Modern Capitalism and Liberal Individualism

Another stream-of-consciousness piece. An elucidation of the paradoxes and futility of modern capitalism and liberal individualism, and their basic contradiction with the Gospel.

We live in a world that encourages competition and elitism.
Despite superficial exhortations to prioritize kindness and empathy, the precepts and precedents of the world have stronger influences hidden beneath these superficial words.
Capitalism and liberal individualism, working together, establish a vertical order of society, based on wealth, power, status, and property.
They say it’s good to love your neighbor but – because the world works this way – we first must prioritize ourselves.
We must seek first to claim and maintain our own position in the hierarchy. Then we can share the excess.
But didn’t Christ say, “seek first the Kingdom of God”?
Our goals in the world are not fixed. When we attain to one position in the hierarchy, we set our sights higher, drunk on the wealth, power, status, property, and prestige we have newly claimed.
And we say, again, “first I must attain to my position and secure it, then I can share the excess.”
All the way, seeking to claim and maintain our position is…
…to disregard those who need to eat, so we can hoard a surplus of food.
…to disregard those who need shelter so we can hoard funds for a down-payment on a house.
…to disregard the sick and infirm until we’ve reached our goals of health and beauty.
…to disregard environmental sustainability until the economy is sustainable.
Yet these are all conditional excuses that justify selfishness. We just don’t see it that way.
Our priorities are confused.
We are too good at lying to ourselves for our own benefit.
We are too blinded by our own perceptions and fundamental attribution errors.
We are too enraptured by self-serving biases and just world hypotheses.
They appeal to and exploit the ego,
Which, the more I think about it
the more it seems to be Satan’s countermeasure
to the gift of the Paraclete
– giving him a foothold by which to influence us.
They seem rational in the context of the world, despite the harm they do to the underprivileged and their fundamental nature to contradict the Gospel.
Satan does not rescind power willingly – anymore than our ego will.
So by the time we reach our goals
– our stores of food,
our over-sized homes,
our own beauty and wealth,
economic stability –
we are so broken by the hard-won efforts to get them that
the fear of losing them creates a greater anxiety.
So we set our goals higher and our sights loftier, and placate ourselves once more: “the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the planet… they have survived this long without my help; a little longer won’t hurt.”
And all the while we grow more attached to the world.
And further and further from the Father who loves is,
from the Son who gave his life for us,
from the Spirit who guides us.