Human beings as transactions, and the ensuing violent rage

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | November 10, 2009 at 07:13 am

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"The economic crisis revealed late-capitalism's central offense: Human beings are being transparently treated if they were mere transactions. And they're going postal over it." Scott Thill, journalist, Alternet

If there is anything which is a philosophical theme within rampant Capitalism, it is that it clashes disastrously with the best principles of democracy. Justified resentment boils over into lethal rage as corruption and apathy are starkly revealed, without any concealment as to the brutality of their anti-democratic features. History has always shown that political collusion with economic injustice, when brutal and blatant enough, will reach a tipping point, and that tip is usually toward violent rage. But economic violence preceded it.

The recent rampage by a displaced worker in Orlando, Florida, and the mortgage-related torture in Los Angeles are symptom, consequence, and incident of a collision of rampant capitalism with human and democratic principles. Human beings tend not to view themselves as mere appendages of some towering financial state, there to be used for the financial gain of anonymous towering others. For each act of violence, thousands who did not act are nevertheless represented. As the great 20th century social commentator, Jose Ortega y Gasset, rightly said, violence is always preceded by extreme injustice and tyranny in such cases. It is slow to come, but come it does.

And the situation shows no signs of abating.

"They left me to rot," were the words of one Jason Rodriguez, who went on a shooting rampage at the Orlando engineering firm Reynolds, Smith and Hills that had fired him two years ago.

The Los Angeles torture case is reveals a psychological phenomena, a human phenomena, and as brutal and violent as it is, it falls within the range of predictable human stress reactions:

According to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, "Weston and Parmelee live in a house that is in foreclosure," and they "allegedly sought loan-modification assistance from the victims but believed that nothing was being done and wanted their money back."

When they didn't get it, they evidently extracted their payback in violent revenge.

"That's not right," explained Kathleen Day, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending. "But clearly people are really mad about what's happened to them. This is the kind of thing that happens when lenders don't lend responsibly. You can't abuse your customers forever."
Or your tormenters, as Weston and Canez will no doubt realize, once the full force of the state comes down on them for venting their rage. Whatever their perceived or real injustices may have been, their attack on Dean and Garcia crossed a line laid down by the rule of law. But that rule, as everyone from voters to homeowners to municipalities and more have come to fully realize during the last decade, rarely applies in both directions.

For those in power, it is used to shield them from the justice they often deserve. For those on the outside looking in, it is often used to oppress them further. The disturbing blowback from that growing inequality, mirrored by an ever-growing gapbetween the rich and the poor and a true national unemployment rate around 17 percent, can only get worse.

"Loan-modification scams are proliferating now because of the numerous foreclosure-prevention programs that have been announced," said Douglas Robinson, spokesman for NeighborWorks America, a national nonprofit created by Congress to financially and technically assist with community-based revitalization efforts. "Homeowners know that there is help out there for them, so they are more susceptible to scammers who sound legitimate. Unemployment is increasing, and homeowners are looking for answers that will save their homes. Scammers know this and tailor their approach to homeowners."

Until more details on the case come in, the jury is still out on whether Dean and Garcia were scamming the posse that allegedly imprisoned and tortured them or were legitimate operators.

But the convergence of malfeasance and blowback in their case is alluring: NeighborWorks announced a national campaign to combat loan-mod scamsalongside Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the same day the district attorney posted its press release on Dean and Garcia.

Of course, there was little in NeighborWorks' campaign -- which designated November as "National Loan Modification Scam Awareness Month" -- that mentioned the actual banks whose densely securitized loans have crippled not just American homeowners, but also the global economy.

According to a series of brilliant exposes, McClatchy newspapers found that Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs peddled billions of securitized mortgages that it knew were toxic, and then capitalized on inevitable foreclosures through murky subsidiaries tasked with kicking distressed homeownersonto the street.

The callous practice was good for Goldman's bottom line: According to a recent report from the National Consumer Law Center, there's more money for mortgage companies in foreclosures than in loan modification. To reward itself for its purportedly legal duplicity for the holidays, when economic stress is at its peak, Goldman is giving its employees billions in bonuses, all while claiming to do "God's work."

Of course, Goldman Sachs isn't the only perp getting a free ride. According to Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, over 95 percent of troubled mortgages in the United States "has moved to five institutions: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wachovia, Citigroup and HSBC. They have this country held by the neck."

Source: alternet.org