Thursday, May 05, 2005

Capitalists with HEART & SOUL?!?

"Some people work to attain enough for themselves and their families, and then stop. Others, as Max Weber saw, just keep working and earning and working and earning..."

Weber, of course, saw this as a direct result of the Protestant Ethic -- particularly Calvinism:

"For Calvin, the absolute sovereignty of God means that God not only foreknows, but actively wills the salvation of some and the damnation of others. ... For Weber, [this looney-tunes god] is responsible for enormous psychological suffering among the faithful."

"As a result, Reformed ministers began to advise ordinary people to dedicate themselves to a calling as a way to overcome 'normal' anxieties about their election [or lack thereof, to heaven]. ... Such advice ... was quite enough to inspire a huge increase in economic industriousness."

-- From Max Weber Goes Global by Michael Novak.

My QUESTIONS FOR THE DAY:

As deadningly ghoulish as He is, do we need God the Father to make capitalism work?

Is Novak right? Has world poverty fallen as a result of the spread of capitalism -- preceded immediately by the spread of God the Father?

Was Weber right when he said that modern capitalists are “specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart"?

Might we not expect a new and improved capitalism under God the Mother, in which capitalists are both wildly successful, and also possessive of Weber's missing hearts and souls? In particular, I'm thinking of the ancient Minoans, who, "under" God the Mother were not only stunningly talented artisans and manufacturers, but also spectacularly successful sea-going mariners and world traders.

Please comment. Leave your footprints in the sands of blogdom.

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