THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF CAPITALISM AND CHRISTIANITY

One of the dangers of capitalism is that it teaches people that deception is a virtue. Does wealth equal virtue? What is the value of a person without money? How can we trust each other if we have been taught that deception is a virtue? People have two faces today, the one they greet you with, and the one they slander you with behind your back. I refuse to be like this; we should all refuse to be like this.

 "The 'danger' of capitalism can be best expressed in what it intends to do in its own words: a commodification of human relations." 

I agree. But how does the capitalist surmount this objection? Unless of course, he would argue that the commodification of people is a good thing? [I was also thinking... we are all on the same team when it comes to being thinkers. There are lots of people in the world who do not like, nor understand, people like us. In their mind we sound funny when we speak, because of this we have to stick together. There are many violent anti-intellectuals in the world.]

"Classically speaking, the capitalist will resort to the Smithsonian that we're simply better off treating each other as objects for purposes of market efficiency--ie that's the only way the invisible hand will work. To defeat this argument (which isn't hard)..."

 "(which isn't hard)." --I think this premise is true regarding the epistemology of capitalism in general. Which brings us to a far more important point: It is an empirical fact that we can refute the claims of capitalism, and yet the ideology persists. I believe this is because 1) people adopt their belief through a structure of authority and 2) the values of capitalism are authoritarian values. Just like Christianity, it has nothing to do with the rational or empirical integrity of the belief... because it's an ideology! (It cannot even be rescued through a pragmatic scale of value). It is merely an authoritarian structure one uses to control the population. 

[pause, anticipates objection] Fine. very well, let us suppose that all structures are authoritarian structures, it matters not, because not all structures are equivalent! The false narrative, which says "capitalism is the only way to order a society," is another unchallenged, artificial premise.* As if to say, "following Jesus is what it means to be moral." When it comes to ideology, Capitalism and Christianity are the same. Both are moral confusions, nothing less and nothing more. 

We have here articulated, with great precision, the ontological status of Capitalism and Christianity. They are, in fact, moral confusions.

Notes:

*What do I mean by this term, artificial premise? I am referring to a proposition or proclamation about reality that cannot be deduced from existence. A premise is artificial when it tries to make a claim to knowledge, to tell us something about the world, and yet it is an abstraction that stands above the world.