Aesthetic Realism in the Press

Thursday
January 17, 2002

Economy based on contempt

     As a resident of New York City, I was furious to read about the massive layoffs announced by the Ford Motor Co. that will affect people throughout our nation, including in Dearborn. As companies are appealing to patriotism and wrapping themselves in the American flag so we will buy their products, they are laying off millions of people. Ford justifies its actions by saying it needs to become more profitable.

     Why, as this new year begins, are so many people losing their jobs, so many families in debt, so many in lines at food pantries? The answer — as understood by the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism, founded by Eli Siegel — is that our economy is unethical and is based on contempt for people. Mr. Siegel defined contempt as "the addition to self through the lessening of something else."

     In the international journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, in an article titled "Americans Want an Ethical Economy," Ellen Reiss, the Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, writes, "The seeing of a fellow human being, whether man, woman, or child, in terms of how much profit you can extract from him or her, is contempt. It is not what our minds were made to be used for, but it is the basis of the profit system. And the seeing of people that way has led to such things as child labor, industrial diseases, sweatshops."

     The executives of Ford do not see the thousands of people whose jobs they have eliminated as real flesh and blood human beings, but simply as tools for profit.

     Ms. Reiss writes, "How should our land, our resources, our jobs be owned? The fight is: either big profits for a few persons, with suffering for others; or having the resources and work of America be in keeping with the beautiful phrase of Lincoln — 'of the people, by the people, for the people.'"

     As someone who works near the site of where the World Trade Center once stood and loves his country, I know it is emergent that all of us ask and answer this great question asked by Mr. Siegel, "What does a person deserve by being a person?" When this is done, the world will be truly safe and kind.

Matthew D’Amico
New York City