It’s remarkable how many people still think that because someone is a ‘capitalist’ that he or she is a supporter of ‘capitalism.’ But it just ain’t so.
Capitalists come in all flavors and shades of political preferences and one might be justified in saying that ‘capitalism’ is on the bottom of their preferred list. The confusion between these two terms – ‘capitalist’ and ‘capitalism’ – has caused incalculable damage to our basic understanding of a free society.
Take for example Saskatchewan Dr Francis Christian who has recently gained attention arguing that the world is currently suffering under a “tyranny of capitalism.”
The good doctor is fighting the good fight towards his goal of establishing that ‘informed consent’ be mandated in matters regarding one’s personal health. Yet he has labeled the only known social system based on consent ‘tyranny.’
In so doing, his fear that there are no good forms of government – only a choice between the “tyranny of communism” and the “tyranny of capitalism” – becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Continue reading »