Laudato si’ Invites You: An Economy Beyond Capitalism

Last updated on: January 5, 2016 at 8:39 pm by Keith Michael Estrada

Laudato si’ Invites You: An Economy Beyond Capitalism 2016-01-05T20:39:06-07:00 Keith Michael Estrada

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

While technology has proven itself to be beyond helpful for humans, especially in the field of medicine and communication, it has a tendency to dominate the life it was intended to assist. Advances in technology drive and are driven by an unsustainable consumption of precious resources. The consumption is unequal and the benefits of technology do not seem to make their way to the world’s poor. The pursuit for newer products, with increased efficiency, and greater power, turns the world into a mere commodity. It’s as if the world, and the life it sustains, has a binary value, useful or useless – the useful are consumed and destroyed, the useless are excluded and left to die. Of course, this is intimately related to the relativism addressed later in the chapter (LS, 122-123).

This technocratic paradigm sustains and is sustained by various “-isms” the church has repeatedly rejected: relativism, consumerism, individualism, capitalism, and materialism, to name a few (see par. 117 in the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s The Bible and Morality, for example). These ‘-isms’ are very much related to and can all be found in our capitalist world. These ‘isms’ are detrimental to the weak and the planet, they participate in the formation of a ‘culture of death’, which can be identified as a war of the powerful against the weak (see pars. 12 and 19 in John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae). This is typical of a capitalist system, its centers of power, and its dominated periphery.

[Tying together relativism, the technocratic paradigm, and consumerism with free market ideologies, abortion, euthanasia, drug use, trafficking, environmental destruction, and the plight of the poor, etc., can be done another time. Until then, consider the second half of chapter three in Laudato. Matthew Tan’s excellent piece, Abortion in/as a Consumer Structure, and James Smith’s Imagining the Kingdom, for example, are particularly useful for understanding how social habits and attitudes are formed in relation to culture, social and economic structures, at the expense of the pre-born, the poor, and the earth, etc.].

Francis is not shy about connecting capitalism-all of capitalism, that is-with the technocratic paradigm, consumerism, death (human and organic), individualism, and relativism. In pointing out the technological advances of the last two hundred years, on several occasions (LS, 46, 51, 53, 102) the Pope can be seen making a reference directly to capitalism. At least, it seems probable that he is referring to capitalism if we consider what exactly has been happening for the previous two centuries. Karl Polanyi, for example, writes, “Not until 1834 was a competitive labor market established in England; hence, industrial capitalism as a social system cannot be said to have existed before that date” (ch.7 of The Great Transformation) – about two centuries ago. The capitalism we have is a descendent of industrial capitalism, which grew out of a mercantilism that was already global. (Enrique Dussel dates the origin of global capitalism, which entails for both he and Francis a violence against the other, at 1492.)

Francis slams the destruction wrought by the last two centuries of development, which goes hand in hand with the technocratic paradigm that lives off of and fosters materialism, individualism, relativism, and consumerism; and all this perfectly identifies with what we call capitalism today. Are these our only reasons to believe Francis is encouraging us to move beyond capitalism? No. The capitalists should have a say.

Go back Continue Reading

Capitalism

Catholic Social Teaching

Keith Michael Estrada

Previous Post

December 1, 2015

Share This with Your Capitalist Friends: A Draft Timeline of Catholics Unsatisfied with Capitalism

Next Post

December 3, 2015 Capitalists Should Be Nervous: A Response to Fr. Robert Barron on Laudato Si’

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Benedict XVI Canada Capital Punishment Capitalism Care for Creation Catholic Committee of Appalachia Catholic News Catholic Social Teaching Catholic Tradition - Art Catholic Worker Catholic Worker Inspirations CST in 140 Characters or Less Diocese of San Diego Faithful Citizenship Father Frank Pavone Chronicles Fathers, Mothers, Saints, and Doctors Francis Guest Posts Gun Violence Humor, Parody, and/or Satire Interfaith Dialogue John Eudes John Paul II Marriage and Family Migration New Evangelization News Not a formal post. Our Lady of Guadalupe Paul VI Popes Pro-Life Racial Justice Releases Religious Freedom Repeat/Repost Saints Socialism Thomas Aquinas Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2020 July 2019 June 2018 May 2018 March 2018 December 2017 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Where was Paul when he had a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading for help?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Philippi Corinth Troas Athens