The title of this blog is now Pro-Commerce and my photo has changed.
I lived with the pro-commerce concept and the hat for several weeks and I have concluded, in all humility that this discovery is of major significance.
'What discovery?' you may ask. The discovery that the world has been in a battle between the pro-commerce and the anti-commerce forces for thousands of years. The battle heated up for the four hundred years from 1575 to 1975 but the anti-commerce forces peaked in 1975 and the pro-commerce forces are now in the ascent.
Jesus is not the first, but he was prominent in the early anti-commerce forces, driving the important and useful money changers from the temple steps and telling his followers to "render unto Caesar..." For more than a millennium the Roman Catholic Church was the strongest anti-commerce force in history. The closest power comparable to The Roman Church was the Chinese Ming ruler who brought home the 320 ship Cheng Ho trading fleet that went as far as West Africa.
The
first genuine conflict the Church faced was the Protestant Reformation
which pitted the anti-commerce Church forces against the burghers,
traders and financiers of Holland in the world's first Democratic
Republic. From thereon, the Protestants were the Northern European
traders versus the Southern European status quo seekers.
My discovery is not just the appropriateness of calling this millennia
years old battle what it is and connecting reality to its own history,
pro-commerce versus anti-commerce, but selecting the right word:
commerce.
Most people have no idea what commerce is, yet they grasp the sense of the word. Most people also use the term capitalism to refer to their vague notion of commerce. Yet capitalism is a hollow word with no rigorous meaning, no connection to reality and plenty of nonsensical political baggage.
A simple proof of the
inadequacy of "capitalism" as a viable term is to ask yourself when
does a flute player for a small music group, who teaches on the side,
go from being a participant in commerce to being a capitalist? Is it
when she joins a symphony, when she becomes the conductor, when the
symphony combines with other
symphonies to be a regional non-profit and
she becomes the CEO and conductor, when the regional group joins a
profit making New York stage company, when the New York stage company
joins a Japanese and Italian company to become a multi-national
traveling classic music venue? When? Capitalism is such a vague and
sloppy word that it has no coherent connection to reality.
Thus to identify the historic battle between commerce and anti-commerce is significant and to call it by the right name commerce is equally important. Join the fight and openly shout our allegiance to commerce. We are pro-commerce.