Charlie Bicycle

I grew up watching a terrible red menace threatening communism and socialism on the world. Everything that it stood for was evil and to be feared and anyone that attempted to recognize the good within the bad was vilified, called names and, ultimately, discredited as a sympathizer. I grew up with the idea that pure, unbridled capitalism was the great, untainted system that the world could depend on to deliver us all from the evils of tyrants and darkness.

But I’m not so sure anymore.

It’s easier for me to say than I would have once imagined. Over my short life, I’ve made a science out of self-reflection and it’s integral to how I operate. I always make mistakes and have frequently said the wrong thing and frequently, to put it simply, not looked before I leapt. But I’ve almost always recognized that I was mistaken and tried to reconcile or do better the next time. For this reason, it amazing how difficult it is to fathom that other ways of doing things aren’t necessarily total collapses in reason, but could, quite possibly offer us the perfect solution to many of our problems.

We’ve been watching for decades as the experiment of capitalism has taken a fledgling democracy into a thriving and rich society for many. From America’s inception, the dreams of many a small farmer or immigrant to better themselves has been in full flourish. At first, the rules were simple, you find it, you claim it, you exploit it and you prosper. Capitalism had almost driven the buffalo from total existence while we moved west. Capitalism made many white landowners very rich on the backs of slaves. Capitalism drove the natives from the lands so that Americans could make better use of them. And in the more recent past, capitalism has continued to offer a certain level of prosperity for enough of us to remain docile, while there’s been a staggering accumulation of wealth by the few through oil, the military industrial complex, healthcare and the financial markets, just to mention a few. These few are the great scientists of capitalism and, have over many decades, built up their arsenals, in the form of congressional coffers, to effectively run government in their favor (on both sides of the aisle).

Surprisingly, this is in no way meant to be my way to dissuade from capitalism. I make my living in a free-market and am very happy that I’ve been given the opportunity to run my own business and make my own money and support myself through a system that rewards talent, diligence and ingenuity. Where I part ways with capitalism is when it begins to reward unbridled greed over the greater good for society. For example, The Supreme Court is currently debating a case that questions wether or not government can create legislation that makes it unlawful to sell videos of people crushing small, living animals with their feet for people’s viewing pleasure. The question for the court is wether or not this legislation would infringe on freedom of speech. The question for the producer of these videos, I assume, is more about being able to make money off of a defenseless animal’s agony and ultimate death.

I’m a bit stunned.

Is this as good as we can do as a society? Have we created a system that is so uncontrollable via greed, that we can’t recognize the inherent evil in it? Is it possible that many of the aforementioned industries have been so focused on filling their pockets with as much cash as possible, that they’ve neglected, even crushed and abused, the society that has made them possible?

It’s O.K. to recognize that we can do better. If that’s Socialism or Communism, then so be it, but I would be willing to bet that mixing in a bit of policy that was created to serve and protect the people that built this nation on their backs, was without a profit motive and recognized that privilege is not only for the few at the top might not be a bad thing for America.