There is an article this week on The Chronicle Review from the Chronicle of Higher Education that comes pretty close to ‘must reading’.  “We are all Madoffs” by David Barash (University of Washington) makes a simple, and surprisingly powerful, connection between the Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme and what we are all doing to God’s creation.

If you are one of the few who don’t remember exactly what Bernie did that had the entire nation enraged, it was this: He ran one of the country’s largest (and most successful – until he was caught) pyramid schemes.  The idea was simple, the execution complex and ingenious:  Collect “investments” from people – pay “dividends” back to those people from new “investments” from other people.  The scheme runs well until you run out of new investors or someone blows the whistle.

It’s not hard to see analogies to all kinds of things we take for granted – the cartoonist’s connection to the Social Security system is an easy one; and here’s Barash’s connection to the natural world in the article referenced above:

Make no mistake: Our current relationship to the world ecosystem is nothing less than a pyramid scheme, of a magnitude that dwarfs anything ever contemplated by Charles Ponzi, who, before Madoff, was the best-known practitioner of that dark art. Modern civilization’s exploitation of the natural environment is not unlike the way Madoff exploited his investors, predicated on the illusion that it will always be possible to make future payments owing to yet more exploitation down the road: more suckers, more growth, more GNP, based—as all Ponzi schemes are—on the fraud of “more and more,” with no foreseeable reckoning, and thus, the promise of no comeuppance, neither legal nor economic nor ecologic. At least in the short run.

In the long term? We’re all dead, along with the planet.

He pulls in some powerful numbers to back up his argument:  Since the 1940′s, we have used as much of the world’s mineral resources as all generations before us.  We in the US have, in the last 200 years, wiped out half of the country’s wetlands, 95% of our old-growth forests and 99% of our original prairies.  And of course many parts of the world are much much worse off than we are in the United States.

The immorality of a ponzi scheme lies in the fact that the early investors live off the wealth of those who come later.  If I am an early investor, my ‘dividends’ are taken direclty from the principal of the investors that follow me.  I am robbing people I don’t know – even if I don’t know I’m doing the robbing (because Bernie hasn’t told me).

And that’s the direct connection to God’s creation:  In order to live a rich life now, every one of us is robbing those ‘investors’ who come later.  And who are they?  Our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren.  And this is shameful.  At least Bernie Madoff was robbing other people!  We’re robbing our own families.  Look at it this way – if a person is to be honored and respected for working hard and setting money aside as an inheritance for his children and grandchildren, what is to be said about the person who not only doesn’t try to set aside an inheritance, but actually commits those children and grandchildren to future perpetual poverty so he can live in a mansion for a few short years?

If you get a chance to read the article, take a moment to skim some of the comments that have been collecting.  The readers of the Chronicle are, not surprisingly, a thoughtful group – and the question of greed and spirituality popped up early in the discussion and somewhat unexpectedly:

“We need to tame that beast, now,” says jdeng. Sure, let’s do that. Change the humans. Problem solved.

Most people I know would say that religion and spirituality are important in their lives. And most would say that they are on the side of the environment. But they still drive their SUVs all over tarnation, avoid revolving doors, run their air-conditioners nonstop, or whatever their particular wasteful behaviors may be.

Religion, or spirituality, or ethical appeals just aren’t effective in changing behavior, at least not longterm. Financial incentives and penalties are more effective, but our corporations are highly motivated to stop our government from imposing them.

I guess we’ll have to move to another planet, if we can locate a good one and build the spaceships in time.

If there’s a little Madoff in all of us (there is), and if the only real solution to the problem is to ‘tame that beast’, and if the ‘religion and spirituality’ most people are practicing isn’t doing the job… hmm – maybe there’s room here for a dose of the real gospel:  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (Romans 1:17)

And may I add James to the mix?  What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? (James 2:14)

If my “gospel” (or “spirituality” or “religion”) isn’t producing the results needed – in this context, is failing to tame the beast of consumerism, selfishness and greed that is driving me to rob my own children and grandchildren – maybe what I’ve got isn’t real.

Related posts:

1. When Science and Faith Shook Hands
2. The Environmentalist’s Dilemma
3. What’s in a calling?
4. Managing Population – Kerala (India) does it right…
5. Spring comes to Wisconsin (part I)

Other Links to this Post

1. Sheldon Carlough — September 2, 2009 @ 9:35 pm

2. Serenity Satoru — September 2, 2009 @ 10:54 pm