The Economic Man By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar

[Demeter]

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_abbas_ba_061018_the_economic_man.htm


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October 18, 2006

The Economic Man

By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar

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John Berger, the British writer, was correct in his observation when he said that: "the poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied...but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing."

The indifference, indeed hostility that we show to the homeless or the poor is just a very small part of a bigger problem facing our societies today. The big problem, as I see it, is one of corruption of our most basic values and ideals. In our capitalist democratic societies where individual's interest is proclaimed to be the centre, we are seduced by the promise of happiness that money can buy and in pursuit of that dream we both seduce and are seduced; going round and round in the circle of illusory compassion, loyalty and real indifference.


A few years back, I attended the launch ceremony of a new software release by a Swedish company in Stockholm. At that time, two Swedish economic professors (Ridderståle & Nordstrom) had written a controversial (in Scandinavia) book called "Funky Business". One of these gentlemen was invited to start the ceremonies by giving a short speech about their findings on how western society was changing and its implications for businesses. I certainly was not prepared for what I was about to hear. Nordstrom started his speech with the following: Loyalty is dead, Family is dead,..... what is left is shopping and f...ing.

At first I was surprised and indignant. Surely these guys are mistaken. Are these the only things that people are concerned with? And then slowly I began to understand that although we are not there yet, "there", is where we are heading.


Authors Bio: Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar lives in Norway. He works as a management consultant.He is also a contributing writer for many online journals. He's a former associate professor of Nordland University, Norway.


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