High Spirits
Aitken, Jonathan
HIGH sPIrITs Godless Capitalism by Jonathan Aitken W hat spiritual lessons should be learned from the world’s white-knuckle ride into, but not yet out of, financial meltdown?...
...But it all started with pride, which C. S. Lewis rightly calls “the great sin” and “the complete anti-God state of mind...
...Consider the recent history of those ill-fated subprime (i.e., junk) mortgages...
...Nothing much wrong with that, many Wall Streeters might think...
...In 21stcentury terms, he fattened up his retirement fund, planning to enjoy himself on the golf course and in the best restaurants...
...This is because legal compliance has replaced spiritual conscience as the arbiter of what passes for right and wrong in the world of financial services...
...But the masters of the universe thought differently...
...But then, they weren’t putting it on their own books, were they...
...November 2008 THe amerIcaN sPecTaTor 63...
...One of the most powerful teachings of Jesus defining the bad characteristics of a capitalist is the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21...
...But even if Hollywood tried to turn greed into a caricature, there were serious voices from the academic world making it respectable, most famously Milton Friedman, who argued that the only business of a corporation was to make more and more money for its shareholders...
...His biographies include Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (Doubleday) and Nixon: A Life, now available in a new paperback edition (Regnery...
...In the eponymous movie in which Michael Douglas played Gordon Gekko proclaiming to an AGM of shareholders, “Greed is good...
...His halo may slip in the coming months, but St...
...But his fundamental flaw was that the rich fool had no spiritual compass...
...So he put himself and his lifestyle first, with God a very poor second...
...It is a classic example of the God is all too used to these follies of mankind...
...Humility, reading the Gospels, and some clearer definitions of moral capitalism should be the start of this repentance process...
...Bust followed by panic ensued...
...Butwhat is going to come alive in its place...
...As the roller coaster has not halted on anything close to terra firma, it is premature to join in the chorus of praise and thanksgiving to the recently canonized savior of capitalism, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson...
...So he confused enough with excess...
...What today’s crisis emphasizes is that those signposts have been massively ignored...
...This “determinist capitalism,” as it became labeled, was gently opposed by advocates of “moral capitalism...
...Hank undoubtedly deserves credit for staving off short-term disaster on both Wall Street and Main Street, even though his swoop of nationalizing more assets in America than Vladimir Putin holds under state control in Russia will not delight the consciences of all conservatives...
...three stages of Greek tragedy—hubris followed by nemesis followed by catharsis...
...In His mercy He still offers us a way out that is called repentance, a word that when literally translated from the original Greek metanoia means a change of heart and mind...
...From the worship of the golden calf to the story of the rich fool, He has seen and warned against it all...
...HIGH sPIrITs Godless Capitalism by Jonathan Aitken W hat spiritual lessons should be learned from the world’s white-knuckle ride into, but not yet out of, financial meltdown...
...These were sold and resold around the houses until the music of boomtime stopped...
...In an amoral game of pass the parcel, the wheeler-dealers packaged up vast numbers of dud loans into ill-defined “financial instruments” with gobbledygook names like “credit default swaps...
...Five years ago when studying theology at Oxford, I was invited to deliver a lecture at London’s Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) with the prescient title, “Can the practices of the free market economy be reconciled with the teachings of the Gospels...
...Remember those advertisements saying “Loans for 125 percent of value available” or “Bad credit rating no problem...
...Didn’t anyone stop the lawyers and lenders’ gravy train to ask whether putting this kind of business on the books might be morally wrong as well as financially flawed...
...Perhaps they will get a better hearing from now on...
...Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” Some secular readers of the parable are puzzled by it...
...From the worship of the golden calf to the story of the rich fool, He has seen and warned against it all...
...He was a creature of present time with no understanding of eternity...
...He was a hoarder, not a giver or reinvestor...
...Hank Paulson may have tuned in to this requirement, for he was quoted recently as saying, “America hasbeenhumbled.…Rawcapitalismisdead...
...The Gospel continues: “Then he said, this is what I’ll do...
...The good St...
...It starts with positives such as the alleviation of poverty, family involvement in business, good stewardship, the encouragement of talent, a fair day’s pay JoNaTHaN aITKeN for a fair day’s work, honoring agreements, cherishing the land and the natural environment, settling disputes out of court, respecting the spirit as well as the letter of the law, and paying taxes...
...In most value systems removed from the wealth accumulation imperatives of Wall Street, it is generally acknowledged that greed and arrogance are unattractive vices...
...But back in those good times of 2003, there were few who appreciated a presentation saying that the Gospels contain several stern theological signposts pointing out the need for better business practices in 62 THe amerIcaN sPecTaTor November 2008 the marketplace...
...So what is good or moral capitalism...
...Visit us online at www.spectator.org or call 800-524-3469...
...His materialism had no purpose beyond hedonism...
...And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good thingslaidupformanyyears.Takelifeeasy;eat,drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool...
...Although the answer was in the qualified affirmative, my IEA audience gave the lecture what might politely be described as a mixed reception...
...God is all too used to these follies of mankind...
...This very night your life will be demanded from you...
...his philosophy was seen by many traders as more inspirational than villainous—at least until the end, when Gekko’s young protégé, played by Charlie Sheen, gets arrested...
...The money changers will have to be driven out of the temple...
...But as this is not a column about political philosophy or economic theory, let’s take a step upward from the terrestrial floor of the stock market and engage in some celestial speculation on what the divine perspective of the current chaos might be...
...Jonathan aitken, The American Spectator’s High Spirits columnist, is most recently author of John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway Books...
...Subscribe to The American Spectator for just $39 a year...
...There are plenty of exhortations and commands on all these subjects to be found in the pages of the Bible...
...He was a successful agricultural businessman who made a killing from a bumper harvest but had no idea what to do with it...
...I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods...
...But such supporters of moral capitalism have been voices crying in the wilderness...
...But first another of Jesus’s examples needs to be followed...
...What did the rich man do wrong...
...He has made it clear in his writings and speeches that his personal market philosophy is rooted in his Christian faith...
...In a condescending sort of way, the assembled bankers seemed comfortable at being reminded that in both the Old and New Testaments, from the flocks of Abraham in Genesis to the parable of the talents in Matthew, there are many nods of approval for wealth creation...
...One of the most thoughtful of those opponents has been Margaret Thatcher’s former policy adviser Brian Griffiths, now vice chairman of Goldman Sachs...
...A key characteristic of God-ignoring capitalists is that while they may (with the help of their attorneys) keep within the law, they observe no guidelines of conscience beyond it when grasping for profits...
Vol. 41 • November 2008 • No. 9
