Self-Serving Marxists

Money and Corruption

We have a few blind, self serving Marxists left in New Zealand. They have been particularly vociferous of late, speaking out against various government actions (such as, the voluntary Ninety Day Trial Period for new employees; the voluntary monetising of one week's annual leave per year; and an alleged privatising of the Accident Compensation Corporation; and the evils of privately run prisons).

They complain that the Government is ideologically hide bound, that world affairs are moving far too swiftly (images of financial tsunami are liberally employed), that workers are going to suffer, that employers will exploit them, and so forth. They have called for a vast expansion of government spending and activity and regulation as the key to coping with the economic recession. Capitalism has failed. Free markets have caused the problem. The solution lies in more government intervention, controls, ownership, spending--and so forth. Every move to liberalise--that is, remove government regulations and increase choices and options in the market place or the work place--is pilloried as exploitation of the working man.

The Marxist world view is a strange beast. But it does have enormous pulling power. It always has a visceral appeal to most men and women. This appeal has nothing to do with the soundness of its economics, nor the rectitude of Marxist ethics. Marxism has a powerful visceral pull because Marxists persistently appeal to envy.

But this is not its only evil aspect. Marxism propounds that all of human life and existence is materialistically determined. Men and women are what they are because the arrangement of the means of production of goods and services determines how they will think, act, and be. If they do not have a sufficient amount of goods and services they will not only be poor but will be brutish, evil, oppressed and depressed. Those who have too much will also be evil and brutish, but will use their advantage to oppress and depress those who have less. Having "too much" capital, and not having enough are equally conducive to making men act and think evilly.

Being too wealthy makes you an evil oppressor; not having enough makes you a victim. Into this maelstrom steps the philosophically enlightened Marxist who is neither an oppressor nor a victim. He has been enlightened by scientific materialism. He is now without sin. With his clarity of moral vision he is able to stand up for the poor and oppressed, and face down the exploiting capitalist.

He is not phased by any evil or brutish behaviour on the part of the less wealthy because he knows that when they receive more than what they have, evil will attenuate. They will become more holy and ethical, like, well, himself. As for the wealthy, their evil also will attenuate as they become less wealthy. Their means of exploitation removed, they will tend to become more and more like, well, himself. All will come to think and act as the model Marxist human being.

With his idolatry firmly in place the Marxist has an ideological hide bound view of all commercial arrangements and transactions: the capitalists (the owners of the means of production) will take every advantage to exploit, oppress and depress those less fortunate than themselves. So, the recently enacted Ninety Day Free trial period will result in employers exploiting workers. Therefore it is bad. Monetising one week's leave will result in employers exploiting staff by forcing them to take money instead of leave. Therefore it is bad.

The role of the Marxist is to stand up for employees and protect them and fight on their behalf against the exploitation of the monied and the rich. It is only the Marxist that can do this because the Marxist has escaped the moral corruption of both capital and labour.

Marxist idolatry is sufficiently simplistic and one-dimensional as to be risible. Nevertheless there are plenty in Athens who find its doctrines attractive and compelling. This tells us more about how envy racks the human heart and confuses the mind than it does about the relative merits of Marxism.

Jerusalem has nothing in common with Marxism. It is sadly true that there have been particular sections of our City which have espoused Marxist dogma to one extent or another. Regrettably they have confused this with the Christian ethic of charity and care for the suffering. They have adopted parts of the Marxist world-view, and ended up crucifying the Faith. But, in the end, these folk have proved to be fellow travellers who have not realised the glory of the City in which they profess to dwell.

Jerusalem, in contrast to Marxism, proclaims the radical nature of sin. Evil is deeply present in every human being--regardless of whether they own capital or have nothing. Evil is radical; it does not come from the arrangement of the means of production, but from the depths of every human heart, bar one--the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Messiah. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," says the Prophet, Jeremiah. (17:10)

Sin and evil come from within and corrupts everything human beings touch to one degree or another. Thus, the "haves" will use their positions and resources for evil; the "have nots" will use their positions and resources for evil also. The poor are just as wicked at the rich: they will just express their wickedness in different ways. Marxist enlightened ones will do the same. Government, legislators, lawmakers will use power to corrupt others, while themselves being corrupted.

The best social and economic arrangements are those which restrain sin and the evil impulses of the human heart. One way to do this is to have social arrangements which provide constant checks and balances, limits and walls. For capitalists, the best and most powerful and endurable constraint is to be dogged constantly by competitors. The sinful capitalist hates competitors; he prefers always a constrained and regulated market, where new competitors are prevented from entering, and he can queer the pitch in his favour by bribery and corruption of officials, if necessary.

The evil capitalist cares not a whit about his clients or his customers, unless he needs them in order to survive. Ah, and that is the catch. As soon as he realises that in an open market he most certainly will not survive unless he serves his customers as well as, or better than, his competitors, he suddenly changes. The otherwise evil capitalist is forced to become the servant instead of the master. He either constrains his evil and puts his customer's interests to the fore, or he goes out of business. Open, fierce competition from those who would delight to see him go out of business and take his place help him speedily to the epiphany.

The evil capitalist cares not a fig about his staff. They are expendable, to be used and discarded--until it dawns on him that he cannot compete without equal to, or better quality staff than, his competitors. As soon as he figures this out, he becomes more of a servant to his staff, than a master. If he does not treat his staff properly they will likely leave and go to work for others. A business that cannot attract and retain quality staff over the long term is a dying business. The risk of commercial death helps the evil capitalist to an epiphany of respect for his staff.

The employee is likewise evil at heart, and hates being told what to do. He would rather be the boss. He despises his employer and resents his wealth. But it dawns on him that he needs the income to survive. This helps him to his epiphany. His employer is actually his ally. Moreover, he has his own destiny substantially in his own hands. If he can make himself more valuable to his employer, he wins leverage to command greater income. If his employer disagrees, he can always subject him to the discipline of the marketplace, and make plans to take his value to another employer.

And on it goes. Capitalists and workers have their intrinsic selfishness constrained and are forced into mutually co-operative and mutually dependant enterprise. This discipline restrains the intrinsic evil of the human heart. This social arrangement is not perfect; nor does it always work as well as it might. However, what is always true is that when governments use the law to interfere, to regulate, to balance, to control in an attempt to make the system work better, the longer term result is inevitably bad. It is bad for many reasons, not the least being that governors, like employers and employees are likewise evil, wicked and corrupt. In the end, governors will devise policies of interference that advance their own agendas and interests, first and foremost.

And Marxists--when they interfere and agitate and fulminate--they too end up doing a great deal of damage. For they also are evil and corrupt at heart. They end up acting to serve themselves and advance their own interests, and exploit their constituencies to that end. Over time, acting for the "good of the workers" becomes confused with acting for one's own good, defending one's own interests. When you believe yourself to be morally superior, and the alone defender of the exploited worker before the rapacity of capital, it is easy to be suborned to believe that advancing oneself means (by definition) the advance of the workers.

In Jerusalem, the righteous (paradoxically) are those who acknowledge and confess their evil. "I am evil, born in sin; Thou desirest truth within," is one of the songs of the City. This is the first step to being granted the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Jerusalem is a city of beggars, telling other beggars where to find food. These beggars are capitalists and employees, servants and masters, lords and subjects, superiors and inferiors--but all alike are beggars and bondslaves. In Jerusalem, all know it and acknowledge it. It is one of the glories of that City. It has no place or room for Marxists.