It is not all in “capitalism” that is evil or negative – it is the sort of predator Capitalism with its deliberate waging of wars for profit – such as the war banks (case in point – the opium banks of yore) and the sort of colonialism that must be classified as “war crimes” regardless of the time and period – the colonialism of the past and in the present – with its own derivative forms of immoral capitalism – that today has to be held accountable.
By Paul Yih*,
Colonialism ought to be labeled Economic Racism and Economic Barbarism … yet it is sanctioned by governments and joined by the immoral banks and merchants. I am refer again to the purpose and the enrichment of the merchants by way of opium, in the use of the East India Company and with collaboration of the entire military system of the British.
There has to be more voices raised by the likes of Evo Morales to highlight the past and present “cultural alienation” of the people, of the indigenous and those who have had to seek to live in compliment with nature, and from this perspective, more of us, including the Chinese, have to be better engaged in the “knowing” of our past and present ….
This is where I have been contemplating on the rise of the “wisemen”, of the time and period of the Greek and the Warring States of China – where over 100 schools of thought – including the entry of the disciplines of Buddha, of Dao and then Confucius…
To my own surprise – upon my research into the Chinese, it was then, when China has already established the firm values of our origins, moving away from early Chinese Mysticism, the I-Ching or Yijing, and the people had long established our origin – more than that, we had learned to coexist with the indicators – such as the four seasons, the five elements – and the so called Bagua – those eight configurations, so long ago, primitively or “originally” formed. For the most the Chinese have already accepted the world’s natural phenomenon and dealt with them adequately.
And at the same time, even with Confucius exhausting himself preaching for the peace for humanity – to establish the harmony of men and nature (though less emphasized) – China has already passed on from its mysticism of dragons and gods – to the “reason” of Man.
At the very same time, also the curative powers of the herbs, under Chinese medicine. The less worried ones existence with sustainable living. Yes, if the warring states had been gathering power from those natural resources or from man-made products – at that time and period, most of these warring lords had already been able to produce earnings and wealth, extracted from the poor farmers or otherwise, to be able to afford to have these many “sophists” (borrowing from the Western idea of sophists – or lovers of knowledge), the lords and rulers all tried to obtain greater knowledge to control or expand their own power.
More than that – Confucius was not particularly an “inventive” man, but like many Chinese, he also had the ability to retain and to “consolidate” values given or shared by the Zhou dynasty – one of the most orderly and prosperous times almost a century before Confucius.
Such peace and tranquility of the Western Zhou period had inspired Confucius where he was able to replicate the same system of order, plus the less severe rules of law – Confucius had not taken anything out of anything in an abstract way – but wanted to repeat what had taken place a century plus ago – and remake into his value system the pursuit of learning, and by way of learning, we could overcome our future obstacles – and learning became one of the few “dynamics”, disciplines that had continued over the entire planet – learning is forever, or learning is infinite, because the force of learning will allow all to overcome even if “mistakes” were made by Confucius. This is where I think the value of the old master or the Old Man lies, for me and for many others.
Likewise, in that same period in Athens, the rise of the school of Socrates, by that of Plato, Aristotle and the hundred and more Greeks with different sets of values – be that of Pythagoras, Epicurus, Hippocrates and many many more … Like China, the rise of the thinkers and philosophers was all due to the “Economic” conditions, or the affluence in Athens based on the trade of the Greeks and the Phoenicians.
Remember, the naval power and the criss-crossing of all of the Mediterranean Sea that was the home of these Phoenicians – even later on by the Romans, who had managed to have learned and acquired the naval skills of the Phoenicians, later known as Carthaginians (present day Tunisia). The Romans had gone as far as to have destroyed the living existence of these Carthaginians by pouring salt onto their agrarian fields – remember the intelligence of Hannibal and his war tactics by way of the Alpine passage to march into Rome!
In my attempt to highlight the importance of trade and agricultural skills which is all about sustenance…by that trade in Athens, commanded more by the Phoenicians, or the fertility of the Chinese which had allowed the rulers to expand their land and turf ….. In the meantime, the peace and economically abundant times had also allowed the rise of the ideas and the free flow of these “ideas”.
Economics and trade of that time had given rise of Man’s intelligence and wisdom be that Greek or Chinese . Thus, the importance of trade – is never about intrusive trade, or invading powers of empires… This brings me to highlight the importance and the future mission of the “millennials”. Thanks in part to the opening up of a tool of the war industry, “Internet”, once the sole users being American and Western intelligence – namely, the CIA. Even the early information industry players like IBM and Wang made attempts to make it their own cartel, just like those of the oil industry and later, the banking thieves now on the East Coast of the USA. Those same folks made their attempts to secure for themselves a global monopoly – rightly or not, and I am thankful to people like Bill Gates, who managed to be booted out by IBM and to have allowed himself to have created the greatest database – (in present days terms, the data the Cloud- based data all started with the simple use of a non-dynamic data by way of the spreadsheet . Since then, in the Silicon Valley – the cross breeding ground of the industry of data and information became explosive with the new “kickstarts” and venture capitalism. I hope these will not turn into Vulture Capitalism.
Regardless, that unleashing of the use of data and the data/information industry today has allowed us the greatest expansion for all ages, be that of Europe, India or China. This is one of the few clean technologies as the industry had shown signs of a “participatory economy” at least with those who are not “exclusive” or “alienating” others. Indeed, the level of competitiveness of the Silicon Valley and its info-data world remains to be seem as to how collaborative they will be and how long that can be maintained.
By me citing the ideas of a vibrant trade in the then Athens, the agricultural of those agrarian times of the Warring States – where they also allowed the expansion of those states and sovereigns during the time of Confucius, Laozi and many more and to have the nations flourish not based on the god-deity, nor the culture of “fear”. It was based on the wisdom and the reason of man – that is how both the Greeks and the Chinese had their cultures flourishing so productively.
I think the “Millennials” will also be able to find ways to topple these power clusters and self serving fools and idiots – those immoral, intrusive, exclusives (by blocking their wares and knowing how to secure their own power base of money and greed ).
In due time, the global youth and young businesses must come into the picture in the sharing of a non-intrusive capitalism and a non-invasive political system to better sustain the use of their practical knowledge. I hope they will not be sabotaged by those same whores, sons of whores of the war industry, be that in weaponry or in sleazy banking, especially the war bankers like those of the Rothschild, the Sassoons, the Warburgs, the HSBC and those in what I called the inhuman garbage of our time. To have whole peoples, nations and rulers kidnapped and used as their own economic condoms.
*participant in the History Without Borders group
