Kicking the Habit…
This article first appeared in the Minden Times on December 21, 2022.
I am a failed capitalist, of that there is no doubt; I have taken decisions that were not in my financial interest more times than I care to count (although I could, if I were so inclined, also count undertaking a MFA -- in writing, no less, not known for being remunerative! -- at this stage in my life: what are the chances that investment will pay back???) But two recent inputs make me suspect that maybe, just maybe, I’m ahead of the curve, that a broader spectrum of society is beginning to question the supremacy of money as the yardstick by which to make decisions.
Like much of the world, I binge-watched Harry and Meghan. I know that money talks, and that it has no inherent ethic, but wow, that documentary exposed the sheer evil of the basic supposition that because the royal family is publicly supported, the public owns them and media has a right – an obligation, even - to surveille them mercilessly. We could say that’s because they’re rich and famous, but we’d have to admit that we also grant ourselves the right to pass judgement on the poor who are dependent on public support -- unless, of course, they’re deserving, like pensioners who paid into the fund during a long and hard-working life.
The concept of deserving gets us to the heart of the Harry and Meghan dilemma: did they get what they deserved? It appears ‘the institution’ (as Harry consistently calls it, drawing a porous curtain between his family and the business they operate, or that operates them) thought disinheritance was a legitimate response to breaking the rules. Even though they had done good work for the institution. They’d arguably earned their pay, but it wasn’t enough; the institution wanted nothing less than their souls.
The bottom line, of course, is that nobody ‘deserves’ the family they’re born into, and yet it is the primary determinant of the kind of life we have. We are each born into a circumstance not of our choosing, accountable only for making of it what we will. Being born into privilege doesn’t make it easy. Being born into disadvantage doesn’t make it impossible.
What bothers me about the Harry and Meghan story is that we are, by nature, social creatures, so what is it that turns that need for human connection toxic? When you see the adoring crowds, you can’t help but think that having heroes is part of the human need. It resonates in our own lives: we need to know there are admirable people out there, we need models to emulate, examples to follow. What turns that good thing into malicious evil?
I have to think it’s capitalism. Harry reiterates throughout the documentary that the tabloids savage the royals because it sells papers, that the paparazzi hound the royals because a good photo is worth big money. I read with interest in the New York Times weekend insert in the Star that Harvard Business School is considering the possibility that money requires ethics to be ‘good’. I have always thought the idea that money could be sucked upwards forever without having a negative impact on the lower-down activities that create that money was so stupid it deserved to be dismissed with a snort and a shrug. The bastions of capitalism don’t agree with me yet, but they are creaking towards admitting that capitalism requires scarcity which creates inequality, which eventually threatens the creation of wealth. Therefore, socially responsible investment (the ESG – environmental, social and governmental -- index) is a legitimate consideration. Harvard’s enlightenment is almost certainly due to investors tagging ESG as central to their decision-making, rather than any real change in philosophy, but still, perhaps the thin edge of the wedge.
The destructive nature of capitalism, its inherent denial of social connection as the wellspring of humanity, its willingness to steal the gold from its grandmother’s teeth, has always been evident. Usually hidden, denied when it becomes visible. Harry and Meghan are ripping back the curtain, using the media that misused them to even the score. Naming and claiming their lives. Controlling the narrative.
Good on them, I say. I hope they spin off a #metoo! movement about the inherent evil of capitalism, kick off a robust discussion about what the alternatives are. I’m not sure they’re yet at the point of posing capitalism as a problem to be solved, absolutely it’s a disincentive that they owe their wealth to it, but also they know in their bones the price it exacts, and I think they want something better for their kids.
Don’t we all?
