- Micro Empires
- Posts
- Dharmacism: An answer to Capitalism & Communism?
Happy Friday friend!
There was an interesting question brought up today by David Spinks:
Are community and capitalism at odds?
Been thinking a lot about this question.
— David Spinks (@DavidSpinks)
Sep 16, 2022
This was my response:
@DavidSpinks Depends on which definition & stage of capitalism you're referring to.
If we go back to Adam Smith, he talked about the importance of morals and "common good" in his book, Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Marx coined capitalism as it's used today.
http
— George Siosi Samuels 🦾🐺 (@GeorgeSiosi)
Sep 16, 2022
I found this quite relevant to what I've been sharing about Chanakya this week, since, in later parts of the Arthashastra, he outlines more components of a holistic system that could potentially pick up where both capitalism and communism failed.
This system is defined as "Dharmacism" by blogger Anuurag Saxena.
Dharmacism
Since Hindu principles influence the Arthashastra, the Vedas identify eight different types of wealth (as opposed to the uni-dimensional type in capitalism):
Adi Lakshmi (Primary Wealth)
Dhana Lakshmi (Monetary Wealth)
Dhanya Lakshmi (Wealth of Grains)
Veera Lakshmi (Wealth of Courage)
Gaja Lakshmi (Wealth of Power & Presitge)
Santana Lakshmi (Wealth of Offspring)
Aishwarya Lakshmi (Wealth of Affluence)
Vijaya Lakshmi (Wealth of Victory)
Whether this translates well into modern times is to be debated - as the Arthashastra was only rediscovered in the early 1900s - but it does show the depth in which Chanakya went in order to outline a system for governing a kingdom (in modern times, a nation, business, or even future network state).
You can read more about Dharmacism here:
Subscribe to Premium Membership to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Premium Membership to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In