Opposite Fallacies

These lies cast a thoughtful zeal
from the heart of their origin
and it convinced so many
in the necessity of shadows,
that is
the necessity of corruption.

It was some sort of impatience

that drew its teeth across

the shivering flesh of

the already emotionally tortured,

And so many twisted hands reach

for the escapism of free-market capitalism

that has the individual all wrong:

Equating relational significance

with collecting eroding materials

in the makeup of glittered vomit.

And so may twisted hands reach

for the razor-wire scaffolding of communism

which has community all wrong:

Negating the significance of the particular

and fashioning flesh cogs which

will never rotate cleanly

because we are persons, not machinery.

Desperate people will grasp for any answers they can reach. This poem is a call for care and consideration, it is written to highlight that there is more than left and right, conservative and labour, blue and red, republican and democrat, capitalism and communism. I am using capitalism and communism as a caricatured metaphor for all empty black and white answers and false dichotomies. Having said that I do think that neither free market capitalism nor communism can provide a meaningful existence or answer existential questions because neither one of them has a full and holistic view of personhood or community.

Below is meant to be a brief justification of this opinion. I am aware that there is some generalising going on and I have not attempted to treat different schools of either free market capitalism or communism, however I am trying to begin to point what is lacking in the main principles of the cultural/economic/political super-systems and how they have worked out in practice.

Capitalism breads selfishness of the individual at the expense of everybody else by encouraging one to think that their autonomy, individual freedom and material gain or comfort is paramount at the expense of relationship. It neglects the growth and beauty of selfless endurance and sacrifice, mutual dependance, personal obligations, and covenantal commitment. Capitalism demeans the person to what one can amass for oneself or consume.

Communism prefers material and occupational equality at the expense of individual needs, personal particularities, diversity and art. It externally enforces upon the masses a frame work that, in order to be maintained, must be beyond question and thus lends itself to abuse from dictators. Communism demeans community by stripping an individual's particularity and attempts to enforce community principles which only work through willingness and person's choosing.