The Capitalist Future: A Consequence of Calvinist Annunciation :: essays research papers fc

The Capitalist Future A Consequence of Calvinistic Annunciation     In his work, The Protestant Ethic and the essence of Capitalism, Weberpredicts that the future entrust be a world of " motorised perfection" devoid of"religious and ethical meaning." In this world mod capitalism becomes a selfsustaining system no longer needing the Calvinist religious impetus that hadinspired the work ethic. Weber argues that the future will be a capitalisticsociety, where the proletariat and the bourgeoisie alike, will not be driven byreligious motivation, but instead by a constant struggle to benefit from thesystem. He reasons that this future of the capitalist society is a directconsequence of the teachings of Calvinism. The Calvinist work ethic of livingto work forms the core of modern capitalism. This ethic originated from theCalvinist doctrine of predestination and the capriciousness of a transcendental God.Predestination decrees that God has already picked out who those " predestinateinto everlasting life" (100) and those "foreordained to everlasting death"(100). Calvinists also confide that God, a distant "grand conception" (164) whois "beyond all gentleman comprehension," (164) is unreachable. Both these beliefstogether eliminated any possibility of appeasing God through and through service orsacrifice. The answer to the question whether believers were the chosen or the bedamn could thus neither be influenced nor known. If, however, one turned hiswork into a calling, restricting any desire to molderful pleasure, he couldexperience a feeling of assurance that he is indeed a member of the Elect.Calvinism preached this severe ethic of hard work and complete absence offrivolous waste of money and time. As a result, the work ethic of thepopulation shifted from working to live to living to work. handed-downcapitalism which relied on the "greedy maximization of profit in a one-shotenterprise, " (14) became the rational modern capitalism, a continuous cycleinvolving the constant " fatty investment of capital." (172) The Calvinistteachings demanded honest dealings in backup, steady takings and sales, andcontinuous savings and reinvestment which no doubt led to phenomenal businessgrowth and success. Weber illustrates in the following quote "When thelimitation of phthisis is combined with the release of acquisitive activity,the inevitable practical result is plain accumulation of capital throughascetic compulsion to save." (172)This "diligent and economical" (175) attitude made people richer and"material goods gained an increasing and finally an hard power over thelives of men." (181) The dependence on external goods went from the "light habilitatewhich can be thrown aside at any arcsecond" (181) to a necessity, or as Weber putsit, an "iron cage." (181) The so called acetic lifestyle now led to an increased