The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-vision of Capitalism by Howard
Bloom. (2010) Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
Well, this isn't your dad's old economics. And, that's the
point--at least part of it. Howard Bloom views the economic boom and
bust cycle as a biological phenomenon at least as old as bacteria
expanding (boom) and consolidating (bust). Much else in capitalism
is biological as well, especially emotions, which have not been
emphasized in previous objective views of economics. At the top, the
"big men" try to attract more attention to their wealth than other
big men are able to do and received emotional and neurotransmitter
boosts that effect their future actions. In the process of
organizing and cajoling their tribesman to produce more pork and yams
or semi-conductors, they turn their tribe into productivity machines
with wide-spread benefit.
Bloom has a bone to pick with Adam Smith concerning the real
"bottom line." Money to these big men is not a goal as much as are
higher status and more attention from others. Money is a symbol that
is attached to these more basic goals by Pavlovian conditioning.
Other materials in the "symbol stack," such as gold (which was prior
to money), letters of credit, stocks, and more creative financial
instruments are similarly conditioned but are not the goal--the
attention of others is. All these symbols require trust that they
can be exchanged for symbols closer to the goal, and this trust waxes
and wanes in economic booms and busts.
Bloom emphasizes "tuned empathy" for the customers and
recommends management by "walking outside" not just inside the
company. Middle managers who play to each other while looking down
on their customers are likely to have limited success. Those who are
in touch with their customers' feelings are likely to be more
successful.
Recognizable capitalism predates current Western capitalism.
Bacteria (and many other living things) had it. David had it, and
his tuned empathy for depressed Saul earned him the kingdom. Moses,
a "marketeer par excellence," had it, with six of 10 commandments
being demands for brand loyalty (no other gods before me, etc.),
leaving a much more manageable set of four (against killing,
adultery, stealing, and bearing false witness) to guide interpersonal
activities. Many other examples of expansion, including ancient
walled cities, the silk trade between the Romans and the Chinese, and
Henry the Navigator are reviewed in the run-up to Western
capitalism.
Of course, capitalism has its down side. For example, African
slavery after the discovery of the Americas is lamented. Too slowly
it seems, capitalism offers the remedy--the protest industry. Only
Western capitalism has made the "protest industry" a permanent
fixture by supplying capital to the offspring of the successful to
allow them to protest conditions responsible for their predescecors
successes. Thus did the offspring of planters and a slave-ship
captain produce the abolition industry which succeeded with little
bloodshed in the British colonies and much bloodshed in the U.S.
Bloom offers Marx as another example of the capitalist protest
industry. The son of privilege, Marx was emotionally moved by seeing
dirty laborers, although soap had been available to wash aristocratic
faces for only a short time. Marx was in touch with his emotions and
wrote protests that appealed to the emotions of similar middle and
upper class progeny to raise the status of poorer people that they
often did not even like. Marx's program sold, with the resulting
deaths of 40 million Russians under Stalin and another 40 million
Chinese under Mao. Although usually considered discredited, this
program continues to sell and accounts for several current
insurrections.
Bloom exhalts frivolity and the selling of it. From the early
makeup industry in India 300,000 years ago to his own experience in
the rock and roll industry, Blooms suggests that these entertainments
uplift our emotions biologically. They allow us to show ourselves as
members of a group but also to express our individuality. They may
make us more likely to expand, and doing things slightly differently
increases the chance that one way of doing something will have
positive results. "'Trivial' wants may well propel the advance of
humanity." P.T. Barnum, who never said anything about a sucker being
born every minute, is presented as a model capitalist.
The impact of Bloom's book on this reviewer is similar to that
felt by the man who learned he had been speaking prose all his life
and did not know it. With capitalism in my DNA according to Bloom, I
wonder if knowing his suggestions earlier would have made me better
at it and whether knowing them now will. I guess I have some
"walking outside" to do.
Dr. James Wakefield
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