It is common today for philosophical, political, literary and intellectual figures to be denigrated, censured and misrepresented. Adam Smith is one of these people; a particular group of ideologues often misuse and claim blatant fallacies against him to prop up their own branch of market fanaticism. Parallel examples can be used of people's ideas being disregarded and used for malicious practices to carry forth their demented savagery. With political figures, their fascism, credentials for international terrorism and so forth have been regarded as such and we read nothing much more than propaganda about them. These political saints include Winston Churchill, John.F Kennedy Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
It also happens with thinkers like Adam Smith but this is rather different. Smith was not engaged in international terrorism like Kennedy or mass murder like Churchill. With him the opposite principles apply. So far example he talks about "the savage injustice of the Europeans".
"It is not by the importation of gold and silver, that the discovery of America has enriched Europe. ...The commodities of Europe were almost all new to America, and many of those of America were new to Europe. A new set of exchanges, therefore, began t o take place which had never been thought of before, and which should naturally have proved as advantageous to the new, as it certainly did to the old continent. The savage injustice of the Europeans rendered an event, which ought to have been beneficial to all, ruinous and destructive to several of those unfortunate countries."
Smith was very much a man of the 18th century. He was born in 1723 and died in 1790. When Smith talks about "the savage injustice of the Europeans", he is referring to something quite particular. The British Raj (rule) did not begin until 1858 and ended in 1947 when Adam Smith was dead. It is clear then he can not have been referring to the 1943 Bengali famine orchestrated by Churchill, where conservative estimates state seven million people died, nor was Smith referring to the Indian Mutiny of 1857, which according to the Indian historian, Amaresh Misra resulted in the murder of almost ten million Indians. He was not speaking about the 1876-1878 famine, where over ten million people died. At least five million died in the 1896-97 famine, of which Smith was not referring, as he was dead when all these horrors took place, all at the hands of the British Empire, it must be added.
Smith was very much a man of the 18th century. He was born in 1723 and died in 1790. When Smith talks about "the savage injustice of the Europeans", he is referring to something quite particular. The British Raj (rule) did not begin until 1858 and ended in 1947 when Adam Smith was dead. It is clear then he can not have been referring to the 1943 Bengali famine orchestrated by Churchill, where conservative estimates state seven million people died, nor was Smith referring to the Indian Mutiny of 1857, which according to the Indian historian, Amaresh Misra resulted in the murder of almost ten million Indians. He was not speaking about the 1876-1878 famine, where over ten million people died. At least five million died in the 1896-97 famine, of which Smith was not referring, as he was dead when all these horrors took place, all at the hands of the British Empire, it must be added.
Adam Smith, when he talked about "the savage injustice of the Europeans" was referring to the 1769-72 famine in India An excess of ten million people died in the most savage circumstances. Of course, it is clear he was referring to the British in what only can be described as a prolonged genocide. But Smith, for all his compassion for humanity and an opponent of savagery, is the darling of right wing lunatics, why is this, one enquiring mind ought to ask.
A few myths should be dispelled about Adam Smith. (1), he was not in favour of THE free market, rather, he was in favour of A free market bringing total "equality", "liberty" and "freedom". (2) For Adam Smith, one key principle is that individuals ought to be free. (3) He did not believe in the division of labour, being subjected to such things, destroys people, says Smith, but free market fundamentalists would have you believe otherwise. Smith, no doubt, would not be in favour of the free market. He believed in the opposite of this bedraggled capitalism. (4) Interestingly enough he labelled "the national interest" a total fraud, saying it was a delusion. (5) It was Adam Smith who said "principal architects" in his country (England), he was Scottish but no matter, were "merchants and manufacturers" who went on to say they used the state for their own interests.
Today Smith would be regarded as a dissident of sorts. Today "merchants and manufacturers" are multi-national businesses. It is far more serious than that, as people should recognise, as they are now integrated into the core fascist values of the modern "democratic" state, this fascism comes under the guise of public services. i.e corporate fascism. These so-called public services are being over-taken by profit-driven megalomaniacs, thus removing the "democratic" from communities and entire societies. If Adam Smith was alive today he would be regarded by the so-called right wing factions as a "lefty-loony".
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