Turning Passions Into Interests

“He’d Give You The Shirt Off His Back.”

To me, the above quote describes a nice, poor person.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but I never understood why that compliment was the highest you could give a man.

It’s almost like saying, “He’s a great guy, but he can’t organize his financial affairs.”

Folks, there’s a reason stewardesses tell you to put your mask on first before you help anyone else when you’re on a plane.

You’ve got to take care of yourself before you can help anyone else.

This leads me to my old neighbors when I was living in the Philippines.

The Worst House in the Best Neighborhood

Thanks to a horrible storm just before we were moving to Italy, I now have a keen understanding of why real estate agents tell you it’s better to own the worst house in the best neighborhood rather than the best house in the worst neighborhood.

We didn’t live in the worst house, by the way, not by a long shot.

But some of the villas in our subdivision are impressive.

They’re not McMansions of the cheap American kind.

You can’t build that crap here with the humidity. The house would rot within a year.

But these houses are big, fitted with their own generators, and perfect for this humid climate.

Unfortunately, my landlord was a cheapskate and didn’t kit out the house we were living in with its own generator.

I’d have had no problems besides cash and gas if he did.

But here’s the thing.

These professionals, business owners, and entrepreneurs – all people whom middlebrow bureaucrats would have us hate — are the very people who’ve made my family’s life bearable during the disaster that struck.

Our next-door neighbors, doctors both, handed us a 50-meter extension wire to plug in our gadgets. They have a generator and loads of excess kilowatts.

Because of this, we were able to reach our families to tell them we were safe. And we slept much better with our fan cooling us during the night.

Our across-the-street neighbors had loads of fresh, running water because of their generator. We filled up twelve 5-gallon jugs per day to wash and shower. And we’re not the only ones. Folks are coming from miles around to get their water.

And it’s nothing to them.

Why?

One, because they’re really lovely people.

And two, because it’s easy to be generous when you’re rich.

Money Making as an Interest

Years ago, I picked up The Passions and The Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph by Albert O. Hirschmann.

It’s one of those books I bought for my Umberto Ecoian “anti-library.” That is, it was for reference and research.

But I wish I had read it sooner.

It’s as rich as a chocolate gateau, an epic treat for those who ever wondered how we went from seeking God to seeking glory to seeking riches — and how and why we did so.

Hirschmann takes you by the hand through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to show you how those who fought for capitalism won the ideological argument.

Regrettably, I can’t take you through a full review. But I will tell you about a few things that jumped out at me and how they relate to the issues at hand.

Whose Hand Was That?

The first thing that shocked me was that the Invisible Hand was an invention of Montesquieu, not Adam Smith.

Montesquieu wrote that the pursuit of honor in a monarchy “brings life to all parts of the body politic,” and as a result, “it turns out that everyone contributes to the general welfare while thinking that he works for his own interests.”

That’s the Invisible Hand leading you to glory, not riches. But I like Smith’s adoption of it for the latter purpose.

It was essential to counteract the church’s ideas — especially St. Augustine’s — that lust for money, power, and sex were man’s three principal sins.

It’s as Easy as 1, 2, 3!

First, they tried to repress and coerce man.

St. Auggie – I went to Villanova, I get to call him that — and old Johnny Calvin were big fans of this.

But it wouldn’t take.

By the Enlightenment, the day’s best and brightest realized that The State suppressing these vices didn’t solve any problems.

They just created incentives to circumvent authority.

Sound familiar?

Second, the powers that be tried to harness the passions.

This was better, but we’re not there yet.

Giambattista Vico, the great Italian polyglot, wrote:

Out of ferocity, avarice, and ambition, the three vices which lead all mankind astray, [society] makes national defense, commerce, and politics, and thereby causes the strength, the wealth, and the wisdom of the republics; out of these three great vices which would certainly destroy life on earth, society thus causes the civil happiness to emerge. This principle proves the existence of divine providence: through its intelligent laws, the passions of men who are entirely occupied by the pursuit of their private utility are transformed into a civil order which permits men to live in human society.

Hegel’s concept of the Cunning of Reason echoes this by saying men, following their passions, actually serve some higher world-historical purpose of which they are totally unaware.

The State would be a transformational force rather than a coercive one in this role.

Essentially, let the people do what they want, as long as they make money and don’t infringe on the rights of others.

But the central issue was how this transformation happens.

This is where David Hume comes in, and The State exits.

Hume wrote in his Treatise, “Nothing can oppose or retard the impulse of passion but a contrary passion.”

As an aside, I remember watching Samuel L. Jackson talk about how getting addicted to golf got him off his drug addiction.

For Robert Downey, Jr., martial arts replaced drugs.

I thought both their stories were nonsense until today.

The great thinkers of yesteryear wanted the body politic to substitute “passions” with “interests.”

No coercion. No repression. And no State, funnily enough.

Just find something more beneficial to which you can get addicted.

And boy, does making money suit that bill!

Dr. Johnson himself once said, “There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.”

To them, passions were wild; interests, harmless.

To be sure, it was important to pursue wealth sensibly. When indulged to excess, it can lead to disastrous results.

If only these guys could’ve seen Enron, Lehman, and Evergrande!

But even better, they should see my neighbors — and all those who lent a hand to one another during the crazy disaster a few years ago…

Wrap Up

I’m not a philosopher per se, so I hope my casual writing sufficed.

I think the idea that we’re all against each other in some sort of class war is Marxist nonsense.

I saw more goodness during the cyclone aftermath than I had for a long time.

Yes, the benefactors have money. Yes, the beneficiaries don’t have as much.

To me, the message is to become as financially successful as possible. That way, you can “feel possession,” as psychologists say, and once you do, you can pass on to others what you don’t need or want.