I’ve been thinking about capitalism lately.
I’m in what I call “the lean months”– June and July suck when you’re on a 9 month pay cycle, so I’ve got my “will academic for food” shingle out, and luckily there’s usually academic-ing to do. I have two classes that start Monday, and I’ve been professionally developing like a mo-fo.
But I was thinking about something darker relating to capitalism. I was thinking about this last presidential election, about the “huge” spending of the current President and the lavish two-scoopin’ nature of his White House. I was thinking about this run-off election in Georgia where more money was spent than had ever been spent on a congressional campaign.
And then I was thinking about Judas, in part because Chris Jericho’s band Fozzy has a song called “Judas” that I keep getting stuck in my head, but also because the other day I randomly started to remember a lecture from an undergraduate literature class about the short story “Flowering Judas.”
And then I thought about Judas himself.
I’m not, strictly speaking, a Biblical scholar. I took some religion classes, and I’ve read the books to know how Christianity works, but I was raised by a single mother who taught me Native belief systems and I’m married to an atheist. Some of my closest friends are atheists and agnostics (and Christians, and “other”). I can use a Messiah figure metaphor with the best of them, and I’m not positive I don’t believe in Christianity on some level since I grew up in a town where it was all but tattooed to my young soul.
But I do know the basics of the Judas situation. He was one of Jesus’ disciples. And he got upset about how the Jesus-ing was going, so he sold out. For 30 pieces of silver he “dimed” out his savior, the son of God.
Most American capitalists that I know of invoke Jesus frequently. Invoke God.
But shouldn’t they be invoking Judas?
I’m not trying to be crass, or coy, or even particularly clever. In the world where people chanted “let them die” when Ron Paul was asked about how to handle the uninsured, in a world where corporations are people, in a world where we blow stuff up with remote control robots before we insure that there aren’t civilians– all in the name of money, money, money…
… isn’t Judas the role model?
I mean he got a sweet deal, right? He was part of the inner circle, but he got paid to do what was most politically “correct.” What is it the Wu Tang taught us? Cash Rules Everything Around Me? Cream get the money, get the money?
I mean he also betrayed the biggest hero of all the heroes ever heroed. But when has that ever mattered to the money-first set?
I just wonder sometimes if there’s even a realistic illusion that the American government is made up of good Christians. Meaning are they living their lives by the gospel of Jesus Christ, as they claim.
You see I’m not sure I have any right to presume to know how the book is interpreted, but I’ve read the Bible. Critically. More than once.
I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t approve of most of what our government is doing. And I know he wouldn’t tweet shout outs to the haters. I mean given, this is my read. Jesus seems like he’s the best, though. I’m all about that guy. Seriously. Love his work. I don’t think he’d fit in as a leader in the United States, though.
I bet Judas would.
It just makes me think. I want to think everyone is good at heart, but the last few years has really made me question that. I remember when I read Neitzsche, he believed in man and superman (not Superman but the superior man), in the idea that some humans were born broken, “bungled” and “botched.” There’s a great summation of this in the movie The Fisher King if you don’t want to do the deep-level theory reading (I promise you the movie quotes are accurate). He also claimed that if we stared long enough into the darkness (or was it the abyss? People quote it wrong all the time) it would stare back into us.
Maybe not everyone is good deep down.
Maybe some people are just Judas. Or Benedict Arnold.
Or maybe even worse, even more chilling… maybe some people think what they are doing is actually good when it is, in fact, not even close. Maybe being a “good” capitalist and being a “good” person are so at odds that people choose one or the other to run with. Maybe in my desire to be noble, to be a good person and to follow my inner voice, I made the wrong choice. Maybe I’m just gullible because I want the best for people.
I worry for the world. And I feel bad for Judas, just like I feel bad for Lex Luthor. Because in his mind, he was probably doing the right thing. We get to see the rest of the story and use him as a parable, so we know how bad he messed up. Much like you’d think we might now use someone like Andrew Jackson or Harry Truman for the same thing, though, some of the people who do awful things don’t get called on the carpet like ol’ Judas did. We have the Washington Redskins and the shadows of obliterated people are still burned into concrete in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we fear genocide and nuclear winter when we’re the ones who came closest to causing both.
So maybe we pick our winners and just keep saying they’re winners no matter what.
It works for Vince McMahon.
It works for Donald Trump.
Perhaps I am the fool.