Disaster and Growth Capitalism, Degrowth Economics, and Irredentism
In this four-part essay, I give examples of how the four minds of the quadrune mind model of human nature can be observed as they function in various day-to-day circumstances. In the final part, I’ll describe how actors of each mind would perform their parts on the stage of life, as an elaboration on Shakespeare.
Note: The topic headings above are from our earlier evolutionary model of the minds. The examples below represent our later corresponding developmental categories of minds: Reptilian Mind/Infantile Behavioral Mind; Old Mammalian Mind/Childish Emotional Mind; New Mammalian Mind/Adolescent Intellectual (Cognitive) Mind; Human Mind/Grownup Spiritual Mind; and Pre-Human Minds/Immature Minds (all minds and “mind” except the Grownup Spiritual Mind).
Disaster Capitalism1
Infantile Behavioral Mind
The infantile behavioral mind is associated with the “reptilian” brainstem in Paul MacLean’s triune brain model. Nothing reflects this utter reptilian-like cold-bloodedness than the destruction of people’s lives in horrific ways because, “It’s just [good] business.”2
“Disaster capitalism has taken many forms in different contexts. In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was an immediate move to replace public schools with charter schools, and to bulldoze public housing projects to make way for gentrifying townhouses. In Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, the public schools were once again under siege, and there was a push to privatize the electricity grid before the storm had made landfall. In Thailand and Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, valuable beachfront land, previously stewarded by small-scale fishers and farmers, was seized by real estate developers while their rightful occupants were stuck in evacuation camps.”3
Although the disaster capitalists do not murder people in person, their level of consciousness is the same as the ruthless mob murderers portrayed in the movies.4 From the quadrune mind perspective, the phrase, “It’s not personal, it’s just business,” means, “I am going to do something horrible to you for the benefit of my business, but I can do it with no qualms because I don’t see you as a human being.” I wonder, would they treat someone who is a “human being” in the same way? How would one qualify for humane treatment? It has been said, “To a crooked board a straight board looks crooked.” To the reptilian-minded person, human beings look like lunch.
Growth Capitalism and Degrowth Economics
Infantile Behavioral Mind, Childish Emotional Mind, and Adolescent Intellectual (Cognitive) Mind
In the Growth Capitalist’s Political Personality Quiz,5 growth capitalists are described as “[A] crusader for capitalism and economic prosperity: Growth Capitalists are savvy and business-first industrialists. They feel that economic growth and prosperity should be maximized at all costs. Regulations, policies, and taxes just get in the way of progress.” Their devotion to the ideologies of “capitalism” and “progress,” both abstract ideals, suggests that growth capitalists are operating from their adolescent intellectual mind.
However, there is much in this webpage that would support an infantile behavioral mind’s visceral defense of the status quo, as well. For example, “You are a true American traditionalist, who doesn’t see a reason to change something if it seems to be working just fine…. You are a natural defender of the old guard, and often value respect, dedication, and dignity beyond all else when speaking to others…. You believe that environmental health and social equality are not pressing concerns, unless they pose an immediate threat to economic health.” Economic health seems equated with infantile-minded survival.
There are also elements of an “us versus them” childish mind. For example, “You believe that business-first policies, moderate regulation, and low taxes will secure American global economic supremacy for years to come.” However, the “us” appears to exist in an infantile, Hobbesian world, with no absolute monarch to constrain their individualized selfish aims: “Top Values: As a Growth Capitalist, your values optimize for economic prosperity and growth. Everyone should have the autonomy to fend for themselves and pursue their ambitions without substantial economic regulation…. Self-determination: Individuals need to fight for themselves in order to succeed.”
The site acknowledges a “weakness” in the growth capitalist’s personality: “Lack of empathy: Your wealth-first mindset makes it difficult to empathize with the disadvantaged.” And finally, the capitalist’s personality includes the essential definition of greed: “You primarily derive fulfillment out of maximizing your wealth and economic success over time. As someone who always compares themselves to others, you always want more – so it is difficult to ever have enough.”6
Disconcertingly, these characteristics seem to be points of pride for the growth capitalist. This highlights one of the great challenges to Grownups who are trying to enact societal change—attributes of the immature minds are often the attributes most celebrated by societies around the world. This is likely because many more people are operating from immature minds than Grownup minds, meaning most of those with wealth and the power to dictate societal values, like growth capitalists, are in fact infants, children, and adolescents acting like adults. As a result, the Grownup often finds themselves going against the prevailing current, and the swimming can be effortful.
Grownup Spiritual Mind
The philosophy of degrowth economics looks more consistent with the spiritual values of the Grownup. Broadly, degrowth economics means “shrinking rather than growing economies, to use less of the world’s dwindling resources.”7 A competing alternative to growth capitalism is the “green new deal.”8 However, because we know that the content of the mind does not determine the level of consciousness, despite their “progressive” values, there is a significant risk that proponents of each idea will think of themselves primarily as ideological opponents rather than humanitarian collaborators. The Grownup would advocate for the approaches of degrowth economics or the green new deal because they better serve all people, animals, and the environment, not because they are “right,” and growth capitalists are “wrong.” If these approaches no longer benefitted the world, they would be abandoned and new approaches explored, because a philosophy itself is only of value as far as it reduces suffering and increases healing, when seen from the Grownup mind.
Irredentism
Infantile Behavioral Mind
Many years ago, I read a short newspaper clip quoting a Chinese general who stated that he would sacrifice a thousand Chinese lives to preserve a foot of Chinese soil.9 Chinese irredentism was also clearly observed when Hong Kong was “redeemed” by China. Chinese irredentism continues regarding Taiwan, as well as many other territories and sea lanes. Russian irredentism drives Vladimir Putin’s acquisitive aggression in Crimea and the Ukraine.
Irredentism in the adult corresponds to the infant’s lack of a sense of individuation. Everything the infant experiences from mama to a mobile hanging over the crib exists only as an extension of the infant. Consequently, to the infant everything not only “belongs” to the infant, but is, in fact, essential to the infant’s sense of wholeness. This phenomenological view is seen in the actions of irredentism committed by infantile-minded leaders of nations.
Irredentism and the Real Tragedy of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
Grownup Spiritual Mind
The South’s efforts to secede from the Union followed the same political arguments made by the fathers of the American revolution. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address dated the birth of the nation to the Declaration of Independence but hinted that a new nation might rise. Lincoln began his presidency with a war for American unity at the expense of justice for the enslaved. Furthermore, preserving the Union was more important than the lives of people who fought for the United States, possibly indicating irredentism on Lincoln’s part. In any event, Lincoln ended his presidency as a victor in a war for freedom of the enslaved. By the Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln was able to announce the birth of a reconstructed, mutually healing America. The Second Inaugural Address, which announced the rebirth of a new nation, is one of the most Grownup-minded documents in political history. This was the Lincoln who was assassinated.10 In the post-Reconstruction era, it is the South that “redeems” a united America for itself. That is, the South’s cultural value of a caste system is overwhelming the United States’ expressed values of equanimity and inclusiveness. We have suffered for it to this day when we are again in a period of reactionary secessionism from an aging, united America born in the Age of Enlightenment.11
- The term “disaster capitalism” was coined by social activist Naomi Klein. See The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism.
- For a related literary analysis of the blending of family and business in the Godfather, comparing book and movie, and the value of ethnicity as a source of socioeconomic power, see Ferraro, T. J. (1989). Blood in the marketplace: The business of family in the Godfather narratives. In W. Sollors (Ed.). The invention of ethnicity (pp. 176 – 208) New York: Oxford University Press. “In The Godfather, [Mario] Puzo refashions the gangster genre into a vehicle for reversing the traditional antithesis between ties of blood and the American marketplace. In so doing, he transforms the stock character of the Italian-American outlaw into the representative super(business)man; and he transforms the lingering image of immigrant huddled masses into the first family of American capitalism.” [P. 207].
- Klein, N., & Sproat, Kapua ʻala. (2023, August 23). Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui?: Big corporations, golf courses and hotels have been taking water from locals for years. Now the fire may result in even more devastating water theft. The Guardian. “Disaster capitalism has taken many forms in different contexts. In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was an immediate move to replace public schools with charter schools, and to bulldoze public housing projects to make way for gentrifying townhouses. In Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, the public schools were once again under siege, and there was a push to privatize the electricity grid before the storm had made landfall. In Thailand and Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, valuable beachfront land, previously stewarded by small-scale fishers and farmers, was seized by real estate developers while their rightful occupants were stuck in evacuation camps.”
Also, see Wright, K-A., Kelman, I., & Dodds, R. (2021, July). Tourism development from disaster capitalism. National Library of Medicine. “Disaster capitalism occurs post-disaster in a disaster-affected location, as distinct from other expropriation and exploitation. The tourism industry is often complicit, helping the reconstruction industry to take land from people under the guise of providing post-disaster aid….
“First, predatory land grab involves private individuals or organizations who either buy the land immediately after a disaster, while those affected are still under duress, or else simply evict people from their land by registering, often fraudulently, land ownership claims. Second, strategic land grab involves the local or national government evicting residents from their land either by decree or under the guise of rehabilitation with the goal of tourism development. Based on these two forms, this research note outlines different situations of tourism development from disaster capitalism and then illustrates how shoddy and inequitable relief and reconstruction, including arbitrary relocation, creates recurring disasters and thus continuing disaster capitalism.
“[P]ost-disaster human actions and inactions sometimes support disaster capitalism, so disaster-affected communities are made to be even more vulnerable through continuing poverty, inequity, and lack of opportunities. This perpetuates vulnerabilities and hence disasters.
“To illustrate with Barbuda, the hurricane wrecked the island, not because of the wind speed or flooding, but because the infrastructure and society were not prepared to deal with known hazards. The disaster was the vulnerabilities preventing people from preparing for the hurricane and its impacts. Then, the disaster continued through excluding Barbudans from post-hurricane work, seeking to take control of their land, and reconstructing the island according to external, money-driven interests rather than helping the disaster-affected people. This latter part of the disaster, driven by the tourism industry and with the most long-term impacts, was not correlated to the hurricane parameters and was not caused by the environmental hazard.” [Emphasis added]. - For example, see Allen, J. (2018, Spring). The murder of Luca Brasi: The curiously moving death of a henchman. In The Godfather: Anatomy of a film. University of California, Berkeley. “This is the Italian-American Mafia—sleek entrepreneurs, cleverly veiled criminals—and this is where they meet, as businesspeople accustomed to a tableau of luxury.”
[This description seems as though it could apply to an American corporate board meeting of wealthy power elites.
Additionally, from the quadrune mind view, I believe the movie quotation describes the infantile cold-bloodedness of the “business” mind, especially as it relates to disaster capitalists, better than Puzo’s book in which revenge “is personal” because it is about family. It is a family held together by tradition, which may seem more emotionally advanced, but traditions (rituals) preserve long-lived institutions, like family and church, through unexamined behaviors, not relational feelings]. - Growth Capitalist. (n.d.). Political Personality Quiz. Further quotations: “Sometimes though, you feel misunderstood and that the vast majority of the population just ‘doesn’t get it’. People getting left behind is a natural part of a socio-economic spectrum.” [Emphasis added. Human nature has nothing to do with this “natural” world. When I first opened this website, I thought it was a satirical column from The Onion. I judge this economics philosophy not politically or even economically, because I am not qualified to do so. I judge the content of the site spiritually from the quadrune mind perspective].
- For more about greed, see my essay, Stampede Greed and Desperate Need: (Or, What the Sackler family and the Haitian refugees have in common).
- Masterson, V. (2022, June). Degrowth – what’s behind the economic theory and why does it matter right now? World Economic Forum. “Degrowth broadly means shrinking rather than growing economies, so we use less of the world’s energy and resources and put wellbeing ahead of profit.”
Benefit Corporations also support a shift in business priorities. See Benefit Corporations. (n.d.). B Lab. “Due to law and culture, directors of traditional for-profit companies must maximize the financial returns to shareholders. This single focus is called shareholder primacy. This inflexible legal framework does not accommodate for-profit entities whose mission and impact is [sic] central to their business model.
“Benefit corporation status allows corporations to opt-out of shareholder primacy and opt-into stakeholder governance. With stakeholder governance, a company is required to take into consideration anyone that is materially affected by that company’s decision-making, like workers, customers, local communities, wider society and the environment.” - For a general description, see Holden, E. (2019, February 11). What is the Green New Deal and how would it benefit society? Republicans call it a ‘socialist manifesto’, environmental groups hail it, and some say it doesn’t go far enough. The Guardian.
- I have been unable to find my clipping of this article so the figures may be off, but I believe that the sense of disproportion described is accurate.
- See Wills, G. (1999, September). Lincoln’s greatest speech? The Atlantic Monthly. “It is clear that Lincoln’s inaugural address did not reach the befuddled Vice President who sat behind him as he delivered it, though he was the man who most needed its message. The executive mansion was a darker place in every way when Lincoln was removed from it, and from us. The Second Inaugural is the towering measure of our loss.”
- Roosevelt, K., III. (2020, March 3). The Constitution and Declaration of Independence: A contrary view. CSPAN3: American History TV. [Entertaining and fascinating presentation stating that our American values of today are not the values of the founding fathers but have been reconstructed. This position is more humane than, and antithetical to, constitutional originalism].