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CHAPTER 8 Supplementary Notes on the Overturning of Capitalism
The overturning of Capitalism is only a matter of time. An inquiry into the whatness, howness, and whyness of this primordial matter is beyond the scope of this book. I will deal with it at another time. Meanwhile, I offer these notes. The Characterization of Capitalism The philosophical idea of Capitalism is defective. Its darkness and emptiness are manifest everywhere in history. This fact can be understood from the following threefold characterization:
The Basic Problematic of Capitalism Most people do not know what Capitalism is really all about. They are dazzled and overwhelmed by the false and deceptive buzz, glitter, sophistry, propaganda, and pleasures of the marketplace. They do not know that Capitalist Being is indentured servitude pure and simple. It is therefore central to Capitalism to hide the problem of being and the problem of freedom--the problem of human existence3 under Capitalism.
The Foundations and Principles of Capitalism What are the foundations of Capitalism? What conditions guarantee its possibility? These questions can be answered from and through an understanding of the principles of Capitalism. But what are these principles? There are four fundamental principles of Capitalism:
The Priesthood of Capitalism The concretion of dominion is possible only through a veiled priesthood--the essential infrastructure and administrative machinery of Capitalism. The priesthood performs three functions:
The Overturning and Dismantling of Capitalism The overturning and dismantling of Capitalism is possible only from and out of a genuine understanding of its archaic roots and Empirical-Utilitarian-Darwinistic grounds. The biophilosophical foundations of Capitalism and the progression of especially the Anglo-American rule of law are crudely depicted in Plate 8-1. The Plate illustrates how Darwinism provided Capitalists with fraudulent scientific legitimacy for Animalism in the marketplace. More importantly, it explains why the benefits of the Enlightenment were mostly plundered as technology and through technology by Darwinistic Capital.
The "dictatorship of money"19 in Western Democracies cannot endure. In The Decline of the West, Spengler wrote "[m]oney is overthrown and abolished by blood."20 This assertion would shortly be followed by World War II. Does this mean that World War III is around the corner? Not if Capitalism is surpassed. The dismantling of the British Empire--from Hong Kong to Palestine to Ireland to Qu--bec--may presage a new beginning. But what if rapacious global "dictatorship of money" replaced Empire? Then what would people do? Would they despair of their economic nothingness or would they entangle Capitalism everywhere with double runs on banks and on the justice system? Would they accept global subjection through economic bondage or would they declare World War III on the Money Trust? Capitalism can be surpassed. The horizons of Capitalism can be opened and expanded. Heidegger argued that "[b]eing-free . . . is understanding oneself out of possibility."21 Therefore, to attain the highest wealth and the highest freedom for all, the possibilities and choices of Being must be multiplied and diversified. Unfortunately, this is not about to happen. Without the pure will to power of all the electorate, legislation will not change radically.22-23 Net advantages will continue to be bioselectively restricted. Capitalism will remain grounded in Being-by-bondage. Access to justice and advantages--to education, equity capital, loans, science and technology, markets, protection from deception, fraud and coercion--will continue to be limited to "upperdogs."24 Hundreds of millions of indentured citizens will continue to abdicate Liberty for "television and hamburgers."25 And then what? Then, the unthinkable happens . . . |
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| 1 On the Being of beings,
see Martin Heidegger (1978), The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic, translated by
Michael Heim, 1984. 2 On Aristotle's characterization of philosophy and on the basic question of man, see Heidegger, ibid., at 9-14 and 15-18.3 On the problem of human existence, see Heidegger, ibid., at 18-21.4 The notion of justice as the "supreme representative of life itself" is due to Nietzsche. The essence of justice as "advantage . . . allotted to someone in a distribution, before the actual dividing takes place" is Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche's insight. See Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, Vol. III: The Will to Power as Knowledge and as Metaphysics, translated by Joan Stambaugh, David Farrell Krell, Frank A. Capuzzi, edited, with Notes and Analysis, by David Farrell Krell, at 137-149 (Truth as Justice), especially 145 and 148.5 On "race-quality" and on "the conflict between money and blood," see Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, An Abridged Edition by Helmut Werner, with a new Introduction by H. Stuart Hughes, 1991, at 409-415, especially 414; the English Abridged Edition was prepared by Arthur Helps, from the translation by Charles Francis Atkinson.6 The concept of "Enframing" is Heidegger's invention. See Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, translated and with an Introduction by William Lovitt, 1977, at 19.7 On "the technique of the marketplace," see Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, with the assistance of Rose D. Friedman, 1962 and 1982, at 13.8 Hayek's expression; see Friedrich A. Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 2, 1976, at 107-132 (The Market Order or Catallaxy).9 Spengler's expression; see Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, An Abridged Edition by Helmut Werner, with a new Introduction by H. Stuart Hughes, 1991, at 413.10 Usury has been condemned partially in the Old Testament and absolutely in the New Testament and in the Koran. See, for example, Leviticus 25:36-37, St. Mark 11:15-18, and The Cow 2:275.11 For insight into how priesthood has historically acted as gatekeeper to heaven or hell and how it has manipulated beliefs, see Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth, edited by Ferdinand T--nnies, with an Introduction by Stephen Holmes, 1990. See especially Holmes' Introduction at xliii-xliv (Gatekeeper-Priests) and xxxix ("psychological manipulation" of beliefs). For a discussion of Capitalism as Religion of Money, see my World War III Against the Money Trust? (Book I, Chapter 20).12 On "social control through prestige," "prestige allocation,", "subversion," and "the problems of justice," see William J. Goode, The Celebration of Heroes: Prestige as a Social Control System, 1978.13 On Darwinisticism, see Morse Peckham, Darwinism and Darwinisticism, in Darwin, 2nd ed., edited by Philip Appleman, 1970, 1979, at 297-304. (Victorian Studies, III, 1959).14 According to Peter Medawar, the Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine in 1960, Darwin was "a sick man" for the last 40 years of his life. See Peter B. Medawar, The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice, 1996, at 52-58.15 See John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, Utilitarianism and Other Essays, edited with an Introduction, by Alan Ryan, 1987, at 34-36 (Mill's Education--And His Disillusionment With 'Benthamism').16 See Friedrich A. Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 2, 1976, at 175-176 (The Tables Turned).17 Ibid., at 176.18 Mill wrote: " . . . in the English Universities no thought can find place, except that which reconcile itself with orthodoxy." See John Stuart Mill (October 1852), Whewell on Moral Philosophy, ibid., at 228-229.19 Spengler's expression; see Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, An Abridged Edition by Helmut Werner, with a new Introduction by H. Stuart Hughes, 1991, at 414.20 Ibid., at 414.21 See Martin Heidegger (1978), The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic, translated by Michael Heim, 1984, at 158.22 Hegel held that "[t]he law is . . . grounded not in the will of a particular individual, but is valid in and for itself; it is the absolute pure will of all which has the form of immediate being" [italics in the original]. See G.W.F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), translated by A.V. Miller, with Analysis of the Text and Foreword by J.N. Findlay, 1977, at 256-262 (Reason as Testing Laws), especially 260.23 "The Will to Power" is Nietzsche's "Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values." See Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, translated by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale, edited with Commentary by Walter Kaufmann, 1967, at 3.24 The inspiration for the expression "upperdogs" is the title of an article by D.R. Songer and R.S. Sheehan, Who Wins on Appeal? Upperdogs and Underdogs in the United States Courts of Appeals, Journal of Political Science, 36, 1992, at 239 and 243-246 (U.S. Court of Appeals decisions, 1986).25 In Brave New World Revisited, Huxley wrote about human "dodos" as follows: "The cry of 'Give me television and hamburgers; but don't bother me with the responsibilities of liberty', may give place, under altered circumstances, to the cry of 'Give me Liberty or give me death'" [my emphasis]. See Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, with an Introduction by David Bradshaw, 1958 and 1994, at 177. |
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