THE ONTOLOGY OF CAPITALISM- Jersey Flight

"Social theory should motivate your economic system not the economic system motivate your social theory."*

This, as a starting point, is both profound and realistic. If the premise is accepted it destroys the objections of the capitalist, precisely because his objections to socialism are entirely economic. He can no longer complain about the "evil deficits" produced by social action. Instead, this premise allows us to all-the-more-clearly see the defects in capitalism. Surely the needs of life ought to dictate our economics, as opposed to our economics dictating our needs... indeed, it would seem the latter is a physical impossibility. 

But what more can we learn from this? The problem of capitalism is not a problem of refutation; it is not a problem of formalism, but a problem of practice. Capitalism is the system of the world. The theoretical death of capitalism took place long ago, but why did this death not kill capitalism? The answer is because capitalism works, but this answer is also deceptive because capitalism doesn't work.

How can capitalism be function and non-function at the same time?

Capitalism works on a level of immediacy, which is to say, it has intervals of success. These intervals are akin to cycles, and these cycles swing back and forth between production and chaos. Long has man known that capitalism is a system of crisis; crisis is the ethos of capitalism; crisis is the ontology of capitalism. 

Man has a short memory (which is the reason why capitalism is allowed to repeatedly fail). Man has problems with calculation; we struggle to predict the future; we are incompetent when it comes to learning our lesson. Life is short, which is another reason for the success of capitalism. But if we speak in terms of longevity, if we are more objective in our evaluation of history, capitalism is like Aristotelian logic contrasted with dialectics (this analogy will require the reader to have some knowledge on the subject of dialectics). 

The immediate impression of the thing, the immediate effect of the thing, is the essence of capitalism:

Socrates is happy eating sweet bread, never mind the fact that such a diet will rot his teeth and lead to the overall deterioration of his health. 

Under capitalism life is doomed, but let the earth recover herself!
 
If the theoretical death of capitalism is certain; if this event took place long ago, then why are we still haunted by the corpse of capitalism?

It must be true that man is greedy, and to appeal to this attribute (in the sense of possibility) ensures the system by which his greed may be realized. Man doesn't want a system that's fair; he wants a system that allows him to accumulate as much as he possibly can. For thousands of years man has have lived in poverty, the overabundance of capitalism gave him ideological security against the forces of nature. The fact that man can win abundance is psychological motivation to endure his poverty.  

But in all truth if man could achieve unity, he could even surpass a system of fairness, man could literally create a system of universal leisure. Man could break free from the chains of nature; he could finally become the great Creator that he is. But does not wisdom tell us that unity is utopia, an idea confined to the world of hope and imagination?

When the drunkard finishes his bottle he throws it in the street.

It's simply not enough to expose the errors of capitalism; it's not enough to show the terrors of capitalism, in this sense, knowledge is not enough to transcend capitalism. We know that capitalism is an unjust and ludicrous system. (I long for the day when men look back and wonder at the stupidity of capitalist society): that individuals were allowed to hoard unlimited sums of wealth... this can only happen in a society that is not conscious of the very thing it claims to be! The science of society literally contradicts the existence of capitalism: the two cannot co-exist. And yet man may never learn this... perhaps we will eradicate ourselves in the name of capitalism. But even if man never knows this on a grand scale, let it be known as the wisdom of a higher order.

If man will prolong himself; if he will continue to transcend then he must learn to recognize and negate his stupidity (society requires a consciousness of what society is). 

The reason capitalism is still with us is because we are primitive.  


*Damien AtHope in conversation with J.F.

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