Anukool Lakhina
ID 203, Lindholm
Question #3
October 10th,
1996
In his work, The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism, Weber predicts that the future will be a world of
"mechanized perfection" devoid of "religious and ethical
meaning." In this world modern
capitalism becomes a self sustaining system no longer needing the Calvinist
religious impetus that had inspired the work ethic. Weber argues that the future
will be a capitalistic society, where the proletariat and the bourgeoisie
alike, will not be driven by religious motivation, but instead by a constant
struggle to benefit from the system. He reasons that this future of the
capitalist society is a direct consequence of
the teachings of Calvinism.
The Calvinist
work ethic of 'living to work' forms the core of modern capitalism. This ethic
originated from the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and the notion of a
transcendental God. Predestination decrees that God has already picked out who
those "predestined into everlasting life" (100) and those "foreordained to everlasting death"
(100). Calvinists also believe that God, a distant "grand conception"
(164) who is "beyond all human comprehension," (164) is unreachable.
Both these beliefs together eliminated any possibility of appeasing God through
service or sacrifice. The answer to the question whether believers were the
chosen or the damned could thus neither be influenced nor known. If, however, one
turned his work into a 'calling,' restricting any desire to wasteful pleasure,
he could experience a feeling of assurance that he is indeed a member of the
Elect. Calvinism preached this ascetic ethic of hard work and complete absence
of frivolous waste of money and time. As
a result, the work ethic of the population shifted from 'working to live' to
'living to work.' Traditional capitalism which relied on the "greedy
maximization of profit in a one-shot enterprise," (14) became the rational
modern capitalism, a continuous cycle involving the constant "productive
investment of capital." (172)
The Calvinist
teachings demanded honest dealings in business, steady production and sales,
and continuous savings and reinvestment which no doubt led to phenomenal
business growth and success. Weber illustrates in the following quote:
"When the
limitation of consumption is combined with the
release of acquisitive activity, the inevitable practical result is
obvious: accumulation of capital through ascetic compulsion to save."
(172)
This "diligent and frugal" (175)
attitude made people richer and "material goods gained an increasing and
finally an inexorable power over the lives of men." (181) The dependence
on external goods went from the "light cloak which can be thrown aside at
any moment" (181) to a necessity,
or as Weber puts it, an "iron cage." (181) The so called acetic
lifestyle now led to an increased dependence on materialism. This is
unavoidable, since a religion such as Calvinism which preaches "industry
and frugality" (175) could not help but produce riches. An increase in
riches however, led to a "proportionate increase in pride, in anger, in
the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life."
(175) As a result, the ascetic 'see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil' value
lost its importance. In John Wesley's words : "wherever riches have
increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion."
(175) In essence, the "form of [the
Calvinist] religion remained" but the "spirit [continues to] swiftly
vanish away." (175) The Calvinist values have now "faded into the
self absorbed luxury of the wealthy." (19) Calvinism had become
rationalized into a tradition and the original religious doctrines began to die
out. Weber illustrates this claim by using the United States as an example:
"In the
field of its highest development, in the United States, the pursuit of wealth,
stripped of its religious and ethical meaning, tends to become associated with
purely mundane passions." (182)
While the
"Puritans wanted to work in a calling, we are [now] forced to do so."
(181) Calvinist-inspired asceticism had created "the tremendous cosmos of
the modern economic order" (181)
which now "determines the
lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those
directly concerned with direct economic acquisitions." (181) Capitalism,
unlike the religion that had originally motivated it, has not perished or been
replaced by another charismatic religious movement. "Victorious capitalism
rests on mechanical foundations"(182) and its Calvinist supports have now
stultified. The entire conception of the
calling now "prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious
beliefs." (182) The now disenchanted world has lost its God. It is a cold,
heartless but very efficient machine. The work ethic of modern capitalism,
although similar to the Calvinist ethic, remains but the religious reasoning
behind the ethic has eroded away. Constant
competition among firms who struggle to stay in and benefit from the system has
given Capitalism the "character of [a] sport." (182) It is now a self
sustaining system guided by Adam Smith's invisible hand, no longer needing any
religious motivations.
Are we to live in this "mechanized
petrification" (182) forever? Weber reasons that there is no way we can
know about the future. "No one knows who will live in this cage in the
future." (182) He does however postulate that "new prophets"
(182) may arise or "a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals" may come
to pass. He also suggests another
possibility that of the embellishment of the "mechanized
petrifaction" (182) with a "sort of convulsive self
importance."(182) There is, however, no way we can know what will occur in
the future at the present time. Until then, we are all "specialists
without spirit, [and] sensualists without heart." (182)
(922 words)
WORKS CITED
Weber, Max. The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Roxbury Publishing Company: Los
Angeles, rpt. 1995.
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