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where does this idea come from that left to itself, capitalist market relations are rational, are ethical (on utilitarian grounds)?
it certainly doesn't come from the history of actually existing capitalism *anywhere.*
it has no relation to a description of present reality--certain not of the world that neoliberalism (the premises of which are simply being repeated in this bizarre little profession of faith thread) has made in the southern hemisphere---certainly not of the united states' socio-economic system, which is in fact a pretty intricate system of intertwined state and market functions---any market is an intertwining of state and non-state if you think about it, at least in the modern context--capitalism and the modern state are twins, they developed as an ensemble, they are of a piece one with the other.
most of the folk above seem to imagine capitalism as natural phenomenon which exists in some pure state in principle outside the pages of 18th century political economy books and which has been progressively sullied by the influene of the state---that is a delusion,
a type of platonic delusion no less--because you have the noun "capitalism" there must be some eternal form "capitalism" and because the world as we know it is subordinated to the world of forms, "capitalism" must exist---well, folks, this "pure capitalism" you speak of is a fantasy. it does not, has not and will never exist. it is far more utopian than whatever you imagine marx's vision of communism because whatever you imagine that to be at least it was defined as something human beings actually would make, so as something that would arise through a particular history---"pure capitalism" has no material history apart from the material histories of the books that elaborate it, a genre of fiction writing.
more hilarious still, folk use this fiction "pure capitalism" to rationalize many of the uglier effects of the existing order: so there are "winners and losers" and so those who benefit from the system deserve to and so those who are excluded deserve it and so no-one has to think too much about anything. what is is natural and is normal, whatever it is.
this is the reactionary american gospel according to neoliberalism.
bless me capitalism for i have sinned. i have wondered whether the consequences of the system are necessary. please forgive me.
in the reactionary little world of the united states, it seems that a socio-economic order that created indoor plumbing and mass electrification cannot and should not be able to address its more complicated social irrationalities. so this fiction "capitalism" is on the one hand the natural order of things, and on the other is too weak to adjust itself;
it is a system which has generated some lovely things, but it is too narrow to be made to address its human and environmental side effects.
it disempowers all but the holders of capitalism, but is so fragile that it is not permissable to even wonder if that disempowerment is a LIMITATION and not a natural outcome, the result of a natural hierarchy. so in the reactionary little world of america, the prevailing move is to imagine yourself amongst the holders of capital regardless of your actual system.
perhaps this is the political consequence of a consumer culture--this is the dominant fantasy that mediates relations to the world--focus on the dance of objects within the system, don't worry a whole lot about how they're made, how they got into this dance of objects, who owns the means of production, who controls the theater in which the dancing of commodities occurs---just sit in your fucking chair and think "the world would be just dandy if i could own all these things" and to own all these things you need capital and so and so and so.
in the reactionary little world of america, we are apparently told to see capitalism as the image of america itself" extremely powerful in principle, shot through with irrationalities in fact, dynamic in principle, afraid to look at itself in fact; all-powerful and abject in the way fading empires are.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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