Author: Joseph W. Burrell

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2015-10-01

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1628941499

Inequality is ballooning in the land of equal opportunity. This is inevitable due to the false belief held by almost everyone: that American capitalism is democratic and freedom loving. This book aims to shed some light on that misconception and take some air out of the balloon. As a foundation for the discussion, the book traces in broad outline the histories of work and belief. It denies that the Christian religion is Christian and shows that Jesus Christ was a pacifist and a liberal and that his words and nature are barely represented, if at all, in the dogmas and practices of those who call themselves Christians in today’s America. The labels seem to be opposites: democracy and totalitarianism; capitalism, communism, fascism. But in practice, all the politico-economic systems we have on earth today have ended up looking disturbingly similar. While there are important differences, the author claims that they all consist of "ruler-owners" and bosses at the top - money kings - and powerless workers and consumers at the bottom. He also contends that workers and consumers are the only necessary parts of a natural economic system and that corporations are an artificial and tyrannical imposition based on greed and dominance. He urges the defeat of the "corporate collective" with its tiered arrangement of work and wealth, with only the "fit" and "successful" at the top as supervisors and the rest of us beneath them as servants, wage slaves, or even chattel slaves. In short, this book is radical and extreme in its view of all the world’s systems as authoritarian despite their differing economic, political, and religious conglomerations. As a foundation for the discussion, the book traces in broad outline the histories of work and belief. It denies that the Christian religion is Christian and shows that Jesus Christ was a pacifist and a liberal and that his words and nature are barely represented, if at all, in the dogmas and practices of those who call themselves Christians in today’s America. Attacking the dominant institutional belief systems regarding work and religion, this book spares no existing supervisory arrangement and suggests the peaceful unraveling of authority structures and a new form of egalitarian cooperation. Since this book is extreme in its condemnation of existing supervisory arrangements and authority structures, it should be interesting - perhaps dismaying - to everyone who is dissatisfied with their own subservience to others whether at work, in church, or in any political party. Anyone who yearns for relief from entangling authority should find this book at least stirring, if not entirely convincing. It presents new ways of looking at the world and at all systems of control and belief. Those who like ideas and those who do not quite fit into the molds into which they have been placed will find the writing refreshing and stimulating. The ideas in this book were influenced by Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Noam Chomsky’s Power & Prosperity, Daniel Guerin’s Anarchism, Michael Perelman’s The Invention of Capitalism, F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, Karen Armstrong’s A History of God, Hugh J. Schonfield’s Those Incredible Christians, and by such television programs as Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now and the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. The Libertarian belief system is at the heart of many of the contrary arguments presented in this book and its baleful influence can be seen in just about any of the writings, presentations, speeches, and gatherings of Republicans. It is the number one enemy of democracy in America today.