Joshua Dearien

Timed Essay
Humanities P.⅚
09/28/2018

Political and Economic Faults in Capitalism

Capitalism provided a modern and ameliorated political economy, although it conversely

provided a confined, corrupt, and dissonant life individually and socially.

While capitalism instated an organized system in which individuals and society

benefited economically and politically, individuals and society were rapidly infected by a
social wrath conspiring against our serene spiritual identity known as humanity. In the
book ​Red Emma Speaks,​ Anarchy Theorist Emma Goldman explains this social wrath
by explaining our weak connection between individuals and society: “The individual and
society have waged a relentless and bloody battle for ages, each striving for
supremacy, because each was blind to the value and importance of the other” (64). This
bloody battle she’s talking about is our ignorant nature of having biases for other
individuals in society. What that bias is made out of is our poor idea of having social and
economic classes, the idea of needing to conform to be successful, and the selfish want
and need for materialistic value rather than emotional and spiritual value. “The new
social order rests, of course, on the materialistic basis of life: but while all Anarchists
agree that the evil today is an economic one, they maintain that the solution of that evil
can be brought about only through the consideration of ​every phase of life​- individual,
as well as the collective: the internal as well as the external phases” (64). We are all just
animals and this faux element of life that comes along with capitalism called money,
divides us all into “classes.” The political part of capitalism is what creates physical
suffering and a lack of positive psychological experience/ stimulation. Child labor,
dangerous jobs, and the division of jobs depending on economic class are all examples
of faults in the political part of capitalism known as government. The government,
including senate, president, and state legislature, control the legal and systematic part
of capitalism. Time and time again through history, the government has been called
corrupt. It took 219 years for child labor to end, when it legally could have been stopped
by the government, that whole time. These sorts of things create faults in the political
economy we live in known as capitalism. Corruption, inharmonious connections within
and between individuals/ society, and money create these faults in the path of our
spiritual identity known as humanity.

Before capitalism had well progressed into time, there was a serious lack of of
socioeconomic diversity; therefore creating an advantage for people of the higher class
to take control of the systems and economics before socioeconomic class contained
various different levels. William Graham Sumner stated in 1883 “We have a great many
social difficulties and hardships to contend with. Poverty, pain, disease, and misfortune
surround our existence. We fight against them all the time.” In this document, “What the
Social Classes Owe to Each Other,” the author explains how if we keep making the
same mistakes like creating economic class with political control, we will never progress
into what is called “Perfect Happiness.” Before America was a capitalist country, poverty
was already present. There has been rich and poor since early civilizations of human
life. When we developed Capitalism, we thought this would advantage everyone to
make profit off of their trade or product; but if we have higher class citizens controlling
the political half of the economy than there is no room for gaining economic success as
a lower class citizen. This is because economics work in the way of control. To explain,
a political economy is one where the relationships control the economy. Between
individuals and society and between market and state. The controller of society is state,
and state is the higher class citizens that have affect on the politics. Therefore if we did
not create economic class, we wouldn’t have specific individuals controlling the entirety
of the political economy. When this control exist, there becomes a lack of option for
growth, individually and socially. To elaborate, within the book ​Red Emma Speaks​, the
author Emma Goldman quotes: “Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man
the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are
non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only
through man’s subordination” (66). Emma Goldman is stating that all we are as an
entire species is man. We are not political, we are not economic, and we do not conform
to any higher power. As humans, we are 100% free to do whatever satisfies and
whatever provides. While capitalism is a political economy, humanity is a harmonious
society. Living in social harmony is not achievable when inhuman elements of life like
economic class, economic/ political success, and money in general linger. There is no
such thing as socioeconomic class or a political economy. These are things we created,
that were introduced with the sick idea of money and were carried through time by
capitalism. Without capitalism, it is more than possible to live in harmony individually,
and socially.

“Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.
The widespread mental indolence so prevalent in society, proves this to be only too
true. Rather than go to the bottom of any given idea, to examine into its origin and
meaning, most people will either condemn it altogether, or rely on some superficial or
prejudicial definition of non-essentials” (63), quoted Emma Goldman, trying to explain
our ignorant nature to bias and judge idea and possibility based on our own personal
interest/ prejudice.