Capitalism: Root of All Evil

In my never-ending and constantly evolving journey to figure out what is wrong with the world (besides the obvious Sin), I'm beginning to look to Capitalism.

When my brother Steve was in college (or just out) we were talking about something like American culture around the dinner table (I can still remember where he was sitting) and I said something or other that I thought was a pretty original idea about American culture and he said "Well, that's because American culture is completely formed by Capitalism." I had never heard of this idea before and only had a vague notion of what Capitalism was in the first place and so just became quiet and still thought I was right.

Well, it turns out that I think Steve's right. At least I think so. I'm not completely sure, but here's a oft-quoted passage from Marx and Engel's The Communist Manifesto:

"Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober sense, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind."

The last part is bolded for effect; mostly because it's so dang powerful. I think what is so relevant is the phrase "...all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify." I think it speaks to the sense of temporariness in our current culture - especially in personal relationships.

So maybe our culture has just come out of our relationship with money. After all, that is where our hearts are. Jesus said: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Also, in the process of figuring out all of this I have seen more and more in my life how I actively participate in capitalism/postmodernism/etc.. What is this? Is it bad? Understandable? More on this later, but I've begun to read a book my mom gave to me a year ago while they were visiting me at L'Abri in England called Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence and which I haven't had an interest in picking up until last night. In the introduction it talks briefly about how part of taking a break from the world is to engage in Spiritual Discipline because it aligns ourselves with a different style of living. Interesting.