Chaotic capitalism

All that is produced must ultimately be consumed/destroyed. This takes time, because production goes through multiple stages and some of the final products have long lives. But, with the possible exception of “art” that is only looked at, things that are made are destined to be used up. This prosaic reality is contrary to the ethics of capitalism, which considers accumulation to be the highest virtue. More land, professed the early conquerors, more gold, echoed the merchants, more machines, preached the industrialists, more liquidity, assert the bankers. More stuff that lasts and can be added to the pile.

The passion for accumulation is sometimes comforted, sometimes ridiculed, but the urge never wavers for long. Bubbles inflate and burst, crowds are fleeced, poverty persists and the glittering circus sets off for a new adventure. Private property of the means of production presents itself as both progressive (get rich!) and conservative (work and save!), rags to riches and life insurance, the best of possible worlds and TINA. This ideological myth built up new momentum in the 1980s, swept the planet in the 1990s and peaked around the new millennium. The last decade of the last century was a jaunty rush, partly fuelled by alcohol and cocaine. Billionaires were springing up all over the place, by presidential decrees in Russia, by mass hard labour in China and by financial poker in the US/EU. The dotcom crash in March 2000 dampened spirits, but the post-9/11 warmongering conveniently brought a renewed high, a new cycle of war and a revitalised hubris with its accompanying discourse. This was followed by the subprime and derivatives explosion, a credit crunch, a liquidity hole and the banking bailout. Since 2008 the system has been in panic mode, frantically printing money and ruthlessly eliminating resistance. Governments are doing their utmost to preserve the wealth of the obscenely rich. They are just doing what they are paid for, but the fantasy of governing for the people has seldom been so transparent. And when regimes lose the power of words they have recourse to force against their subjects, against ethnic and social minorities at home (never the 0.01% of course), and against any rebellion abroad.

As the brave new world of liberal capitalism falls apart, the dark horsemen raise their ugly heads and ride out. A modified atmosphere and oceans full of trash, a tottering financial structure, a decomposing monetary system, a multiplication of insurgent foci, yesterday’s certainties are no more and they leave a vacuum that draws in dangerous irrationalities. The New World Order is disorder, chaos and anarchy. This is the nature of capital in private hands, of “free” markets, of (big) dog eat (small) dog. When rulers shed the mantle of social concern, when the apex of society lives above the clouds like Olympian gods, the propaganda machines can no longer hide what is happening. They can only distract and intoxicate with celebrity, corn syrup and fear. Surrounded by servants, admirers and political lap-dogs, private capitalism has no contact with the world of people and has no future prospect other than grasping the next billion or trillion and making weapons to protect them. Will civilised society reject this nihilistic attitude, or is it too submissive to react and must be drawn down into the pit of savagery once again? The alternatives are more for a few or better for all, but the few hold the gun.