grips with the economic constitutions (e.g., NAFTA and MAI) that are being built to strengthen international corporate and financial power with consequences that weaken the life-sustaining civil commons, should read this book. Importantly, social activists and educators should make every effort to get this book into the hands of their representatives at all levels of government so they can be exactly apprised of the consequences of their actions on the citizens they ostensibly represent. With great effect McMurtry develops his argument using medical concepts which strikingly apply to social life-organization, and diagnoses a systemically life-threatening disease of social and environmental life-hosts.

Amongst other things, McMurtry updates Marx by extending the critique of capitalism to include what Marx (who lived in the heyday of the gold standard) did not and could not see -- the life-depredating logic of modern-day money-creation, debt finance and interest circuits. As well, McMurtry overcomes deficiencies in Garret Hardin's, "The Tragedy of the Commons," through a full development of the concept of the 'civil commons', by which he means socially regulated life-resources available to all members of the community (e.g., clean air and water, public education and health-care, and the regulation of money-creation itself).

Review by Dr. W. Robert Needham Director, Canadian Studies Program University of Waterloo Water;oo, Ontario

In an earlier age, religious authorities denied that the earth could revolve around the sun because this basic truth conflicted with and ultimately threatened the ruling power's value system. Today, the exalted prophets of the so-called "free market" refuse to acknowledge capitalism's destructive impacts to the environment and human health and welfare by claiming that its ill effects are external to the profit imperative and are consequently of little or no concern.

In this insightful book, author John McMurty challenges the conventional wisdom. By comparing unregulated global capitalism with the uncontrolled growth of a malignant tumor, McMurty alerts us to the "life" and "death" sequences of money investment that today's market champions are unable to see.

The growth imperative has always meant that capital must find new opportunities to grow in order to sustain itself. But the author suggests that we have entered a post-Marxist era because capital investments have been almost completely de-linked from any trace of productive investment. The modern capitalist imperative is simply to create more money for idle investors by any means possible.

This growth is often enabled by predation on the publicly-held resources that the author argues represents real value, thereby diminishing the community's ability to sustain itself in the long run. Forests are clear-cut; public utilities are privatized; social programs are gutted; and so on. The net result is that the quality of life for the vast majority of the world's citizens has declined.

On the other hand, the "death sequences" of armaments, tobacco, oil, chemical, and other dangerous products reward investors with high rates of return. Currency trading -- with its sometimes destablizing effect on national economies -- is also cited by the author as symptomatic of a culture that does not know how to properly "immune" itself from predatory capitalism: is it not unreasonable to tax currency trades to discourage excess and to compensate society for its ill effects?

Full of insight and powerful analysis, this book is recommended for people who are not afraid to re-examine their basic assumptions about capitalism and learn more about the possibly dangerous direction in which our society appears to be headed.

John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, does not hesitate to compare the capitalism with a cancerous ulcer. The greed conducts the processes of the capital accumulations -- and will not lead to sensible, ethically acceptable investments, but causes a dying of the planet like a tumor can start the fall of a human body. There are to show a lot of short-sightedness -- from the seabed up to the ozone layer, from weapons trade to waste of fuel and medicine by few ruthless nations. To ignore these matters is similar, indeed, like ignoring growing tumors and hoping with optimism, that there never will be any need of consulting a doctor. More and more money for useless investors is demanded by capital owners, unfortunately, a mentality of "predation" would not come into disrepute at all. However, this is the effort which makes McMurtry to himself with his publications: understanding the global markets and resources as an ethical task. So McMurtry interprets some famines caused by U.S. economy sanctions -- in Cuba, Somalia, Iraq or North Korea. A hoarding of resources (to be called almost lecherously) by only few privileged ones infuriates in principle the Canadian philosopher. He stands up vehemently for an ethic, which does not consider only humane justice, but also a sudden close-out sale of our planet. In an earlier age religious authorities denied that the earth revolves around the sun, nowadays management groups steered by lobbyists deny that an economic egoism is a depressing illness. Economy policy as in a egocentric, blind rage could tip over sometime and come fast to a precipice unpleasantly. Dying by the way is not painless. The global illness harbingers are homelessness, poverty, crime, terrorism, refugee misery (from Mexico to Morocco). The morphine of not to mention it -- is like ignoring hospital, if it is needed.

Well, that's the driving spirit of capitalism well described by CARL AMERY (in his book "Global Exit") as the "Bierhefeprinzip" (The Brewer's Yeast-Principle, BYP): unremitting growth of the brewer's yeast leading to asphyxia in its own excrements. For God's Sake, is the BYP really the desirable life code for man (meant to live as 'homo sapiens sapiens'- aware of his earthly and heavenly origin) or his inescapable fate as life-destroying 'homo demens' (ruthless madman)?

Is there really no alternative to a capitalist shock-and-awe-economy causing collateral damages like permanent wealth-redistribution from poor to rich, currency-manipulations (hidden taxing through inflation, interest-payments etc.)?

Is there really no alternative to a capitalist economy threatened by the popping of the derivative-bubble (i.e. the explosion of the financial weapons of mass destruction FWMD)?

Should a free market-economy - in order to gain sustainability - not finally be freed from capitalism as Professor DIETER SUHR suggested in his brilliant analysis "The Capitalistic Cost-Benefit Structure of Money - An Analysis of Moneys Structural Nonneutrality and its Effects on the Economy" (Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York 1989)?

Or is Carroll Quigley's vision - more a nightmare for most people - going to be fulfilled (see: Tragedy & Hope, p. 324)?

Whatever you may believe read John McMurtry's masterpiece as well as 'Web of Debt' by ELLEN BROWN and judge for yourself. It may help you discover the symbolism of the wonderful Wizard of Oz and lead you to a deeper understanding of the monetary mess we're all in. And - the solutions are pretty simple - but who knows and who cares?

To the gentleperson from Alaska (the state with the most to lose from Bush's environmental policy) who thinks that Communism is the only alternative to Capitalism:

* Famines in Cuba, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia caused by US economic sanctions.

* Countless (because the US propaganda machine will never reveal them) numbers executed by paramilitary goon squads propped up as "friendly" governments by the US.

* Famine in every age of Chinese history (blame God for the weather)

* Pointless wars of all kinds, in all regions through all ages because of the wanton hoarding of resources by the privileged few to control the non-privileged masses.

* All economic systems are inferior to capitalism from a capitalist's (rich person's) point of view. Capital-ism is without doubt the theoretical limit to economic theory. Creating money out of nothing for the sake of making more money is as far as you can go before (or after) hitting the wall of absurdity.

* Horrendous pollution in Delaware and New Jersey (can you TASTE the air in Alaska?).

* Our freedom is a product of our Democracy not our ecomomy.
Communism in China and Russia was not instituted by a majority of the population in a free election. More importantly we cannot force Democracy on foreign nations, they either rise up and take it like we did, or they suffer the slings and arrows of their outrageous fortune (not ours).

This is a very prescient book. As I write this review (May 2010) it is quite easy to consider the events of the last 18 months or so (The real estate bubble, credit default swaps, various nefarious investment vehicles) as demonstrating quite nicely the premise that the author is making. This book is a little hard to get through. It is written in a very institutional style. It's like a graduate school thesis. But it is almost required reading I would say.

The author is basically saying that our modern capitalist structures and institutions have metastized into organisms that are destructive to rest of society, the biosphere etc...This leads to other questions: How long will this situation endure? What kind of horrors will we rationalize in the attempt to sustain this unsustainable system? What will take it's (Capitalism) place? How will this change come about? If you're interested in these macro-type issues, this book is for you.

Karl Marx can be given one break - he didn't live to see the days his communist ideals would be put into action. The reviewer above and the author have no such excuses.

After a century we can now list the accomplishments of communism:

* Famine in the Soviet Union after collectivizing agriculture: millions dead

* Millions executed during Stalin's rule: 10 million dead

* Famine under Mao: 10 - 30 million dead

* Pointless civil wars death and suffering in dozens of countries in 5 continents to install communist regimes: millions dead

* An economic system that remained inferior to capitalist countries (in fact communist countries were losing even more ground to capitalist countries as years past) and kept a majority of people much less materially well off than their counterparts in capitalist nations - take North and South Korea; East and West Germany; China and Taiwan.

* Horrendeous pollution - National geographic did an expose on Siberia "the most polluted place on the planet"

* No freedom

Estimates range from 50 to 100 million dead and human suffering in the billions, oppression and destroyed ecosystems - what would you call this - EVIL - and what would you call people who support this - EVIL.

For all its shortcomings capitalism has helped rise millions to hire levels of economic well being. On economics alone capitalism for outstrips communism.