David Korten: Greed is Not a Virtue

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:




Greed is Not a Virtue
David Korten: Profit-centered market fundamentalism has become a national religion.

by David Korten
posted Apr 05, 2011


We humans are living out an epic morality play. For millennia humanity’s most celebrated spiritual teachers have taught that society works best and we all enjoy our greatest joy and fulfillment when we share, cooperate, and are honest in our dealings with one another.

But for the past few decades, this truth has been aggressively challenged by a faith called market fundamentalism—an immoral and counter-factual economic ideology that has assumed the status of a modern state religion. Its believers worship the God of money. Stock exchanges and global banks are their temples. They proclaim that everyone does best when we each seek to maximize our individual financial gain without regard to the consequences for others.

In the eyes of a market fundamentalist, to sacrifice profit for some presumed social or environmental good is immoral. The result is a public culture that proclaims greed is a virtue and sharing is a sin.

Having established control of the institutions of the economy, media, education, government, and even religion, market fundamentalists initiated a global social experiment to test their theory. The results are now in. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/greed-is-not-a-virtue

[snappyturtle]

1. This article is very on point, imho. I am glad to see it along with others

surfacing emphasizing the disparity between the classes and the immorality the elites have embraced. I particularly liked this sidebar comment:

"In the eyes of a market fundamentalist, to sacrifice profit for some presumed social or environmental good is immoral."


K&R