Confronting the Economy from the Center

In political philosophy there are two 'guiding lights' that demonstrate the extremes of two positions.

Karl Marx, a 19th century German political philosopher is the person who laid down the foundation of Socialism and Communism. His belief in Communism was that the community prevailed over all things and a pure Communist or Socialism system would eliminate class problems. His major concern was that society was divided by class and he believed that the rich oppressed the poor. A society without classes, he surmised, would be a Utopian society. The problem was, they did and his theories came into fruition first in Russia when the nation was devastated by war and weary of the Czars.

Marxism had several inherent difficulties. Marx believed that the lower classes could and should do whatever they needed to do to overcome the higher classes. Violence came from this and that violence was, in a word, awful.

Secondly, as happened so much in the Soviet Union and many of the Communist nations was that there was little to no incentive to be better than you were. With little incentive to excel people didn't.

Conversely the most fervent believe in a purely capitalist system was Ayn Rand. She was a 20th century political philosopher and author who had a dream of a Utopian society. Her society, unlike Marx's, had little government and was driven by class structure. It was the moral responsibility of the rich to get richer and poverty was a sign of moral weakness. She believed that altruism was immoral. She is often the heroine of many people who call themselves conservatives. Rush Limbaugh is very much a Randian. He claims to be a conservative----he isn't. Most classic conservative people do believe in altruism, they just don't believe it comes from the government.

There are several things that I find interesting.

First, neither Rand nor Marx believed in God. They were both the consummate humanists. To them, human beings were the highest species. We see Marx's view of violence and Rand's lack of altruism and we realize that both violate core teachings of Jesus.

Secondly, they both seem to be extreme and society needs to cry out for balance. The concept of the 'greater good' is a societal and ethical issue that is important. The concept of individual ambition and responsibility is also important.

In confronting a difficult economy it would be nice if national leaders would recognize that many of their ultimate principles come from these two, incredibly flawed world views. There are answers....but they will usually always be found in the center.