>>8
I support all 3, capitalism, utilitarianism and rationalism. Perhaps these isms have been abused, as so many other isms have, but to a far less extent than others. They are definitely more effective at making someone act logically and ethically than for instance communism, which like utilitarianism attempts to look at society and scientifically determine how to improve it, but is simply far less effective due to logical fallacies and appeals to emotion.
So let's look at these briefly, I don't want to write much more than you have written in your post.
Capitalism
Capitalism has been turned into an ideology by some, however most people turn to capitalism out of necessity. Capitalism is the general absence of arbitrary government coercion in private economic affairs, one need only abide by safety regulations and laws intended to safeguard justice and order in order to import tires from Mexico for instance. Ideological capitalism is a moot minority, I'm talking about this necessary capitalism.
Money is spent by people who care about beautiful trees, caring for their family, learning and exploring. When a community votes to set up a park the capitalist price mechanism helps them decide where it should be best placed. Knocking down multi-billion dollar real estate to set up a park doesn't benefit society overall, those locations are central and the offices, businesses and shops will have to move somewhere else, spreading out all over the city making average travel distances larger increasing traffic. You build a park in a residential area, on cheap land that isn't being used for anything else. In this way capitalism is beneficial to society, even goody two-shoes hippy free love "collective" decision making processes.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism isn't all that popular, few even know what it means. I've certainly never heard a famous politician or pundit use it, apart from John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, maybe some philosophers commented on it offhand, apparently Ayn Rand didn't like it.
people kill other people so that people may have a better life
People can even make a profit without exploiting people, but people then have to use their brains
I think this was in reference to utilitarianism. You are right, we shouldn't listen to the demagogues who keep demanding we bomb all our problems away and look for alternatives, however that isn't always the case. If a hostage taker is about to kill hostages and you are a sniper about to take the shot, how can you possible avoid this situation? There is only a 5% chance of successfully shooting the knife out of his hand. You can't go back in time an improve socio-economic conditions so the hostage taker doesn't descend into a life of crime, even if you did statistically some people will always slip through the net, no one is omnipotent and can perfectly govern everything.
So this really boils down to being rational, doing your best to avoid violence and corruption but being prepared to reach for the pitchfork if shit does go down. Talk softly and carry a big stick.
Rationalism
I hear a lot of "post-modernists" say how much they hate rationalism. The only thing that's really wrong with rationalism are the mistakes used by people who use it, who then go on to proclaim they are absolutely right because they are the purveyors of reason. I have a special disliking for pseudo-intellectuals and argument from authority logical fallacies. I think it was either Einstein or Rutherford who said "if you can't explain it to your grandmother, you don't understand it yourself". All geniuses through history had a knack for putting things in layman's terms, all charlatans through history have claimed that their expertise is not accessible to the average person.
Apart from this though, I support rationalism, as long as you are rational enough to understand how irrational you are. In face Socrates said "I know that I know nothing".