The main reason why I have chosen this title, however, is that it reflects my neurodivergent way of conceiving of the universalization of capitalism as a sort of "metaphysical schizophrenia", i.e. a mental illness projected onto human society by those that stand to gain from it. And I see this from an inherently psychoanalytic point of view.
Let us ask a fundamental question: what is the meaning of life? As a recent story I came across suggested, if you go through cemeteries you do not see epitaphs dedicated to describing the wealth accumulated by the individual interned. For the most part, they are reflective of human and family connections such as love and loyalty. Yet the tenets of capitalism that argue for moral systems dominated by rational self-interest would suggest that it is material wealth that is important in the end. In this sense, humanity is being constantly pulled in two directions, survival and adventure. Survival is necessary to live to see the next day, but if every day was the same life would become very depressing and border on purposelessness. Adventure is necessary to enrich lives and provide content, but too much adventure may mean that one will not see the next day. Capitalism suggests one must be linear, driven, and self-interested and that "success" is reflective of one's ability to dominate the external world in accumulating items that reflect this linear, driven mentality. Otherwise, one is considered lazy.
This idea of the laziness of those who refused to buy into capitalism could be said to have reached its crescendo when workhouses were suggested for children as young as five in 19th century Britain so that they did not sink into the vices of idleness and laziness. But is vainglorious self-interest really the highest human achievement? Eastern philosophies would say no. Capitalism forces us all to be two different people. We should be communal and magnanimous with our allies and ruthless and punishing with anyone who is not our allies or they will crush us. But will they really? History would say no.
So how do we come to the idea that the capitalist system is the best system? Propaganda (capital begets capital by selling the idea of capital), history (inherited wealth and power create the legal systems that allow those that espouse capitalism to effectively do anything they want within the framework of business law), and psychology (neuroplasticity says that our brains are constantly reworked as we live by our interactions with the outer world and what we deem are in our best interest).
With a mind that is constantly all over the place, it is sometimes hard to find the exact words that underscore an idea. This "schizophrenia and capitalism" is more of a mentality than an idea. It only really makes sense from the point of view of "long history" (see the essay on "Reality and Ahistory" attached for a better idea). As Karl Marx suggested, production has three types of valuations: use value, exchange value, and surplus value. Use value and exchange value can be seen as inherent properties of the produced item. If products are useless, then there is no reason to expend time and energy to produce them. If product would not be exchangeable for something else, then there would be no reason to produce a surplus of them and everybody would be forced to learn everything necessary to survive. Surplus value is the additional value that creates "disposable" time and income. It is a reflection of social (market) forces of need and scarcity that are the cornerstones of the theory of capitalism. It could be argued that the first transnational capitalists were the Muslims during the Islamic Golden Age because they occupied the desert "no man's land" between Europe, Africa, India, and China and brought items that were plentiful in one area across the desert to places where they were rare, thus coveting a higher value that is extrinsic to the product itself.
So where does surplus value come from? Excessive profits comes from two sources: theft and debt. Our wealth has largely been created by the historical enslavement of the labour, resources, and environments of poor countries and poor workers. When one splits this further into private and public wealth, excessive private profits largely come from debt that the public social, economic, and environmental systems take on. Because the internet has provided an "eye in the sky" on the misery that poor countries and the physical environment are having to take on to fuel our excessive greed, public opinion is slowly forcing the world to take action to end these shameful legacies of slavery and oppression of humans and the natural world. Thus, the unstoppable force of capitalism is rapidly reaching the immovable object of collective shame and alarm.
The structure of this blog is two-fold. It will alternate between "negative news" describing real-world scenarios that exemplify the inherent contradictions of the narrative of capitalism as "fair" versus the implementation of capitalism as "rigged" on the one hand, and "positive hope" of music, culture, and nature tidbits that exemplify why the selfish attitudes of capitalism are worth abandoning for the selfless realities of humanity. Succinctly, it will alternate between DE-humanization and RE-humanization.
Real change is a long and difficult climb. But if nothing is done, then nothing will change. This is a small attempt at a contribution.
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