By Dr. Sawraj Singh
The main cause of instability, chaos, and anarchy in the world today is capitalist greed. From its inception, capitalism, because of its insatiable greed, pushed the world into instability, chaos, and anarchy. Capitalists have used a sophisticated and respectable term, “profit,” for their unbridled greed. However, beautiful words cannot hide the ugliness of reality, that capitalists are motivated by pure and unadulterated greed. Consumerism is the modern version of inciting basic instincts which were present in primitive man; their purpose was to assure basic survival under those primitive conditions. Capitalism boasts of laying the foundation of modern civilization. However, under the garb of modernization and civilization, it has actually pushed man and society to their primitive levels. This is the main cause of turmoil in the world today. Capitalists first uprooted people and pushed society to chaos when it was just replacing feudalism in Europe. People were uprooted from villages and brought to cities to work in the factories. However, no infrastructure was developed in the cities to accommodate these people. The result was not just chaos and anarchy; there was also filth which reached new proportions. Many of these people used the roads for urinating and defecating. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in many European cities, you could not walk without soiling your shoes with human excrement. Because of these filthy conditions, plagues and epidemics of other infectious diseases were not uncommon.
Those who admire the West for being so clean should know the facts that this only happened in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This happened not because the capitalists had a change of heart and became magnanimous; it was the result of great struggles of the working people for better living conditions, which forced the capitalists to assure basic necessities of life for working people.
When capitalism reached its highest and probably last stage, “globalization,” it again repeated its earlier performance. The only difference is that in the beginning, it did more physical damage. Now it is doing more mental damage. It is making people more fearful, anxious, and insecure.
Just like their greed uprooted people in the villages and brought them to the cities and created physical problems, now capitalists have uprooted people from developing countries and have brought them to the developed capitalist countries. This rapid demographic change is bringing social instability in both the developed capitalist countries as well as the developing countries. In the developed countries, the local people have developed a psyche of people who are afraid that their countries are going to be taken over by the newly arrived immigrants. They fear that those foreigners are going to take their jobs. They also fear that their taxes will increase because some of the immigrants who do not find work will be supported by the state. They also fear that the immigrants, particularly those who are illegally residing, are willing to work for much lower wages than the minimum wage. This weakens their demand for raising the minimum wage. The local people also fear that the immigrants will eventually threaten their way of life.
Punjab has been hit the worst in the Indian subcontinent by the capitalist transformation and immigration. The so-called Green Revolution was actually an integration of Punjab into global capitalism. The rich peasantry of Punjab was transformed into the new capitalist class which has monopolized all of the power in the state. It has severely limited opportunities for the other classes. Because of the lack of opportunities, the other classes are forced to migrate to developed countries. This new transformed capitalist class has thoroughly exploited the cheap labor of the migrants from other states. However, the large scale outward and inward migration and the rapid demographic change have taken a very heavy toll on the social stability and the environment.
The problem in the western countries is compounded by western arrogance, which prevents them from tolerating, accepting, and respecting other cultures. The arrogant western attitude considers western values as universal values. We see this compound problem in Europe where the capitalists are bringing cheap labor from North African countries. These people are mostly Muslim. There is a very rapid growth of the Muslim population in many western European countries. However, these countries are unable to integrate these people into the mainstream and generally do not show any respect to their religious beliefs, their value system, or their way of life.
These factors are helping the Islamic fundamentalist groups to recruit many from the Muslim youth. Many such young people are fighting on the side of these Islamic fundamentalist groups. The recent terrorist attack in France also seems to be the result of these factors. Unfortunately, there seems to be little chance of things getting better. I am afraid that things can get much worse. If these groups get hold of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, they will not hesitate to use them. The very existence of not only the West but the whole world is at stake. Are we going to be consumed by consumerism and the greed of the capitalists? Unfortunately, the answer is that it is likely to happen.
We have to find an alternative model of development to western capitalism before it is too late. I feel that this can be found with the help of eastern wisdom. Sri Guru Granth Sahib promotes universal human values based upon universal concern and universal welfare. We can find an alternative model of development based upon these principles.
It is very encouraging to see the Pope, the leader of the largest religion, standing up to consumerism and capitalism. The so-called conservative Christians in America have criticized the Pope. I feel that the Pope has evoked the true spirit and essence of Christianity, which is to stand for the poor, the deprived, and the oppressed people. The other religious leaders should learn from the Pope and express socio-spiritual concerns so that we can save the world and mankind from the greed and arrogance of western capitalists.
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].
