What Went Wrong?

Should we abolish Capitalism?

I recently came across the above picture parodying the painting ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich, and I laughed out loud at its hilarious genius.

Instead of standing above a vast sea of mist and mystery, the wanderer now stands above a common American plaza. The effect is absurd and eerily accurate. Most of us in the U.S. don’t have the luxury of being able to travel a short distance to glimpse a sublime, untouched landscape. For many, our day-to-day view is exactly this: a parking lot, a McDonald’s, an ExxonMobil, and a KFC/Taco Bell.

Clearly, this is not how the world is supposed to look.

It raises the question: What went wrong?

Many would answer, “Well, obviously, capitalism.”

And in a sense, they’d be right. This is a product of the free market.

So then, shouldn’t we just get rid of capitalism?

Well…

Love Went Wrong.

I completely disagree with the “love is just a feeling” crowd. Let me tell you why. I believe love is a choice, a deliberate act made by an individual with free will.

When God created man, He gave him free will. That means man had, and still has, a choice: to love God or not. To live in accordance with God or to live apart from Him.

But why didn’t God just make man love Him? Why not program obedience?

Because love that is forced isn’t love.

If God had said, “You have no choice but to love me,” and removed man’s free will, then man would be nothing more than a slave. And God would be no better than a psycho-sexual sadist—the kind who traps a woman in a basement, ties her up, and says, “You will love me.”

But God did not do that.

Instead, He told mankind, “You may choose to live life with Me or apart from Me. I give you this choice because I love you.”

That, I believe, is the truest kind of love.

So what does love have to do with a world overrun by McDonald’s and Exxon?

I believe that free-market capitalism, when rightly understood, is the economic system that most reflects God’s gift of love to mankind.

Why?

Because capitalism allows for free will. It lets individuals make choices. And, as we’ve seen, that includes the choice to live in accordance with God or without Him.

So, going back to the original question — “what went wrong?”

Man went wrong when he chose to live without God.

That, I believe, is what gave us the common American plaza.

We need free markets.

But more than that, we need people in those markets who walk with God.

Life without God is ugly and chaotic. Life with God is beautiful and ordered.