-Caveat Lector- Cape Cod Times | Sean Gonsalves Column, October 12, 1999A new order: Adam Smith revisited October 12, 1999 http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/edits/seang.htm With an eye on the World Trade Organization summit to be held in Seattle next month, let's talk about a guy named Adam Smith. You see, Smith is considered by most economists and egg-heads to be the "father of modern economics." And given the religious zealotry with which millions of Americans cling to "free-market" dogma, Smith is clearly one of the most influential thinkers in modern history. Conservatives consider him one of their patron saints. Unfortunately, many on the Left - Robert Heilbroner's scholarship notwithstanding - overlook the fact that conservatives spend more time praising Smith than they do actually reading him, which becomes obvious to any literate person who bothers to trek through Smith's massive tome "The Wealth of Nations." Granted, I'm a fanatic but this is interesting stuff. I've discovered that contemporary conservatives leave out central aspects of Smith's argument for a genuine free-market in order to justify their fetish with our really existing "free-market" economy - a welfare state for the rich and "market discipline" for everyone else. Our economy is dominated by multi-national corporations, which are anti-democratic institutions with rigid top-down management, centralized bureaucratic authority and budgets larger than the GDP of most nations on the planet - a tyranny Smith would surely compare to the despotism of "Big Government." You would think intellectual integrity would be of utmost importance for any thinker - right-wing or leftist. But evidently, modern conservatives - the self-proclaimed guardians of American "values" - only care about honesty when it comes to "grave" matters like the Clinton-Lewinsky affair but could care less about the whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth when it comes to trivial things like the foundation upon which our entire economy is built. These are serious charges. But the sin's of omission committed by the heirs of Smith's legacy are even more serious. Check out the following offering from the "liberal" media. Commenting on the historical origins of "the New World Order," Newsday columnist James Pinkerton wrote last week: "The first attempt to define a New Order came in 1776. In that year, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith wrote 'An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.' Together, the two works made the case for limited government and laissez-faire capitalism." Pinkerton continues: "It was not until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 that Marxism was tried out" - an oversimplification that completely ignores the ideas of Marx's intellectual rivals (i.e. Bakunin and Kropotkin). "...And so capitalism triumphed over communism." Then Pinkerton goes on to argue that "non-market organizations such as the U.N. flourish because they help preserve stability. And even archcapitalists saw the utility of planet-spanning entities, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. "Yet economic integration of the planet created more than just a market of 6 billion people; it has also created a new collective consciousness. World public opinion is at the heart of the emerging New Order." Indeed. Unfortunately, "world public opinion" is being shaped by a corporate media that fails to critically examine the operating principles of these "planet-spanning entities" or the politicians and economists who butcher Smith's thesis in the name of freedom and democracy. Everyone who has taken Econ 101 has read Smith's famous passage where he talks about the beauty of the division of labor in the pin factory. But what about Smith's observation that "the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments." Therefore, he wrote, "the man whose life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects too are, perhaps, always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding...and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to be....But in every improved and civilized society this is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the great body of the people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes pains to prevent it (emphasis mine)." And this is why Alexis de Tocqueville, another conservative favorite, asked rhetorically: What "can be expected of a man who has spent 20 years of his life making heads for pins?...The art advances, the artisan recedes." And we haven't even touched on the fact that Smith's argument for "perfect freedom," he insisted, rests on the establishment of equality of condition! So it matters little how "rational" the work of F.A. Hayek and other "free-market" cheerleaders appear. If the foundation is weak, the whole edifice is shaky. But don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. Sean Gonsalves is a Cape Cod Times staff writer and syndicated columinist. He can be reached via email: sgonsalves@capecodonline. Copyright © 1998 Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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