A prisoner being prepped for execution in New York's infamous Sing-Sing Prison circa 1932

From Larry Wohlgemuth…

Only when we understand the meanings of words can we truly comprehend the messages being sent our way. For instance, I knew a woman who called her two-year-old son her little dildo. Can you imagine the years of therapy that boy will need?

There are words, particularly obscenities, intended to elicit powerful emotions. Words like “fuck,” “shit,” and “asshole” won’t make you many friends unless you have a big smile on your face when you use them. Euphemistically calling someone a motherfucker could bring a laugh, or it could get your ass kicked, depending on its target.

Then there are words that have more than one meaning. For instance, the word bad can mean bad or it can mean good, and I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but that has to do more with vernacular than with the true meaning of a word. However the word capital seems to be able to be used with positive or negative connotations.

It begs the question, is capital anything with which we want ourselves associated?

This is the origin of the word capital from the Etymology Online Dictionary:

capital (adj.) early 13c., from L. capitalis “of the head,” hence “capital, chief, first,” from caput (gen. capitis) “head” (see head). A capital crime (1520s) is one that affects the life or “head;” capital had a sense of “deadly, mortal” from late 14c. in English, a sense also found in Latin. The connection between “head” and “life, mortality” also existed in O.E.: e.g. heafodgilt “deadly sin, capital offense,” heafdes þolian “to forfeit life.” Capital punishment was in Blackstone (1765). Capital gain is recorded from 1921. Capital goods is recorded from 1899. Of ships, “first-rate, of the line,” attested from 1650s. Related: Capitally.

The term capital punishment originated in France where the guillotine was used as the main form of execution. The punishment was “cutting off the head,” or “capital” punishment. Isn’t it curious how the word capital came to be synonymous with monetary assets?

Here’s what the Etymology Dictionary has to say about money:

Money late 13c., “coinage, metal currency,” from O.Fr. moneie, from L. moneta “mint, coinage,” from Moneta, a title of the Roman goddess Juno, in or near whose temple money was coined; perhaps from monere “advise, warn” (see monitor), with the sense of “admonishing goddess,” which is sensible, but the etymology is difficult…

It appears the word money doesn’t carry quite the same connotations as a word capital. Money possibly derives from words that suggest warnings and admonitions, while capital clearly indicates that it’s the most important. We’ve all heard the saying, “money is the root of all evil,” but who’s ever heard any warnings about capital? It wasn’t until two centuries later that capital came to be associated with stocks or other property:

capital (n.) early 15c., “a capital letter,” from capital (adj.). The meaning “capital city” is first recorded 1660s (the O.E. word was heafodstol). The financial sense (1610s) is from L.L. capitale “stock, property,” neut. of capitalis.

It was an attempt by the wealthy to shed themselves of some of the negative connotations of the word money by replacing it with the word capital in the lexicon. Interestingly, however, of all the words they could’ve chosen they selected one that would indicate they are the most important. Don’t think for a second this was an accident. The people with money were laying claim to their territory and making themselves number one.

So instead of being evil people with dirty money, they became “capital-ists,” the suffix meaning “one who” or “that which.” So a capitalist was one who had money, and not a rich, greedy bastard, and they practiced “capital-ism,” that is a “system, manner or condition” of having money. Maybe they should have thought ahead a couple of centuries, when the French peasants decided that it was a good thing to practice capital punishment on capitalists.

Taken to a logical conclusion, a capitalist who has a belief in capitalism would be one who exalts capital in the same way a Buddhist who practices Buddhism reveres Buddha. My friend, Denise, is fond of saying, “They’ve made Mammon their God,” and it’s hard to argue with that reasoning after you look at what the words mean. These people worship money to the exclusion of all else, but how does a person get that way? (Going spiritual now, so any who might be offended may choose to leave.) I believe there are four groups of souls on earth. The first are the new souls, people in early incarnations that seek mostly worry free lives, and they are given to behave petulantly. Their system of beliefs is defined mostly by the material, and even though they have plenty there’s a tendency to begrudge those less fortunate. Like a spoiled child, they don’t want to share. Most teabaggers would fall under this category.

The second group is the mature souls, people that have been here for several incarnations and are really getting the hang of it. They choose increasingly difficult circumstances for each incarnation in order to maximize their spiritual understandings. These are souls that are deeply committed to perceive and practice universal truths in all their affairs. Generally, they are the kind of people you would want to be your best friend.

Third is helpers. These are souls for whom it is no longer necessary to incarnate, but they have chosen to with the intent of helping those of us in the first two groups. Many of them achieve greatness, although usually not involving money. They are people like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Mother Teresa. Often they have throngs of followers and believers, which tends to anger our fourth group of people, and it’s not unusual that they end up dead before their time.

This last group is the Earth-bound. These are souls that have made a conscious decision they like this level of consciousness, and this is where they’ll stay. Their existence is of this earth as are the things they worship, and Mammon is their God. Through many incarnations they’ve become adept at manipulating this artificial reality in which we find ourselves, and they’re willing to do so without regard to its affect on anyone else. These are deeply diseased and damaged souls who, without some sort of intervention, are doomed to spend all of eternity attached to this planet.

It became necessary for them to set up alternate belief systems, including creating a physical God rather than a spiritual one. Mammon fits the bill perfectly. Their success depends upon convincing as many of us as possible that they alone have the answers, and to succeed we must follow in their path. It’s the reason they’ve created religions which tell us we are born as scum, and that we need their version of God in order to be redeemed. If they can get you to believe the lie that you are any other than a perfect child of God, one of the true beings of light, then they can make you do all sorts of horrific things. As Voltaire put it, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can cause you to commit atrocities.”

Reality TV shows are testaments to Mammon. It’s a method to induce people to rip each other to shreds in return for money, and it’s served up as entertainment. What does it say about us that we would turn on these types of programs to be entertained? I think it says that we have a large percentage of immature souls on the planet, and the capitalists are using Mammon to sway them over to the dark side.

The question is, how many fight their way to the top of that hierarchy only to find it a wretchedly empty existence?

Capitalism is a religion, and Mammon is their God, and they don’t make any bones about it. Like gods, they want to rule the earth, and the only thing that can stop them is love. It’s time to go to work. If you can’t love them, at least love each other. It’s a start.

From David Anthony Hohol…

Now at the very beginnings of a new millennia, working class citizens continue to live a life of permanent insecurity never being sure that the current job will last or how much longer they will be able to live in their rented houses. The experience of living in fear continues to permeate daily life, as surviving from check to check in the name of the capital and production can often be a relentless endeavor. By extension, the working class lifestyle produces an almost frivolous mind-set, as living in and for the moment becomes no less than a way of life and planning for the future becomes a moot point. In other words, having fun when the chance is there to do so as well as compartmentalizing the future within the far reaches of the mind has become a philosophy of life and living for the working class masses of the Western World.

Today as in their beginnings, the best place to establish, maintain and perpetuate such a philosophy continues to be the local neighborhood pubs of communities the world over. If Mr. Durden was indeed correct in describing today’s masses as the middle children of history, without a great war and without a great depression, then local pubs and bars are like the foster homes for the bastard children of the working class. Seemingly always unable to fit and being unwanted by those they aspire to be, they cling together in tiny groups, tiny families and find meaning and acceptance only in each other. The working class is united in the great depression that is life, bounded by insecurity and dissatisfaction and grounded by a common distaste for the status quo and their inverted reflection of what they wish for but simultaneously never want to be- the dreaded, conforming, assured, amnestied, calculating, time obsessed, aura-less, ghost that is the Yuppie.

Yuppies dream of safe jobs, stable mortgages, manageable payments on their new sports utility vehicles,  a top of line barbecue for the deck with a matching set of tongs, all the while seemingly rushing towards the end of it all, the emphasis on the destination and not the journey. Initiatively impaired and creatively stunted, yuppies revolt by living a violently nomadic almost disloyal social lifestyle, bouncing around a variety of sushi bars and cocktail lounges while constantly anticipating the next trendy place to temporarily frequent. Conversely, the working class lifestyle is defined by unsafe jobs, unstable housing and used cars, but their vocations themselves are defined by repetitiveness and this transcends to their social life which is about routine, routine and more routine. Finding a spot to go after work where they are called by name, where what they drink is in front of them before they order and where they are noticed and respected while being surrounded by others from their own social rung in the ladder becomes important, the emphasis being on the journey and not the destination. And with this, the fundamental lines of division although altered and evolved still serve the same purpose and produce the same result as they did during the Industrial Revolution.  As a result the aims of both groups will forever be entirely irreconcilable. The Industrial Revolution no doubt cast the mold of Modern society and long before even my grandfather was born I believe the template for much of my life had already been set into motion.

Until the end of my twenties I lived in shackles, chained to a lifestyle that was of course possible to leave behind, as even the most maximum of maximum security prisons have had those who escaped from behind their walls. Nevertheless, it takes patience, calculating thought, dedication, determination and a little luck in order pull off the great escape. Even if one is successful there are absolutely no guarantees. I still feel haunted by my life on the inside, as it continually grabs at me, nipping at my heels, trying to recapture one of its escaped prisoners with all the furor of a viciously determined warden. Being inside the toweringly cold and incapacitating walls of the working class prison for so many years however, thickens your skin, develops your sense for opportunity and most of all your scent for blood.

The hospitality industry with it’s kaleidoscope of personalities and lifestyles, is no less than a educational experience that produces for those who open their eyes and take in all that they see, a working class degree in social psychology.  Working in the business for a long period of time and being exposed to the wide variety of ideas and individuals that came through the doors, I came to posses the gift of intuitive verbalization, whether it be colorful small talk or high-end conversations on serious topics of the day, and became a sort of social contortionist able to naturally adapt to any given situation. Furthermore, I learned to learn to listen and not pry, to sympathize and not pity as over the years I developed the ability to tune myself in to another human being. By extension, people began feel as though they could tell me things they couldn’t tell others and the role of confidant became a standard in my life. All of these qualities helped immeasurably with my work that began immediately after graduating university, which included traveling the world as an educator, becoming a writer and learning about my self and my life that was which in turn produced the very words you are reading at this moment.

Combining my working mans social psych degree with nearly five years of post-secondary study, the benefits of a classical education and a university degree produced more of something I had been lacking, seemingly, my entire life to that point- that being something called opportunity.  Opportunity is not divided equally in a democratic capitalist culture, not by a long shot, although such a culture continually trumpets the fallacy of equal opportunity for all. In today’s postmodern world ideas and technology have advanced immeasurably since the days of the Industrial Revolution, but despite the New World and the Technological Revolution, we are now in the midst of that is changing human relationships and instinctual drives by the moment, the economic dissection of society has changed very little and if anything, it continues to tighten its deadly grip on every society that subscribes to the human vice that is capitalism.

The upper class of liberal democratic societies make up a only a minute percentage of the overall population, but control the vast majority of a nations wealth living the life once reserved only for royalty. By extension, in most any modern urban sprawl there are perverse economic discrepancies, as there are those with millions and those with nothing separated by only a few city blocks and such incongruity represents the cult of self-interest that is a structural feature of any modern industrialized society. The dirty little truth of capitalism is that an entirely oppressive class system must exist. I mean it absolutely has to, as the high, the middle and the lower classes are a necessary construct for success.

By consequence those with money and thus power will have a tremendous amount of opportunity, economic and otherwise, compared to those who are economically weaker. Furthermore, those in the middle and lower classes are necessary and meet the needs of those in the upper class and are a means to the end of the entire capitalistic construct.  Those in the upper economic stratosphere need the middle class to be the teachers, the police officers, the nurses, and those in the lower class are needed to clean the toilets, pick up garbage, cook their meals and work in their factories. Simply stated an industrialized society could not function if these roles were not filled. As a necessitating consequence of such a system those beneath the upper class often are given the opportunity to earn a wage of subsistence or in other words no more money than what will allow them to maintain their necessary position in society. What the larger portion of society thus does is work to live and not much more.

With that said, the postmodern middle class most often produces for itself a sufficient lifestyle and serves as a Rockwellian portrait of comfortable success, but the economic difference between middle class and those in the upper class is incredibly, even ridiculously vast. Middle class anxiety is therefore rampant, as they feel only one medical emergency or one lost job away from sinking to the masses of the lower class. The lower class continually dreams of making the leap to the middle, but are provided with the least amount of opportunity of all, and many live in a constant state of apathy and learned helplessness. The burden of financial stress produces more divorce, more substance abuse, more teen pregnancy, more crime and far less education. Industrialized countries sell this rigged system to their own inhabitants by defining success goals as accessible to everyone, regardless of socio-economic status, race or gender, when this is hardly the case at all. This boldly represents the discrepancy between social goals and the legitimate opportunities available to achieve these goals. Everyone is encouraged to achieve success when quite simply the paths to success are only open to some. The very value system that that is born from capitalistic ideology declares to the masses that certain common symbols of success are necessary to achieve self worth and societal acceptance, but the very structure necessary for the system itself to survive scrupulously restricts or at times entirely denies the majority of the population access to the channels that are needed to do so. The very way a capitalistic society is constructed to draw the greatest energies and efforts from all those under her wing in hopes of producing the highest standard of living possible actually produces the economically challenged majority. The biggest, most manipulative and dirtiest lie that has ever been perpetrated by capitalism is that there is equal opportunity for all. I mean really… I call bullshit.

The United States of America isn’t perfect – especially in its current state of highly divisive politics, involvement in two wars, a struggling economy, and any number of other issues that have converged to make modern America a difficult place to live. The United States, however, is still a wonderful place full of liberties, for all its problems, and is often a far better place to live than most of the rest of the world.

If America has had any lasting effect on the world, which it very demonstrably has, the largest and most sweeping two would likely be democracy and capitalism. The implementation of both institutions within the country’s borders each have flaws and could be improved upon, but these were founded as part of the first generation of experiments in new government and society. Each of these ideals have been adopted by countless nations worldwide and has, on the whole, had a beneficial effect in response.

Democracy, at its core, is about the people of a given country. The United States has a democratic republic, which is a slightly different beast, but the central tenets remain the same – the American people have empowered themselves for over two centuries, and the world has taken notice. Whether the implementation of democracy occurs in the form of parliamentary democracy, a democratic republic, true democracy, or some other hybridized form, the important function is that the people take power from a central few and distribute it amongst themselves, even if there are a central few who still lead the country. It is no accident that nations in a post-revolutionary state, often without any outside influence, turn to democracy as the form of government they wish to have in their newly founded country.

Capitalism, too, has had a global effect that has opened markets and often been the lead-in for a more open society and government – as has been the case in China, where the mostly-free market is forcing the government’s hand with regard to internal politics and governance. Capitalism has had more drawbacks, both historically and presently, than democracy has, but it is a revolutionary force nonetheless. With the proper regulatory institutions, a free market can further empower an already empowered society, often allowing citizens to live more fulfilling lives.

Without the United States, an argument could be made that these two ideologies would either not exist or would have taken much longer to arrive, leaving the modern world in an entirely different state. Capitalism has its roots in England, but it was America that fully embraced its ideas, and it was also America that founded itself upon freedom through democracy, spurring change in European countries soon after. For all the internal strife that the U.S. may have, and all the vitriolic hatred thrown against it, America is a nation that contributed greatly to the birth of the modern world, even though many tend to forget. Even now, this relatively young nation is forging the way ahead with its various experiments in government, markets, and industry, that will, one way or another, see results in other countries.

On this holiday celebrating the Independence of a former enslaved cluster of colonies, both its citizens and foreign individuals would to well to remember a single fact: freedom, democracy, and individualism are the heart of the United States of America, and likely always will be. These are the principles for which wars are waged, no matter how misguided they may appear to be, because these are values held dear to every single American – values that they wish to share, hopefully peacefully, with the rest of the world.

This is the American Truth.

From Kyle Brady…

Kyle can be found on his blog, via email, or on Twitter.