💾 Archived View for comatoast.duckdns.org › OnSelfInterestandEconomy.gmi captured on 2022-01-08 at 13:37:49. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-17)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
DRAFT:
On Self interest and the economy.
By Comatoast
Circa December 2021
Forward:
I would like to thank the community of leftypol for showing me that you don't have to be on the left and conform to the liberal dogma that has infested it and for giving me many years of fun and laughter and allowing me the privlege of serving them.
I would like to thank leftychan.net for existing inspite of mainstreme political though not being ready to accept the role of the individual as part of history and for all the great work we do as a team.
This book will be dedicated to my late mother and for every working person who struggles to survive in the modern world.
A better world is possible.
Introduction:
I guess I am going to throw caution to the wind and just start writing my own book.
College, Rationality, and Forethought be damned!
I think page/article/book, what have you, I will be out lining, in my opinion the arguments to be had against the notion that Capitalism is at all in the interest of the individual, or, at all in the interest of the collective society that the individual lives under.
Surely this will not be of any suprise to people like me, or, to the more economically innitiated ike those of us on the left, but, it deff might come as a shock to your average college student who just graduated their freshmen semester at college on what as been labeled, so called, "economics" in the modern era.
In this writing I will attempt to dispell these myths that capitalism is at all in favor of individual wellbeing and, infact, I will attempt to demostrate to opposite.
Chapter 1: The self made man
People and workers who exist today love to think of themselves as a type of self made, rugged, individual who is pulling himself up by his bootstraps and putting his "best foot forward" and going out and making a living. Americans have been inoculated into the belief that their servetude and toil is in their own interests. That suffering for 6 - 8 - 12 even - 14 hours a day is some how "just the way it is" and "just the way it has to be" after all, as we are all told, "You just have to work to survive in this world" Undoubtely, that is true. Work does, indeed, need to get done at some point in order for our society to hold itself together. What confuses me is that they some how have never once entertained the idea that the amount of labor we preform in modern day society is some how at all neccesary or required in any way. They believe that this brutality, this barbarism of grinding yourself into dust is in their self interst. Nonsense. In a rational system that actually made sense, to echo kropotkin, Workers, especially in modern capitalism, do not need to work 12 or - 14 hours a day. Most work could be done by many different people dividing the hours worked between them. You could have 4 people work 4 three hour shifts rather than having 1 person work 1 12 hour shift and have many different people working on the same production line, or, in the same industry, or, service rather than one. This not only saves individuals time in their daily lives and frees us from the choir of manual labor, but, it also opens up the economy economically so that now more people actually have more oppertunities to work and produce for society and make themselves useful for society!
However, under capitalism the exact opposite appears to be true. Under the system of capitalism. (And I know from experience) One individual man (or woman) is required to preform the same, boring, mind numbing and reptative tasks over and over again. Not only, simply put, is this not in the interest of the individual in any way shape or form, but, it is completely backwards to what would be benificial for the individual labor wise. Domestic Abuse, Addiction, Suicide, depression, many of these social ills can be linked to the extrodinary ammount of time people find themselves forced to exist under the heel of authority and cramed like sardiens next to to their co workers. The angery drunkard rages out at his spouse in a drunken fit of rage due to the decades and years of internalized abuse faced at the hands of their masters. Yes, I say masters.
For anyone to call this relationship in anyway "self interested" is such nonsense that it beggs for a refutation. Only to the most irrational and unthinking of people can such a relationship be considered benifitial. Much in the same way the house negros of old justified slavery through the above average living coniditons of their time so does the modern worker justify his servitude through such logic. Logic we will look at now...
Chapter 2: The justification of servitude by the modern working class.
In the modern work place there always exists a type of sycophant. A begger, a brown noser, a suck up. Sone always looking to get ahead of others by any means neccesary. Sociopathic and willing to to do anything to get ahead (even if a few people have to loose their lively hoods in the process) These type of people have a specific personality type. Not only is their personality type specifically crafted by the external world around them to self justify itself to them *and thus to their peers) but, futhermore, it is an ideology. This ideology has been out lined prior through notions like capitalist realism. A concept crafted by the late Mark Fisher. One issue that I feel must be brought up is how capitalism re-enforces itself in the ideology of its underlings. These people must constantly justify their actions to themselves. To me, killing a man is wrong and I would say that most people with a good ethical compas would agree. But, under the system of capitalism. Killing is wrong, but, the economic system of profits cares little for wrong or right. Profits simply care about profits and the accumulation of capital.
Under the current system all human activity is thrown under the will of the accumulation of capital. Human ethics, human emotion, and human value itself becomes little more than the play thing of invisible forces driven by the fluxtuations of bipolar numbers bouncing up and down. Sorry Ms Jones, looks like you will simply have to rough it out on the street this winter. The company is under going some cuts to excess spending and we simply can't afford to keep you on any more.
"But wait!" I can hear the objections already: The current modern system of capitalism accounts for these things through things like government assistance and unemployment.
This is simply a facade. The modern system of capitalism requires that to recieve un employment the average worker must work for 6 -7 even 8 months at an employer. On average the current job lasts about 6 months. Barely enough to make it to the unemployment margine. It's no coincidence; These CEO's have set up their industries in such a way as to account for these things and they keep the reserve army of labor ready to replace these people and who is left out on the short end of this deal? The individual of course.
I digress...The point I am making here is that the individual under capitalism knows these things. They see and contribute to in their daily lives the revolutionary continum of this economic motion and thus, in order to stay relevent to their own ethical compass they must make excuses to themselves and to others. "That's simply the way things are," "It's the best possible system we have," "At least we aren't like X third world country!" These people understand the world is fucked up, but, the system of capitalism has crafted this narrative and fine tuned it for these people through historical revisonism and the manufacture of consent such as that which Pro. Chomsky has touched on in his book "The manufacture of consent."
Which brings us to our next point....
Chapter 3:
How the system of capitalsm has historically crafted it's narrative and omited history.
Looking back to the turn of the industrial revoution; Marx was born May 5th 1818 and Died the 14th of March 1883. In his siminal work, Das Kapital, Marx explains the inner workings of capitalism. From the production and distribution of commodities down to their influence on the greater economy and everything in betwee. His, arguably, most well known text: The communist manifesto outlines a clear and precise path to victory for the industrial prolotariate of his time. Marx and his contemporaries lived under the hight of industrial society. They fought and lived and died for many of the ammenities and rights we have today as workers. Rights that have been eroded and taken away from us over the course of the last 120 years. Marx was an intellegent man. He understand the complex nuances that surrounded the working man of the industiral period. Marx was not a determinist, but, Marx believed fully that the prolotariate of his time would be able and willing to rise to the task of history and take control of it in their own hands.
Unfortinantly for us, the history of the prolotariate is not one of socialism, rather, we appear to have entered into a period of great barbarism. Capital has revolutionized itself in the form of financial accests being traded betwix one another ad-infinitum. Modern day capitalism has firmly won out in the developed world (for now) The history of the soviet union and The united states is, if anything, undoubtibly one of hostility. Even in periods of mutual alliance both countires were quick to rejoin their propaganda efforts against one another. The US being the clear enemy to any one educated in historical fact.
That being said, the system of capitalism manifests itself in many ways as I previously touched on in chapter 2. Ideologically it must manifest itself in a self justifying manner. Like a snake eating its own tail. It is both alpha and omega. Niether beigining nore end. As such, the ideology of capitalism is treated the same way. Modern education serves to turn a young child full of wonder and whimsy into a slave. A slave for the production of capital. At an early age the inviduality of the child is stripped awy. Slowly, but, surely, they are forced to conform. "Get good greads or you will have a hard life" Sound familiar? Children must be tought from an early age the consiquences for out of the box thinking. For dreaming to big, for disering to much. You are expected to grow into servitude and the modern education system handles this with great acquity.
For those individualistic and intellegent thinkers, those rebels, those whome embody the true spirit of revolution, they learn the hard way. Through poverty, homelessness, addiction, starvation, and all sorts of ill treatment. The individual at every level is thought to conform on an "or else" basis. Taught to sell their soul away. Their time. Their literal lives all in the persuit of the all mighty and omnipotent profit motive.
There is no possbility of a better world in the eyes of the capitalist hegemony. Any such notion is beaten out of the individual, molded by the state and its education system and solidified by the harsh nature of reality. The USSR as children are taught was/is an evil dictatorship. And we god fearing Americans should be lucky to live in this, so called, free and open enviroment. I will touch on the history of the USSR in a later chapter, but, the point being, from an early age the individual, the child, is conditioned to accept their servitude. Conditioned to accept their place and conditioned to not even hold the possibility in their mind that a better world MIGHT at all be possible. To the individual under capitalism and its systems of power this is the only world that there is and ever can possbility be.
Chapter 4: Identity Politics, Conspiracy theories and Class politics
Modern Class politics often tend to get push to the edges of political discussion in the united states. As was discussed in the privious chapter there is a system of self censorship and an ideology of what is allowed to be discussed at the higher levels of society that is forced onto the people and those thoughts thus manifest themselves as ideology in the modern world.
In contrast there exists other levels of self enforcment of the capitalist hegemony on the individual. These types of non sequiturs, let's say, exist and arise through the financialization of capital into a homogenous monstrosity. From the industrial revolution capitalism has all but replaced the factories of yesterday. Most jobs that now exist in the country (The united states) exist as service industry jobs. A lack of productive forces and a generation of capital leaves capital bare. No long is utility created for purchase, rather, ideas and signals become the modern way that people attest value in the market.
As such, you have conceps the conspiracy theories arise. Conspiracy theories act as a type of non sequitur for curious minds who could or would otherwise discover and investigate the system of capitalism. PPeople know something is wrong. Conspiracy theories act as a saftey net (one of many) to guide people away from revolutionary ideologies and concepts of the last century.
Section 1. Alex Jones
Alexander Emerick Jones was born on Feburary 11, 1974.
He is the founder of Infowars and the Genesis Communications Network which funds hundreds of fake news outlits and conspiracy platforms. Alex jones rose to prominance after the 9/11 attacks, but, had existed far before that. He used the 9/11 attacks and the patriot act (an obstensively unethical piece of legislation passed by the bush administration) to launch his political career. He is probably most well known for his FUD spreading about the sandyhook attacks and his denial of their existence (actions his has now back peddled on)
Alex Jones and the conspiracy theory ideology as a whole exist as a means to funnel revolutionary potential back into the system of capitalism. Look at the types of people that are involved in these types of social networks. These are people who truly believe and understand that the system is messed up, but, o course, in order to see a systemic issue with capitalism and understand that as an economic issue wouldbe going against everything that these people have ever known. All humans exert bias. These people ar eno different. So, either conciously or unconciously these people end up following these conspiracy theories in order to act on the system in some way with out actually acting upon the system in any punative way that can bring about true or real change.
Fruthermore, these conspiracies are commodities that are sold and produced for the consumermind set.
Many people like the flat earthers make it their own identity. It becomes part of them. In this way conspiracy theories alleviate the stress of living under the modern economic system of capitalism.
Section 2. Identity politcs
People do not believe that Identity politics and Conspiracy theories may have much in common but nothing could be further from the truth. Much in the same way that Cosnpiracy theories play on right leaning tendencies; Trump voters, Republicans, Conservative Evangelicals, etc etc. Identity politics are used as a bludgeon to beat down class decent from the left and to, again, funnel revolutionary sentiment and potential back into the system of capitalism. Endless Marches and parades all wrapped up and sold back to a hoard of mindless consumers who view liberation and political power not as power to be taken, but, as the ability to consume and purchase commodities.