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Capitalist Realism

We live in a contradiction, a brutal state of affairs, profoundly inegalitarian – where all existence is evaluated in terms of money alone – is presented to us as ideal.
To justify their conservatism, the partisans of the established order cannot really call it ideal or wonderful. So instead, they have decided to say that all the rest is horrible.
Sure, they say, we may not live in a condition of perfect Goodness. But we’re lucky that we don’t live in a condition of Evil.
Our democracy is not perfect. But it’s better than the bloody dictatorships. Capitalism is unjust. But it’s not criminal like Stalinism. We let millions of Africans die of AIDS, but we don’t make racist nationalist declarations like Milosevic. We kill Iraqis with our airplanes, but we don’t cut their throats with machetes like they do in Rwanda, etc..

- Alain Badiou

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DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

Many, not just capitalist's, often say that this is the best system in the world. And they are somewhat right in the fact there is nothing better.

My problem is it's like comparing apples to oranges. They are both fruit.

If any were to put a scale from 0 being worse and 100 the best on the inequalities of systems, a no system being zero, then capitalism would be a five and all the others less than that.

We can do far, far better. Yet the minority will always be at the controlling top.

And that is sad. 😞

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DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

@Eternity that's a different problem. Not saying it doesn't badly need to be resolved. Yet ancient Greece simply couldn't defend itself. So Rome took it over bit by little bit just like Russia (a so called republic) is doing now.

Eternity · 26-30, M

@DeWayfarer i see your point. I do. But a well defended place that no one inside is glad to be within is usually called a prison.

The USA could stand to take many, many leaves out of book of the netherlands.

Especially since we have the benefit of distance just like they do.

DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

@Eternity I'm listening
to president Zelensky right now addressing a presidential press conference. I suggest you listen as well, he just address this very issue.

redredred · M

We don’t live in a democracy. We never have. Virtually no one does anywhere on earth.

We live in a republic. We are not equal in any sense other than under the law. I’m tall, others are short. I’m slender, others are fat. I have skills and talents others don’t have or have to a greater degree than I do.

Deal with it.

One persons wealth did not come at your expense. The rich don’t make you poor any more than the tall make you short.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

You make the common and easy to fall into mistake of interchanging political systems with economic systems. Capitalism is an economic development model. It has nothing directly to do with how a nation is governed.. 😷

RebelliousSpirit · F

@whowasthatmaskedman It's no mistake. Economic systems and political systems are intertwined. That said I am not equating political systems with economic systems but Capitalism, just like any other economic system is a big part of a society therefore it heavily influences the people in power and the way a country is governed.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@RebelliousSpirit They do tend to run together.. But using a name doesnt make it so. "Communism" doesnt exist outside of some small hippy communes these days. And Capitalism is a perverted form of Adam Smiths Free market.😷

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

Democracy was canned by powerful capitalist men, and the population hasn't rejected their rule.
Inequality is the political choice of the USA.

RebelliousSpirit · F

@Roundandroundwego I somewhat agree but since the system works to keep people down, poor and uneducated it's not upheld entirely by choice.

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

@RebelliousSpirit true.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

Mark Fisher has a book that has the same title as your post.

If you have a thing for pessimistic, British Marxists (guilty) then I recommend it,

Graylight · 51-55, F

All true, but then how desperately sad that we’re taking the best we’ve found and are trying to stamp it out.

RebelliousSpirit · F

@Graylight We have to keep improving and evolving always trying to do better. People are just too afraid to envision what could lie beyond Capitalism.

Graylight · 51-55, F

@RebelliousSpirit Well, that’s always been the nature of man, hasn’t it? There are those who cross the next mountain just to see what’s on the other side and there are those comfortable with the view from their front porch. Neither is right, neither is wrong.

fakable · T

somewhere sweet, delicious pomegranates grow, and somewhere they don't.

it's divine.

LordShadowfire · M

Saying the US has the best economic system in the world is a little like saying salmonella is the best kind of food poisoning to get.

@LordShadowfire I’ll take it

redredred · M

@LordShadowfire The market economy of the American experience has made you effectively wealthier than Louis XIV. The last three hundred years if growth, invention and wealth creation has benefitted the entire world and it is all due to capitalism.

LordShadowfire · M

@redredred Yeah, okay, whatever, kid.

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