At Adbusters, Micah White argues that “capitalist-materialist disenchantment of the world” must be undone by “a vision in which mystery has a place.”

All that is wild about the world has been systematically penetrated, catalogued and destroyed. The explicit intention of the scientific mindset, to pierce the mysteries of Being, has led to a world empty of excitement in which not even endless consumption can fill the void. We are both cut off from the natural environment, enclosed in sprawling concrete cities, and cut off from any previous philosophical or religious conception of the world that celebrated possibility, contingency and mystery. How would it change things if we rallied in support of nature not because of climate change (an abstraction identified by science and therefore conceivably able to be “fixed” by science) but instead because the nymphs Socrates felt at the river are no longer with us.

Just look at the left’s demands for a new world: we want “clean” energy, full employment, a middle-class standard of living for everyone and “green” corporations. To acquire these desires, we insist that more scientific research must be funded. All our dreams for the future rely on scientists, technocrats, capitalists and the highly educated. That is a fundamental error. Unless the revolution can be accomplished by us, each of us as we are right now, whether we be poor or rich, educated or not, literate or not, then we will continue to perpetrate the myth that only Western style progress is the way forward.

What we need now is a spiritual rebirth that grants the magic back to the world. Only then, through the development of a parallel culture, will we be able to see that the way forward may be to go back.

But the problem is that our spirutal feelings/experiences/rebirths are the very commodities that are traded in the current economy of global capitalism. What is ultimately decisive about capitalism is that no one needs to believe in it, but we all must participate in it. We need more than this to posit anything truly revolutionary.

Über conservative apologetics aficionado, Doug Groothuis is tired of everyone bagging on capitalism these days, and so he points us to a speech given by Ronald Nash in 1985 about capitalism and socialism. If you want a nice theological walk down Cold War memory lane, its quite entertaining:

The alternative to free exchange is violence. Capitalism is a mechanism that allows natural human desires to be satisfied in a nonviolent way. Little can be done to prevent human beings from wanting to be rich. But what capitalism does is channel that desire into peaceful means that benefit many besides those who wish to improve their own situation.

I suppose Nash might be able to be at least partially forgiven for statements this silly, given that he’s a born and bred cold warrior writing at the height of onslaught of Reagan’s archenemies, the evil Soviet empire. Nevertheless, seriously? Free markets=nonviolent exchange? Clearly Nash doesn’t know much about being poor. He might have a different view of the relative nonviolence of free market economics in such an event (though if you read the speech he clearly doesn’t have much interest in the poor at all–they seem to really annoy him actually).

But whatever historical grace we might give Nash, Groothuis is so utterly without excuse that the very act of commending this article seems to make him into the ultimate walking caricature of middle America’s freakishly uptight conservative evangelical wing. At least it makes for an interesting case study. Of some kind.

A recent CNN article has some interesting things to say about how the economic crisis is effecting the cultural view of possessions and spending amidst the upper and upper middle class in America:

With the economy in shambles and so many people losing their jobs and homes, it is no longer considered cool to brag about possessions and purchases.

For many during a deepening recession, conspicuous consumption is out and frugality is the new black.

“People have long used the way they shop and what they buy as a way to communicate with other people about their values, their tastes and their interests,” said Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California.

“A year ago, what was considered the ultimate status symbol would have been the chicest bag or the most luxurious outfit,” Yarrow added. “Now what’s chic is being the most knowledgeable and efficient at saving money.”

Yarrow said that despite the tough economic times, there are many Americans who still have disposable income.

Those people are choosing not to spend, she said, or making more thoughtful purchases.

This just underscores an utterly important point, especially in relation to Christian critiques of capitalism that turn into tirades against over-consumption. Frugality, thriftiness, and the old fashioned American work ethic is the stuff global capitalism is made of. Far from being a virtue, having people with disposable income stashing it neatly away because thriftiness is the new black is pretty damn sick. 

The culture industry is remarkable efficient these days, wouldn’t you say?