Capitalism, The Culprit?

A well used, and ultimately effective tactic in debates is to use the language in ways that it denies the opponent a means to succinctly refer to his position. In effect you steal the opponent's terms and redefine them to suit your purposes. Too many debaters fail to jump on the tactic because it would drag the debate into a philosophical discussion of epistemology, a subject with which precious few are conversant.

A good example is "capitalism." The classic economic definition of the term is private ownership and private control (i.e., no government control) of the means of production. Today, the enemies of individualism and private ownership and their willing accomplices in the press have (many intentionally) so perverted the use of the term, that they are now in a position to blame the credit crisis and our deteriorating economic woes on "capitalism." See my discussions in the archive: "Blame Capitalism?" and "Look Who's Blaming Capitalism." Also read George Reissman's essay, The Myth that Laissez Faire is Responsible for Our Financial Crisis. What they have done by corrupting the language is divert the blame in the opposite direction so that the culpable parties are in a position to do even more damage in the name of saving the economy. Government involvement created this mess and now they want more government involvement to reverse the excesses of "capitalism."

The latest example is another Michael Moore movie. If Thor Halvorssen were as outrageous as Michael Moore, he might get more press, but it seems that the integrity of libertarians keeps them intellectually honest, so they avoid the Big Lie and other public deceptions in favor of reason and truth. (Support Halvorssen, by the way.)

Moore's new movie is entitled "Capitalism: A Love Story." According to the releases, including the one on TheMovie.net --

Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has revealed the title for his latest film. On October 2 Capitalism: A Love Story, which addresses the causes of the global economic meltdown, will arrive in theaters.

In the announcement Moore said “It will be the perfect date movie”. “It’s got it all. lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It’s a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let’s just say it: It’s capitalism.”

The film is described as focusing on “the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world. The film’s release date comes a year and a day after the U.S. Senate voted to approve a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

The opponents of capitalism, including Moore and the controlling socialists and fascists in the Bush and Obama administrations are bent on eradicating economic freedom for individuals so that they can divert whatever is left of the wealth in the country to their cronies and the drooling masses, the end of which is to buy more votes, to amass more political power, more control and more wealth appropriation, ad nauseum. But in the end it won't work. Who will create the wealth that these clowns want to steal? Ask Mr. Putin -- he knows. And so did Ayn Rand. Read Atlas Shrugged.

Capitalism, the "unknown ideal" is laissez faire capitalism. When you hear "capitalism," substitute "laissez faire" (and know what that means). If it makes no sense, someone is misusing the term, corrupting the language, misleading the population, selling you down the river and destroying the engine of wealth and human prosperity. Corruption of the language is serious business. It can ruin us all, and everything we have built. When you see it happening, speak out; don't be one of the sheeple.