Free-market_capitalism_is_“Shiva”..…_By_Chris_Satullo

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Free-market_capitalism_is_“Shiva”..…_By_Chris_SatulloMon, 15 Mar

2004 12:37:02 -0600Newsletter at

http://www.indiacause.com----“Free-market

capitalism is Shiva. It is neither all good nor all bad; it is what it is, at

once creative and destructive…. Any leader worthy of the name must master this

dualism. A good leader needs some Hindu in him…..God, I miss Bill Clinton, even

more than I want to slap him. He was the Democrat who got it, who mastered the

Hindu dualism….. I'm looking for a sign, for someone who knows how to dance

with Shiva.”This article is little different than the usual missionary

mentality that only knows denigrating other religions. Denigrating Hinduism is

an integral part of the inherently intolerant western mentality….that emanates

from the concept of “everything

non-biblical is work of a Devil”. Hindus are always projected as idol-worshipers

(read sinners and infidels). Most of the media outlets and TV channels will

gleefully project Hindus as the society that worships “Monkey God”….. And Shiva

has eternally been associated with “the Destruction.”…….The following article by

Chris Satullo explains the other side of Shiva “The Creator” in the language

that western society will understand “The Money God” (not the Monkey

God)Duality of Hinduism could help…By Chris

Satullohttp://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/sunday_review/8179381.htm

Here's my problem with America's now-raging debate on the economy:Not enough

Hinduism.I'm a churchgoer myself. But I have to concede this: Christianity, in

its simplistic (i.e., political) form, is prone to binary thinking: good/evil,

white hat/black hat.Applied to the economy, this habit leads many folks to

cling to specious couplets:

corporations bad/unions good; tax cuts good/social spending bad.Think, by

contrast, of Hindu philosophy. One of the chief Hindu gods is a fellow named

Shiva. The Destroyer - that's the moniker he mostly goes by. But another of his

epithets is The Creator. Destroyer and Creator? What are those Hindus smoking?

How can that be?Well, Shiva embodies a central paradox of life. To create the

new, you must destroy the old. To create fire, you must destroy wood. To make

oil, animals must die. For the automobile to prevail, blacksmiths must suffer.

For Bill Gates to rise, the typewriter repairman must fall.Shiva destroys;

Shiva creates.But it's not just a zero-sum game. Look back over America's long

love affair with free-market capitalism. The net result clearly has been more

wealth and more health for more people. This is so, even though the ledger

includes much suffering, injustice, inequality, and corruption, much strain on

families and on nature.The

point is: Free-market capitalism is Shiva. It is neither all good nor all bad;

it is what it is, at once creative and destructive.The point is: The job of

government is not to "run" the economy. Shiva does not submit to a harness.

Much waste and mischief occur under that delusion.Yet neither is it

government's role just to worship free-market capitalism, to hand over the

keys. Capitalism can do too much damage to public goods. In a democratic

republic, those goods should be valued more than mere wealth. They include

little things such as, oh, justice, equal opportunity, stable communities,

education, health care, parks, clean air.Government's job is to defend and

expand those public goods. Free markets make that job harder, because their

mania for efficiency and innovation creates victims and inequalities. Yet free

markets also make that job possible, by generating wealth and innovation which

government can tap to heal victims and foster public

goods.Any leader worthy of the name must master this dualism. A good leader

needs some Hindu in him.Which brings us to the current campaign.Of President

Bush, little need be said. His rigid mind thinks in black and white. He

worships capitalism, no, make that the corporate perverters of it who fund his

ambitions. He has one answer to every economic situation: tax cuts. A good

answer sometimes, but not to the current muddle, which he has profoundly

misunderstood as a problem of low investment and capacity; it is a hangover

from a binge in productivity. He lifts barely a finger to bind market victims'

wounds. Not only isn't he much of a Hindu; he needs work on the Christian

thing, too.On the other side, though, I could barely wait for the Democratic

contest to end - and not just because I couldn't bear another minute of Dennis

Kucinich's goofy mug. John Edwards' late, populist push drove the party and its

presumptive nominee, John Kerry, back toward

old, bad habits: protectionism, mindless business-bashing that ignores the value

of entrepreneurship, the use of public dollars to make bad bets on losing

industries.Faced with a president doing epic damage, can't these clowns do any

better? God, I miss Bill Clinton, even more than I want to slap him. He was the

Democrat who got it, who mastered the Hindu dualism. He knew that, in the long

run, you hurt working people by attacking free trade and innovation. But he

also saw that it is an unpardonable breach of faith to ignore the harm those

forces do to some workers in the short run.Even Clinton wasn't smart enough to

predict today's dilemma. Part of what has tied the Democrats in knots is that

his formula - "Yes, your factory job is gone forever, but we'll train you and

your kids for the better knowledge jobs of the future" - didn't anticipate

off-shoring, didn't see that Bangalore might soon start eating San Jose's

lunch.Maybe off-shoring is just a ripplet

that hysteria has hyped into a tsunami. That is a Democratic habit, after all.

I'm not smart enough to know. What worries me is none of the guys running for

president seems to be, either.I'm looking for a sign, for someone who knows how

to dance with Shiva.------ End of message -------Thank you. Mahendra

Joshihttp://www.indiacause.com(India News, NRI Services and

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