A Faustian Bargain for Success and Progress

Capitalism is not merely a model of political economy, instead it has its own values, morality and culture. The ethos of capitalism manifest itself in an "American dream" which was the national ethos of the United States after the great depression. It was the idea that every person has the opportunity to succeed, to attain a better life and thus, freedom is interpreted as the opportunity for individual prosperity and success. Besides all other maladies, this dream also played a central role in the disruption and fragility of human-to-human relations especially the familial relations. The American Dream, once a beacon of hope, progress, success and prosperity, has devolved into a cacophony of disillusionment, fragmenting the very fabric of social relations. This sort of disintegration of inter-relationality is a new norm of the almost whole globe.

Current situation of Pakistan is also not so dissimilar to that. In our society, the given phenomenon is starkly evident, as the pursuit of wealth and status supersedes the value of genuine human connections. The important but often overlooked point is that person's mode of earning plays a significant role in shaping thier human personality, whose psychic structure is the locus of moral selfhood. Various sources and opportunities of earning, seemingly innocuous infact blessed aspect of modern life, are insidiously shaping the distorted, fragmented, agitated, frustrated and alienated personalities. It fosters a psyche that prioritizes ambitions over relations. Ambitious people live their life in a hell of their own dreams, in which there is an ongoing cycle of torment. A life devoted to chasing dreams is an inferno of suffering, where the 'samsara' remains continued unto death. Within this 'dream-hell', not only the dreamer but also thier family and other people also burn in despair, angst, heartache and dilemma. Ambitious mode of being is a truly cursed way of being. Unfortunately, to be an ambitious being is a contemporary ethos that has been wholeheartedly accepted as the only universal ideal and one has to think or talk about them as an obligatory prayer. If you are an advocate of simple life without any any constant pursuit of success, then you are committing a blasphemy.

In this dystopian landscape, individuals are so consumed by their own lost battles of success that they neglect their own inner struggles as well as of those around them. The disintegration of inter-relationality is palpable in the lack of people's sense of fulfilment because it is a moral consciousness which keeps the human existence in a state of fulfilment, and the ideal of moral consciousness is grounded in the strong and meaningful inter-human relations.

Vulnerability is a pre condition of an authentic human to human relationality, this vulnerability requires a trust on that human being and the pre requisite of this trust is a concern for that being. This concern for that other being is nearly impossible within the individualistic capitalist culture of success because it demands time. Within the culture of success, human relations are weaknesses as well as the hurdles of the way towards success. The emphasis on success discourages vulnerability of the relations. Success can afford only transactional relations or the relatios of benefits. This lack of intimacy due to the absence of vulnerability and openness renders relationships shallow, devoid of depth, richness and meaning, ultimately leading to existential unfulfilment.

The ideological rationale behind this capitalistic curse is an unnecessarily realistic approach about the relation between human being and time. The spirit of this age is akin to Mephistopheles and this ideology of unnecessary realism requires a "Faustian bargain". A Faustian bargain is a metaphorical expression of a diabolic pact in which an individual gives up something of immense importance, usually the soul (moral or spiritual values), in exchange for some sort of material and worldly benefit. Besides all other existentialy significant aspects of the soul, in order to correspond with the ethos of capitalism, one have to bargain the fulfilling essence of inter-human relationality with the success and progress also.

Moral or spiritual development demands a strength and endurance infront of inner battles, one have to fight with one's own inner darker self for higher virtues. Existentially significant and fulfilling life is a life of inner strength and beautification not outer false ornamental additions. Contrarily, success oriented perception of life requires a person who is not so concerned about the purification of inner self. Success only wants a person who is the slave of the betterment of the outer self, prosperity, luxuriousness and status quo.

In Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", a classic cultural critique of capitalism, death is a symbol of a spiritual death due to his ambitious obsession with success, to be rich and respected. Willy Loman is a victim of the ethos of capitalism. The central ethical compulsion within a capitalist predicament is an economical in nature which can only be fulfilled by dying a spiritual and moral death. As Iqbal also says:

عصرِ حاضر ملک الموت ہے تیرا، جس نے

قبض کی روح تیری دے کے تجھے فکرِ معاش

دل لرزتا ہے حریفانہ کشاکش سے ترا

زندگی موت ہے، کھو دیتی ہے جب ذوق خراش

و اللہ اعلم