RandomGuy
10-05-2018, 12:54 PM
Liberals pretended to believe that capitalism would make everyone better off — everyone, everywhere, always, period. They still do — even while life expectancy falls in the two most capitalist countries of all, the US and UK — capitalism is a theology now, an an article of faith, not a principle subject to reason. So for liberals, capitalism came to replace all aspects, more or less, of previous thought — thinking about progress. What was the answer to the great question of freedom? Capitalism. What about the one of justice? Capitalism! And what about equality? Why, capitalism. It was a lobotomy, of a kind — but it was also the alpha and omega, the totem and the shrine. All this came to be called neoliberalism, of course, which in a way hides the point: capitalism as the answer to every single concern of human existence, from moral to political to social to of course economic, was how liberals of an age reconciled with conservatives.
Conservatives, on the other hand, pretended to believe that capitalism would create something like a hierarchy of virtue. They have always been primarily interested in power and control, superiority and inferiority, in some people being masters, and others being slaves — and so their end of the compromise was imagining that capitalism would allow hierarchy to operate. Only this hierarchy would be one of the truly virtuous — the most resolute, the most honest, the most courageous, the wisest: all these would be the winners of capitalism. Of course, such people were what were once called “noble”, too — and so conservatism’s compromise was that capitalism would preserve yesterday’s tribal hierarchies — men over women, white over black, strong over weak, moneyed over poor — only by another name. We’d call them corporations or hedge funds or law firms — but their function and purpose would be just the same as it ever was.
...
The lie that was capitalism, in truth, produced just the opposite of what it promised people. The prole never became a capitalist. The capitalist never became a civilized and democratic person. Everyone did not have a better life. Worst of all, the winners were not the noble and just. They were, and are, the indecent and obscene, the disgraceful and the predatory — the Trumps of the world. Hence, quite naturally, there are fewer and fewer people who believe in the foolish and childish lie of capitalism anymore. Now, once upon a time, before the great war, that would have been cause for rejoicing. “The glorious socialist revolution is here, now that capitalism is falling!!” cried the Marxist-Leninists. But they were wrong. The last time capitalism fell, it produced fascism, genocide, ruin, and world war, before it produced social democracy. And that is what is happening all over again, now too. Those who are falling, but expected to rise, are taking what they were told was rightfully theirs by force, because they cannot have it through consent.
Hence, as capitalism is revealed to be a lie, the temporary truce between liberals and conservatives is shattering with implosive force — and the same old war between them is breaking out. Because capitalism was the lie which was the common ground between them — liberals imagining a meritocratic utopia, conservatives imagining an aristocracy of the wise and true, both sides lost in their delusions — and now the lie has been revealed to be just that, how are these two sides to compromise now? The ground between them has fallen into the sea, and there they stand, on opposite continents, raising their fists at one another, in just the same old ways that they ever have.
https://eand.co/the-age-of-disintegration-e1dccabd69b2
Conservatives, on the other hand, pretended to believe that capitalism would create something like a hierarchy of virtue. They have always been primarily interested in power and control, superiority and inferiority, in some people being masters, and others being slaves — and so their end of the compromise was imagining that capitalism would allow hierarchy to operate. Only this hierarchy would be one of the truly virtuous — the most resolute, the most honest, the most courageous, the wisest: all these would be the winners of capitalism. Of course, such people were what were once called “noble”, too — and so conservatism’s compromise was that capitalism would preserve yesterday’s tribal hierarchies — men over women, white over black, strong over weak, moneyed over poor — only by another name. We’d call them corporations or hedge funds or law firms — but their function and purpose would be just the same as it ever was.
...
The lie that was capitalism, in truth, produced just the opposite of what it promised people. The prole never became a capitalist. The capitalist never became a civilized and democratic person. Everyone did not have a better life. Worst of all, the winners were not the noble and just. They were, and are, the indecent and obscene, the disgraceful and the predatory — the Trumps of the world. Hence, quite naturally, there are fewer and fewer people who believe in the foolish and childish lie of capitalism anymore. Now, once upon a time, before the great war, that would have been cause for rejoicing. “The glorious socialist revolution is here, now that capitalism is falling!!” cried the Marxist-Leninists. But they were wrong. The last time capitalism fell, it produced fascism, genocide, ruin, and world war, before it produced social democracy. And that is what is happening all over again, now too. Those who are falling, but expected to rise, are taking what they were told was rightfully theirs by force, because they cannot have it through consent.
Hence, as capitalism is revealed to be a lie, the temporary truce between liberals and conservatives is shattering with implosive force — and the same old war between them is breaking out. Because capitalism was the lie which was the common ground between them — liberals imagining a meritocratic utopia, conservatives imagining an aristocracy of the wise and true, both sides lost in their delusions — and now the lie has been revealed to be just that, how are these two sides to compromise now? The ground between them has fallen into the sea, and there they stand, on opposite continents, raising their fists at one another, in just the same old ways that they ever have.
https://eand.co/the-age-of-disintegration-e1dccabd69b2