Nicholas Wolterstorff skizziert seine (soziologische) Sicht des Kapitalismus (in: Educating for Shalom. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids 2004). Er sieht das rasante Anwachsen von Vertragsbeziehungen:
A prominent feature of the spread of capitalism into new sectors of society is that more and more things are put on the market, with the result that the presence of contractual relations among human beings is increased enormously, and the loyalty, and expectations of loyalty, to persons and institutions characteristic of traditional societies is destroyed. (Pos 1456-1458)
Auf der individuellen Ebene bedeutet es, die soziale Rolle zu wählen, die am ehesten zu den privaten Zielen past:
(C)hoosing a social role is understood less and less as taking onto oneself a specific range of duties and disciplines and more and more as choosing a way of acting that promises to satisfy one’s private goals. (Pos 1463-1465)
Die daraus entstehende Arbeitsmentalität lässt die menschliche Natur unbefriedigt:
(T)he regimented, bureaucratized, differentiated, competitive character of work in a capitalist economy leaves fundamental sides of a person’s nature unsatisfied and unfulfilled. (Pos 1470-1472)
Die Mentaliät überträgt sich auch auf die Religion.
(R)eligious groups see themselves as working in a marketplace, competing for clients. It has meant that religious persons, confronted with alternatives to their own religious convictions, feel it necessary to explain and justify themselves, or turn in the direction of subjectivism. (Pos 1485-1486)
Was füllt das Vakuum?
In such a world, nationalism, patriotism, and statism stand ready to fill the hollowed-out void within our social existence. (Pos 1498-1499).
