On an almost daily basis here at TTKS we are debating the merits of, and the varying opinions on, democracy and capitalism. Occasionally, science and sports and personal finance will wiggle their way into our conversation as well. Interestingly, religion is (or can be) a major part of our lives and how our religious beliefs conflict with or support our beliefs in science, democracy, and capitalism is a conversation we’ve never overtly entertained on the blog.
When my well-read mom passed along an essay-speech from a relatively prominent Mormon, Richard Bushman, about just such a discussion, I was motivated to post the link here and open up the dialogue on the blog.
Bushman wrote one of the best biographies I’ve ever read on the first Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. He is a very intelligent and wise voice for Mormonism. In this speech he grapples with three of societies major cultural formations which I already listed, and how Mormonism justifies its coexistence with these formations. (Disclaimer: Bushman, to my knowledge, is a Mormon in good standing, but that fact should not mean he speaks for the Church or that his words are doctrine.) For the sake of space and time, and general interest of the blog, I will only focus on the democracy and capitalism portion of his speech.
Some thoughts and highlights:
Democracy
Mormons have a much more ambiguous relationship with democracy than we do with science. We are both the most democratic of churches and the most authoritarian. We are democratic in our distribution of priesthood widely among the laiety and the elimination of a clerical class; we are authoritarian in our investment of great power in the president of the Church whom we accord access to God.
Given these stark oppositions and contradictions, how are Mormons to relate to democracy? Should we embrace it or keep our distance? Should we resign ourselves to living by different sets of rules in the two realms?
Equality does not obtain anywhere. Inequalities appear wherever you look. Our society seems dedicated to constructing more and more of them–among sports teams as among contestants on tv shows about cooking or hairstyling. We rank students according to their test scores and rank the colleges that they so desperately seek to enter. We rank each other by our publications and award the best positions in the best colleges to the best people. We rank cars and computers. From the moment children are born they are ranked on a weight and development scale. In every aspect of life we impose hierarchy.
Against this overwhelming trend can we really hope to achieve equality? Equality before the law we would hope, and some degree of equal opportunity, but flat out equality in every relationship goes against the world as we know it. The most serious attempts to achieve complete equalization have ended in violence.
And I think this is one of my biggest beefs with the equality movement and with Barack Obama. We cannot achieve perfect equality in circumstance, in compensation, in lifestyle. To strive to make us all equal in those things (and others) is to me an experiment in dehumanization. It’s even below animal level since even the most “unsmart” of species is stratified by “survival of the fittest.”
On the contrary, in some ways we should embrace hierarchy.
Mormons believe in the universe described in the book of Abraham where from the beginning there were gradations of intelligence rising from the lowest to the highest. On Abraham’s account, the whole universe is at its foundation hierarchical. How does this compare to the American conception of each citizen standing on a flat plane of perfect equality? No one rises up to high office without permission of every equal citizen on the plane. Each being is created equal according our Declaration of Independence.
I don’t consider the Abraham passage on ranked intelligence to be inherently oppressive, especially not in the Mormon context of a father God whose whole aim is to make all his children like himself. He wants them to achieve a fullness, to grow from grace to grace. Yes, there is structural hierarchy and authority, but not necessarily oppression. The fact that humans use inequality to exercise dominion oppressively does not in itself discredit hierarchy on principle. The answer is not to eradicate power but to use it beneficently. The whole gospel may be about how to exercise power without compulsory means.
Touche.
Capitalism
We must keep in mind that capitalism is godless. It does not explicitly repudiate faith in God as communism did, but it does not include faith as one of the virtues of a successful investor, executive or worker. In some cases it has overtly encouraged rugged individualism as a way of life in direct opposition to the communal service called for by the gospel. The official capitalist view of religion is indifference. You can believe or not as you wish. No religion is inserted into its rituals like ground breakings or the closing of deals. No deal-maker’s tombstone mentions God’s help. Religious symbolism is stripped away for fear of offending potential customers. Faithful Christians or Jews may thrive as businessmen, but they deal every day with agnostics who care not a fig about God. Workers in corporate offices live in a godless environment which leads them to privatize their religion. The atmosphere does nothing to reinforce belief.
We must also recognize that corporate values invade our families in the form of consumerism. Buying things, finding deep satisfactions in shopping and owning, is an integral component of capitalism. Capitalism will not work without ardent consumerism. When you combine the whole family’s wish for things with the corporation’s control over promotions and the time of workers, capitalist values can be seen to have infiltrated a large part of our lives. Our sense of worth and our basic confidence to a remarkable degree are formed and regulated by capitalistic values and institutions.
Capitalism is all the more insidious because it promotes virtues that we admire like hard work and attendance to duty. We feel like getting ahead in the corporate world parallels our improvement as persons. When we succeed in some measure in our work, we have demonstrated our virtue.
Whoa! This isn't the kind of thing typically posted on TTKS!
For those of us who understand Mormonism, we know he makes a truthful argument from the perspective of Mormon doctrine. And as I am certainly one who believes capitalism to be the best economic system in the history of the world, I find much of what he says here to cause significant internal conflict.
However, I don’t think Bushman’s argument is complete. Capitalism allows for agency, which is a core truth and principle in Mormonism. We are free to choose – in both religion and business and everywhere else – and capitalism is built on that same principle.
Furthermore, just because capitalism provides opportunities to sin (overindulge, commit adultery, replace God, etc), as Bushman intimates, doesn’t mean the system is evil or unbecoming. It’s like writing off all technology because evil and distasteful activities or messages can be experienced through said technologies.
Is that a justification for my capitalistic beliefs?
I consider Bushman a hero of mine in many respects and I always come away from reading his words with my mind dissecting my belief system. But I'm not always in agreement with him.
Thanks to Bushman we can attempt to keep score of democracy and capitalism through the lens of religion.
Read more...
Above is a shot of the Double Whammy/Kablamo side. This is where the action happens!
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