They Want It All
these people that they stole from
who's lives they laid to waste
they should have to meet them all face to face
and explain just why their momma
didn't teach 'em not to steal
if you want us to believe in justice
justice better be real
Written before the housing crash and, like much of their music, even more relevant today.
After watching the videos of the police clubbing and pepper spraying peaceful people, I was reflecting on "the banality of evil." Torture has become routine, so routine that the Republican candidates for office can criticize the sole fellow who is against it as unpatriotic.
But the routine practice of evil is not confined to the police or the CIA or the government. At least in part, I trace the acceptability of evil to the substitution of "the market." The market works because of selfishness. As "the market" became and becomes the sole and usually undisputed touchstone for organizing our entire society -- not just the buying and selling of goods -- selfishness has displaced what most of us would think of as normal moral values.
Surely a big question is how can you act like these police officers? But there are many other questions about matters that are typically never questioned. How can you sell mortgages to those who you know can't afford them? Bet against your customers? Sell securities of dubious value? The excuse is, I think, it's the way the market works. Buyers make their own choices. If I profit from screwing them over, that's an expression of the market, in which I am playing a small but laudable part.
