Ethical Houston

I am a Capitalist and have been so for all of my adult life.  I own a business and invest in the stock market.  I take advantage of the prevailing tax codes which at one point in my life included the bankruptcy codes.  But I am also a Christian and have tried to not only live my personal life based on Christian principles but also have tried to run my business based on those principles.  I also realize that in order to stay in business I have to make a profit.  A business that does not make a profit will not stay in business for very long and cannot keep people employed or provide goods and services to the public. 

Recently, I have become aware of a resurrected philosophy of personal freedom espoused by author and philosopher, Ayn Rand and it gives me great concern, both as a business person as well as a Christian.  She is an avowed atheist, which in and of itself is not an indictment.  There are many atheist who live moral and ethical lives but do not share in a religious perspective of the way the universe works.  What is distressing is her radical philosophy of selfishness.  In her novel, “Atlas Shrugged” her protagonist, John Galt makes this pronouncement, “The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath: I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of min.”  Contrast this with Adam Smith, author of “Wealth of Nations”, “To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.”   To be sure capitalism is not just about benevolence.  But capitalism, in order to be successful has to take into account a number of factors, including its relationship with its stockholders, it employees, the market in general, its customers, the environment, and its obligation and relationship with the government.  These relationships are always held in tension but one cannot ignore all of these factors which in the end effect whether an enterprise is successful. Some who supportRandhave used another quote of Smith’s to justify her philosophy of selfishness.

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”  But if one looks deeper into motive we would see that at the base of all our actions is self interest.  That self interest may be her selfish motive or it may encompass our understanding, expressed elsewhere by Smith, that it is in the best interest of society for people to share in the wealth and opportunities of all.  Smith alludes to the fact that we all share in the working of the society and that we have a roll in its success and failure, and that it is directly tied to our “exercise of our benevolent affections”. 

Scriptures are very explicit in our call to be in community and to Love God and Love Neighbor.  ForRand, God is first of all a myth, but at worst God is a vindictive and angry and demanding God.  In Galt’s speech he says, “And then there’s your ‘brotherly love’ morality.  Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself?  If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you?  Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven’t earned it to accept it?”  She also believed that there was no such thing as “original sin”.  I would deny that “original sin” in its traditional understanding exists, but I would submit that there is as Dawkins and others suggest, a “selfish” gene that calls us to self preserve.  Throughout the centuries there has been a battle between selfishness and benevolence.  Every major religion has as one of its primary tenets, the value of “compassion”.  These religions basically say that in order for us to live together in harmony with God and our environment, compassion and concern for the other is imperative.  Cultures that hold to the tenets of selfishness soon turn to brutality and the dominance of the few over the many.  And in that philosophy are the seeds of their eventual destruction. 

The same is true with business.  In the short run it may be in the interest of a few dominant persons to ignore responsibility to those that they serve and that serve them, but in the long run they too will pass into oblivion.  To lump capitalism and the blanket condemnation of government asRandand her new followers do, is satanic.  Her arguments based on selfishness and so called “objectivism and reason”, play into our natural tendencies to want to be in charge and live for self rather than acknowledging God’s reign as creator and sustainer of all creation.

Check out the You Tube presentation by Christian conservative Chuck Colson. http://youtu.be/ZhbE8NDTY0c

Do we really need a book that tells us that we need more selfishness?