Thought for the Week: Capitalism and peace
G Gordon Steel considers capitalism and peace in the 'Thought for the Week'
For many years Quakers have consistently said that one of our aims in working for peace is to seek to identify the causes of strife and war. Sutton Meeting’s Tuesday Group recently looked at two books that come together to throw light on this: Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong and Quakernomics: An Ethical Capitalism by Mike King. Some views that arise from this comparison can be summarised in six points.
First, Karen Armstrong says that war is endemic in civilization. When primitive humans moved from hunting and gathering to living in communities their increased productivity began to lead to surpluses and wealth. This led to jealousy, pillaging and to some groups invading others.
Second, the inevitability of this has, to some extent, been counteracted by the benefits of trade. When tribes became nations, trading led to shared benefits, an increase in the general good and a more peaceful coexistence.
Third, as a result of two world wars the affluent nations have realised that large-scale international cooperation is a path to world peace: the League of Nations, the UN and the European Community.
Fourth, capitalism is defined by Mike King as a situation where an individual or company generates a surplus of capital and invests this for a return. Whether Quakers should approve of this depends on how the surplus was made and how the assets are used. Keeping excessive assets can become ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’. But Mike King’s catalogue of historic Quaker firms illustrates well the various ways in which profits can be used for the benefit of the workforce and the wider community.
Fifth, large-scale Quaker philanthropy has a commendable history but seems to have more or less disappeared: ‘market forces’ have been overwhelming. Company ownership policies now require that profits to shareholders should be maximised. This tends to lead to the loss of the principled attitudes of what were, originally, family firms. There seems to be an inevitability about this change.
Sixth, within the last couple of generations cooperation among nations has tended to be sidelined by the growth of powerful multinational companies and worldwide finance. It is difficult to discern ethical values in the operation of these powerful forces.
Where does this leave Quakers? We believe in speaking ‘truth to power’, but the powerful tend now to be faceless and remote from us. I have no doubt that our role is the same as it has always been: to remain a small, spiritually-focused pressure group, staying true to our principles of truth, integrity, peace and simplicity and aiming to remind the commercial world of its responsibilities. That is all we can do.
Within a dominantly materialistic world people still need hope, consolation and spiritual support and that is what we can seek to provide.
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