Well, it’s happened. You would have to have been living under a rock the last week or so to not know Hostess has been allowed to liquidate its assets and shut down operations after over 80 years. Those on the right and left – generally speaking – have their favorite ‘bogeymen’ involved in this situation: For the left, we have the ‘corporate fatcats’ who fiddled while Rome burned around them (giving themselves extravagant raises while in bankruptcy). For the right, we have the ‘labor unions’ killing the golden goose (going on strike – which appears to be the ‘straw that broke the camels’ back if your will). Now, I really think both sides share a pretty close to equal blame. We’re in a down economy (generally speaking – there are always some industries and sectors that are up), with elevated unemployment and underemployment, and both management and labor engage in practices better suited for a booming economy. Both sides would have been better served if they acted in a practical manner. However, what ended up happening was the follow-through of a sort of mutual suicide pact. Both sides knew the end result of certain choices, but they made them anyway. I show this picture of Hostess Donettes as a memorial to a fallen icon of American society.
Reading through the articles and comments made by both sides made me wonder why we seem to have a ‘damn the consequences, I want what I want’ society? I believe it has to do with the economics of our society. I’m not talking about whether we’re in a recession or boom time. I’m talking about capitalism. If we have a capitalistic society, then we inherently have a selfish society. What is the goal of every person in this society? To accumulate as much wealth (or material) as possible for themselves, with little to no regard to the consequences to others. To have a society that places the individual and individual wealth in a position of primacy, while attempting to provide services to take care of those who are unable to accumulate wealth, or not enough for certain contingencies and issues is a society at cross-purposes with itself. Now, I’m not saying socialism or communism is the answer, as they are just as selfish. Basically, as George Orwell so eloquently put it in his book Animal Farm ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. The focus is on the collection of wealth, of making people subservient to the state and those who ‘represent’ the state. Ultimately, it is a selfish society, as people are either in charge and gathering to themselves as much material and wealth as possible, or they are serving and worried about whether or not they will have enough to survive.
What would be the alternative to this? How about a society where the focus is not on the individual and/or the accumulation of wealth, but the focus is on the group, and ensuring everyone in our community has what is necessary? Again, I’m not talking about what modern society understands as socialism, but what I am talking about is a society/community like what we see in the bible. The book of Acts specifically. We see in the early church where everyone in the early church brought their goods and wealth together and worked together to ensure everyone in the church was taken care of (to include widows). If we truly consider ourselves a Christian nation, and are striving to follow His teachings, this should be our goal. If we worry about ourselves, then our focus is not on others. We are told God will provide for our needs. If we believe that, then at some point we need to stop worrying and trust in that.
