The difficult conversation we need to have
In the Covid debacle, all roads lead back to capital
The conversation among critical thinkers over the last four years has gone something like this:
1. ‘Fauci committed crimes against humanity.’
The Real Anthony Fauci, Children’s Health Defense, The Highwire.
2. ‘Yes, Fauci is bad but he’s just a stooge for Pharma.’
I make this argument quite a lot.
3. ‘No, no, Pharma is not in charge — this is a Department of Defense operation.’
4. ‘Well, see, it’s not exactly DoD, it’s really the biowarfare industrial complex that is in charge (which includes the intelligence agencies and a lot of other rotten players).’
That’s where the argument rests for now — on Level 3 or Level 4.
But who does the biowarfare industrial complex report to? I think the answer is pretty obvious: capital. That’s the conversation that no one wants to have.
The left is unable to have this conversation because they worship all aspects of the biowarfare industrial complex (masks, lockdowns, useless treatments, deadly vaccines, quarantine camps, and totalitarianism in general). It’s their new God and they will do anything to save it. Thus they avoid any self-reflection which would reveal that they are actually just lackeys for capital at this point.
Conservatives freak out anytime anyone blames capital because they don’t want to give credit to Marx for anything. So they blame the Illuminati, Rothschilds, Freemasons, Lizard People, a Global Communist Conspiracy, a Worldwide Pedophile Network, etc. Which are all just different names for capital (or rather, the most deleterious aspects of capital).
(I should also add that lots of people who want to avoid blaming capital pin the events of the last four years on extra-worldly demonic forces including Satan. But that’s a different conversation.)
I’m happy for us to re-write Capital to account for the virtues and dynamism of capital (which are many) along with its deficiencies. But the fundamental problem we face right now is that the holders (and hoarders) of capital (the 1%) start pandemics and wars in order to increase the amount of capital that they have. It’s M-C-M' all over again.* I wish it wasn’t so but here we are.
Every generation rediscovers Capital for themselves the hard way — through personal experience. And then the next generation rediscovers the horrors of the alternatives to capitalism in a seemingly endless cycle.
So I believe that the conversation we need to have is this:
“How can we have the virtues of capital (dynamism, growth, entrepreneurship, speed/efficiency, unbridled human creativity, and prosperity) without the corruption of capital (monopolies, slavery, war, genocide, oppression, and fascism)?” That’s what no one has figured out.
I take it as given that the alternatives to capitalism over the last 275 years have almost always been worse than what they replaced (the fascist hellscape of modern day Canada as just the latest example). But nearly everyone on both the left and right agrees that the state and corporate sector merged in 2020 (or before) and this fascist partnership must be undone because their business model is killing us. That being said, we cannot just go back to the system that led us here in the first place — in an endless game of “Chutes and Ladders.” So how do we design a system of capitalism without fascism going forward?
* For those who are new to this topic, M-C-M' is the foundational equation of Das Kapital. Marx argued that in an earlier era people had a Commodity (say, wheat) that they turned into Money (by selling it in the market) in order to have more Commodities (a new coat and some cheese). C-M-C'. Everyone is better off and enjoying the fruits of their labors.
But under monopoly capitalism, some people have Money that they turn into Commodities that they sell in order to have more Money. M-C-M'. It’s accumulation of money for the sake of accumulation. Which is kinda pointless and the source of widespread suffering. That’s the argument.
And what we have seen in the last four years is that the ruling class has taken their money and turned it into very profitable commodities (gain-of function viruses, pandemics via propaganda, toxic treatments, and deadly vaccines) that they sold (well, forced on the population via government purchasing programs) in order to have more money. That’s why I say it’s M-C-M' all over again.
The military industrial complex is doing this as well in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Taiwan — they have money that they turn into drones, tanks, and bombs in order to accrue more money.
The people driving the pandemics and wars already have more money than they could spend in many lifetimes. And yet they get up every day to create more pandemics and wars in order to generate even more money (and the power, wealth, and control that goes with that).
The evidence is overwhelming that M-C-M' is exactly what’s happening. In the first two years of the pandemic, billionaires saw their wealth increase by $5 trillion. According to Oxfam, using data from Forbes, “The combined wealth of the top 10 billionaires doubled during the first two years of the pandemic and is now six times greater than that of the world’s poorest 3.1 billion people.” The point is that all of this money is going to people who already have more money than they could ever spend.
So the question is how do we step out of this vicious cycle into a system that is more harmonious without the unintended consequences that have afflicted such revolutionary/reform efforts in the past?
Blessings to the warriors. 🙌
Prayers for everyone fighting to stop the iatrogenocide. 🙏
Huzzah for those who are building the parallel society our hearts know is possible. ✊
In the comments, please let me know how you might design a system of capitalism without fascism so that this never happens again.
As always, I welcome any corrections.
We all like capital until the fascist Pharma state comes along and tries to poison everyone and then we wish we had asked more questions.
The law of Moses has the answer. Private property rights enable savings and investment. But the mandatory 7th year cancelation of all debts prevents the pyramiding of capital by the 1%. The sabbatical debt release also acts like a timing belt for the economy, standardizing the boom and bust cycle that capitalism is notorious for to a small 3 year credit expansion followed by a small three year credit retraction.