Capitalism and Civilization

Dr. Akmal Hussain

Beaconhouse National University
Course: Institutional Economics
 The Environmental Crisis
• The UN Report of the IPCC 2013 reiterates the findings of the UN IPCC 2007 Report. It
observes that “the atmospheric concentrations of Carbon Dioxide, Methane and
Nitrous Oxide have increase to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years”.
• The IPCC Reports have established three principal propositions:
1. Global Warming is indeed occurring.
2. This Global Warming is the consequence of human intervention into the planet’s eco-system.
This intervention is in terms of the levels and forms of production, the fossil fuel based
technologies used and the forms of waste disposal.
3. Global Warming will result in an increased intensity and frequency of extreme climatic events
such as floods, droughts, hurricanes, and changed trajectory of disease.
• Apart from Global Warming there has also been widespread pollution of hydrologic
systems, toxicity of soils and deforestation.
• Environmental degradation and loss of habitat has resulted in increased extinction rate
of living creatures and reduction of bio-diversity.
The Environmental Crisis and the
Civilizational Challenge
• The global goal agreed at the Paris Summit-2015 was to reduce carbon
emissions by every country to reach zero emissions by the year 2050.
• This was necessary to prevent average global temperature from going
beyond 1.5 degrees centigrade by the end of the century. Scientists had
agreed that if the average global temperature increase by more than 2
degrees centigrade, it could cause a catastrophic destabilization of the
eco-system that could threaten all life on the planet.
• The evidence however shows that actual carbon emissions have been
increasing at the rate of over 5.3% annually from 1960 to 2017. Yet to be
able to meet the target of zero emissions by 2050, carbon emissions
should be reducing by about 3% (See comparative graphs).
Comparison
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Failure of Public Policy and the Crisis of
Civilization
• Clearly, the countries of the world have failed to initiate effective policies to
meet the agreed goal of reducing carbon emissions.
• It is also clear that the factors underlying this failure are rooted not just in
technical issues but fundamentally in the very relationship between humans
and between humans, commodities and nature that underlie public policy.
• Thus the environmental crisis that threatens life on earth is essentially a crisis
of human civilization.
• In this module we will explore the relationship between humans,
commodities and nature as it has emerged under capitalism and counter
pose it with these relationships that are signified in the Perennial tradition
which is common to all religious and wisdom traditions of the world.
The Structural Tendencies of Capitalism
1. The tendency for continuous increase in output of commodities within a competitive
market.
2. Continuous technological change is focused on increasing productivity.
3. The trajectory of technological change is determined by the imperative of capital
accumulation.
4. Knowledge is primarily focused on understanding the material world with a view to
technological change for increasing the volume and range of goods and services for the
purpose of increasing profits.
5. A materialist doctrine prevails not only in terms of understanding the world in purely
material terms but also in terms of human existence in this world. Therefore, the
metaphysical reality of the relationship between humans and between humans and
nature are systematically excluded from the dominant paradigms of knowledge.
6. So fallen is the current human state that the heart has become a hidden crypt at the
center of our being and yet so inaccessible.
Humans, Commodities and Nature in
Capitalism
1. Relationship between Humans and Commodities
• Qualities that are organic to the human being, such as sexuality, efficacy
and power are transposed into commodities. Thus the consumerist
culture invites us to buy commodities so as to repossess ourselves.
• The exclusive focus on commodities discourages forms of experience and
intellectual awareness within which humans, consumption and nature can
be seen within a synthesized wholeness. (Intellect here is used in the
Greek sense of nous, that signifies not only the faculty of reason but more
fundamentally, the “higher faculty of knowing the truth in a direct and
unmediated manner”).
• The inculcation of greed and the lack of responsibility towards others in an
atomized society.
• Non-satiability and the loss of happiness.
2. Relationship between Humans

• Humans pitted against each other in the competitive

acquisition of commodities: systematic development of the
aggressive impulse (Fromm and Marcuse)
• The other human being is typically seen either as a means to
the end of personal material welfare or a threat.
• The atomization of society and breakdown of communities.
• The loss of compassion.
• The alienation of the self from the other within the self..
Relationship between humans: the Sufi
Perspective
• Within the Sufi perspective and the Perennial tradition in general, the other
human being is an essential fertilizing force in the growth of the self.
• So the enhancement of the self involves bringing the ‘other’ within the self
• The development of the self, or the path to the heart, involves an
annihilation of the ego to become the Self “…a unity and wholeness of our
personhood in God”.

“After extinction I came out, and I

Eternal now am, though not as I.
And who am I, O I, but I.” (Ali Shushtari 13th Century)
The universality of the symbol of the heart as the site
where the human and the Divine realms meet (1/3)
• During the medieval period the heart in both the Western and Eastern
traditions was synonymous with the word intellect (Latin: intellectus),
which unlike its modern meaning of mind alone, meant the
instrument of experiencing the transcendent. (Martin Lings)
• The heart is the site where the “human and Divine meet”.
• Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has said (the heart) is the throne (al-
arsh) of God the All-Merciful (Ar-Rahman)---
• The Prophet (PBUH) uttered “My Heaven containeth Me not, nor My
Earth, but the heart of My faithful servant doth contain Me.”
The universality of the symbol of the heart as the site
where the human and the Divine realms meet (2/3)
• “It is the heart which the founders of all religions and the sacred
scriptures advise man to keep pure as a condition for salvation and
deliverance.” (Seyyed Hossein Nasr)
• So fallen is the current human state that the heart has become a
hidden crypt at the center of our being and yet so inaccessible.
• So the current itinerary of the spiritual life is the rediscovery of the
heart.
• The centrality of the heart to the human state is pointed out in the
Bible as well as the Quran and both speak of “heart-knowledge”. In
Judaism too, the heart is associated with the inner soul of man---
The universality of the symbol of the heart as the site
where the human and the Divine realms meet (3/3)
• The universality of the spiritual significance of the heart goes across
religious boundaries:
• For example, the name of Horus, the Egyptian god, meant the “heart of the
world”.
• In Sanskrit the term for heart, hridaya, means the center of the world, as also
the center of man. The term shraddha, meaning faith also signifies the
knowledge of the heart.
• In the Far Eastern tradition the Chinese term xin means both heart and
consciousness.
3. Relationship between Humans and Nature
• Nature is seen in a fragmented fashion devoid of a sense of
beauty.
• Nature, therefore is seen as a set of resources to be exploited.
• A consequent lack of consideration for the ecosystem and the
importance of sustaining life on Earth.
• The traditional perspective on nature, where nature is seen in
terms of a sacred wholeness.
• Nature not only enables the sustenance of physical life, but
also nurtures our sense of beauty through which we can
experience the transcendent.
• Thus in nature we live simultaneously in the ephemeral and
the eternal.