By Dr. Sawraj Singh
Just like in Johnny Lee’s famous song of the eighties movie Urban Cowboy, Looking for love in all the wrong places, President Bush was looking for the axis of evil in all the wrong places. He saw the axis of evil in Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Two of those three have now become American allies in its fight against Islamic State (IS). If President Bush would have done some better searching, he could have found the real Axis of Evil in capitalism. The bitter truth is that western capitalism, which he fed, is and is the mother of all evil.
Capitalism has neglected all human progress in the field of civilization, which was made during thousands of years, and has pushed humans back to the lower center of selfishness, greed, lust, arrogance and vengeance. Civilization means moving from lower centers to higher centers of man and promoting values such as sharing, contentment, love and humility. Capitalism has done the opposite; it has made us selfish, greedy, intolerant, impatient, vengeful and arrogant. Not only have we weakened or destroyed our relations with other human beings, we also have not even spared animals.
The London Zoological Society’s (ZSL) just released Living Planet Index, a study on the world’s wildlife population, has shown that it has halved in the last 40 years. The population of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians declined by 52%; the fresh water species declined by 76%; and in some areas, the lion population is down by 90%. In West Africa, forest-felling has reduced the historic range of the elephants to just 6-7%. The global population of tigers has declined from 100,000 to 3,000. The study concluded that the biggest recorded threat to biodiversity comes from habitat loss and degradation driven by unsustainable human consumption. I feel that unsustainable human consumption is a codeword for capitalist consumer culture. Therefore, it is capitalist greed which has pushed the planet close to destruction.
Capitalism has eroded all of our institutions which evolved over thousands of years. Capitalism has attacked the most fundamental social institution, the family. For all practical purposes, family has disintegrated. Capitalism has done that by weakening human relations. It has made people so self-centered and selfish that they become incapable of having any meaningful relation. Capitalism has primarily attacked the most fundamental human relation, that is, between a man and a woman. Under the false pretext of liberation of women, it has incited women against men. This creates discord and disharmony in society.
Selfishness, greed, aggression and vengeance come from the lower centers. The higher centers give us contentment, patience, tolerance and harmony. Capitalism promotes the never-ending quest for profit, which is a sophisticated euphemism for greed. This leads to over-use and exploitation of resources: using resources more than the capacity of nature to replenish them. For example, we are now using the planet’s resources more than 120% of its capability to replenish them. This brings capitalism into direct confrontation with nature. Nature is based upon principles of balance and harmony. By going against the principles of nature, capitalism promotes disharmony, discord, imbalance, anarchy and chaos. Therefore, development under capitalism proves only to be a prelude to destruction.
Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, raised the fundamental question in his Bani Jap (Japji Sahib), “How can we achieve truthful living and how can we break the wall of falsehood around us?” He provides the answer, “by living in harmony with natural law (Hukam) and divine will (Raza).” Again, he demarcates the right way from the wrong way by telling us that the right way is to live in harmony with natural law, and the wrong way to live is under the influence of ego (Homay).
The philosophy of capitalism is based upon promoting your ego. As opposed to capitalist philosophy of pitting women against men, the Sikh philosophy sees men and women as complementary to each other and who together comprise one complete unit. Therefore, without each other, they are incomplete. By strengthening the most fundamental human relation, Sikh philosophy strengthens all human relations and brings harmony and stability in society.
The lower centers push toward duality, discord, restlessness, and un- fulfillment. The approach of capitalism is to incite the lower centers. Sri Guru Granth Sahib advocates striving to move from lower centers to higher centers. The higher centers bring feelings of completeness, contentment, tranquility, peace, and harmony. The ultimate and highest state a human being can achieve is called Sahij, or the fourth state. This is the state of equipoise or perfectly balanced and harmonious state where there is complete freedom from duality, discord, and disturbance. This is also called Parmanand (Supreme bliss). This is a stage of perfect oneness: when you feel that you are in complete harmony with nature or totality. One’s purpose of life should be to strive to achieve this stage by completely eradicating duality and ego.
Capitalism, on the other hand, constantly incites your ego, which pushes you to duality. You feel separated from totality and nature. You can never experience contentment, peace, harmony, or true pleasure in this stage. You only get temporary satisfaction, which leads to more dissatisfaction. This phenomenon is comparable to a mirage: true happiness, satisfaction, and contentment keep moving away from you while you think that you are moving closer to them. Capitalism never allows one to fulfill the real purpose of life; you are doomed to live in an illusion. This tragedy is the real axis of evil.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
