We live in a post-ideological world and it's killing us. I can even see it in this very blog; responses on my many criticisms of capitalism often amount to general agreement, but always end up implying that capitalist democracy is "the best we can hope for". That's the same as saying catastrophe is unavoidable...
source: YouTube
Western consumerist society has been captured by a deadly form of apathy, best described in Mark Fisher's book "Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?":
"Capital is an abstract parasite, an insatiable vampire and zombie maker; but the living flesh it converts into dead labor is ours, and the zombies it makes are us." - Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism
In fact, the constant move towards the unconditional capitulation to capitalism's core values can be seen in the growing tendency towards political centrism; the political left and right agree on most subjects concerning the economy and foreign policy which are essential to capitalism's growth-fetish. The deep divide we now experience between the political wings are based in cultural differences, everything that's left when capitalism's core tenets are removed from the equation. The political debate, as well as modern culture, is defined by the absence of ideology. In the last American general elections, Biden represented a "return to normalcy" while both he and Trump were the personification of the kind of "business ontology" that's at the base of the capitalist realism described by Mark Fisher.
Accordingly, neoliberalism has sought to eliminate the very category of value in the ethical sense; over the past 30 years capitalist realism has successfully installed a "business ontology" in which it is simply obvious that everything in society, including healthcare and education, should be run as a business. - Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. The capitalist democracy that's the current definition of "the free world" is our invisible Devil. A fish isn't aware of the water it swims in, and we've lost sight of the fact that capitalism is an ideology, it has become the water we swim in. "Needless to say, what counts as "realistic", what seems possible at any point in the social field, is defined by a series of political determinations, an ideological position can never be really successful until it is naturalized, and it can not be naturalized while it's still thought of a value rather than a fact." That sentence precedes the above quote and describes our water. Especially younger generations, the ones who were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet empire, know no other reality than capitalist democracy.
Why It's So Hard To Imagine Life After Capitalism
But they're not stupid. They know that if this is the only possible reality, it's a horrific one. They see what it does to our world, how it acts, and makes us act as a cancer that's growing out of proportion, unable to be stopped. Agent Smith describes this perfectly in the film "The Matrix", when he shares a revelation he had about the human race with Morpheus:
I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and realized that you are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. And the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. You know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure. Agent Smith - The Matrix
Ideologically and materially it's interesting to ask how capitalism can keep expanding when it has no new territories to conquer. The answer is that it starts feeding on itself like the ancient symbol of the ouroboros. In this phenomenon we see capitalism's incredible flexibility and plasticity; it's able to incorporate its own failures into its public perception. Instead of recognizing the climate crisis as a direct result of capitalism's insatiable growth, it offers the solution within its own parameters by promoting "green" products and "socially responsible entrepreneurship". Instead of "whitewashing" we're now treated to an all-encompassing greenwashing of the economy. Capitalism blinds us to the truth that there's No Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism:
Under capitalism, there will always inherently be harm done; whether this consumption affects workers, consumers, or the environment, it is inevitable that there will be victims due to the cyclical nature of this greedy system. This greed is an incentive to sell the cheapest and quickest made products that more often than not result in pollution and unsafe workplaces.
source: Sunstroke Magazine
We feel the limits of capitalism's ability to expand to new territories in the way western workers are seeing their real wages diminish and how the "middle class" is slowly disappearing. So now we're treated to a vision of fatalist nihilism in our popular media. "The Matrix" is but one example of how real activism capitalism is replaced by corporate critique of capitalism. Mark Fisher uses the Disney animation "Wall-E" as an even more salient example. Capitalist realism is one of the greatest hurdles on our way to a post-capitalist world. It poses ridiculous questions like: are students the consumers of education or its products? The answer is that they're neither, and that the question is based on a false dichotomy dictated by a world-view that reduces everything to the one freedom that's left to us; free trade.
We need to shake this imposed world-view before it's too late and Reality Inc. goes bankrupt. I've often referenced Mark Fisher's book, but never shared it with you; linked below is the complete audio-book. I highly recommend you take a few hours to consume the wisdom therein.
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher - Audiobook Reading
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