Written by Capitalism often goes hand-in-hand with empiricism, the scientific method, reason and secularism as modern modes of thinking and acting in the world. The desire to paint Capitalism as an objective system tied to the other modes of being and acting described is a slight of hand used to obfuscate the suppressed or explicit emotionality that the system relies on. It also relies on this emotionality going mostly unacknowledged and unrecognized by those experiencing it, so that they can tell themselves they are objective. Here are some of the main emotions driving Capitalism.
Pride:
The feeling of being of use to society and the future by creating and distributing items that contain dubious but governmentally-sanctioned ingredients and materials.
The use of plastic everywhere including the food we give to children? Nevermind its non-degradability, we gave a child food. The use of leather – an animal’s skin for shoes? Nevermind, they’re red bottoms and that is valuable. The sense of pride derived, the feeling of service, was once ensconced in being a good neighbour and artisan, a producer who knew all the moving parts of their business or nearly all and could assume responsibility for decisions made. With the atomization of life and labour under Capitalism one is unaware of where raw materials end up or the steps involved in making the raw materials needed for one’s value-added products. Pride drives us to create nonetheless, drives us to turn up to work and be a productive member of society even if that production involves merely churning out single-use waste materials.
Pride dictates that one is not allowed to lie fallow, one must produce even if there is no true need for the product where the producer has to invest with money borrowed from the future to generate a demand through PR and advertisement.
The emotionality of the human heart yearns to be seen and understood and those who are listened to are those who provide value to the listener, more often than not. Therefore being listened to makes one a valuable and value-giving individual that assumes a certain magnetism. This is the sweetness of the Capitalist pie. One is of value when one feeds the machine, whether it be junk food or vegetables. The need for us to keep busy in order to be of value and thereby bolster our Pride is currently playing a part in our demise.
We look up to a titan of industry who has made a fortune based on plastic and we look down upon someone who has resorted to begging. Providing value keeps the machine happy and without it whole economies atrophy. Denying the machine fodder kills it.
The question arises: Are there studies of what an ecological boon people on welfare are compared to titans of industry? An intriguing question, indeed.
Anxiety:
Low-level worry that manifests physically and emotionally from time-to-time or constantly.
When your livelihood hinges on poisoning your customers and the environment literally and metaphorically with single use plastics and murdered animal corpses, you may feel some type of way about it. As big as the world is, if you’ve ever taken a flight then the Earth feels less infinite and therefore the anxiety of consumption and what that truly means can creep in either the unconscious or the conscious mind, causing anxiety. How much are we sucking out of our host, we might begin to wonder.
There’s also that niggling feeling that may occur to some of us that Climate Change is the start of Hell on Earth, Revelations style. To that I will say from now: I’ve been there. Jesus eats fish, he’s not vegan and not that my messiah would have to be vegan but there is a timeless ethical logic to vegetarianism and veganism that I have reduced to a litmus test for how far one’s empathy goes and therefore their expertise in ethics to satisfy my standards.
The low-level anxiety has to do with the precarious heights of our innovations to date. Like a Jenga tower mimicking the Tower of Babel, we build towards better communication with social media while having less friends than preceding generations.
Having friends as an adult is an accomplishment that is supplemented by TV shows about strong friendships and adventures to stem the need for connection with a mass-produced facsimile.
We are anxious. Food costs more and more by the day. Food-fret rears its ugly head everytime we take part in the death machinery, the plastic, the oil, the gas, the electricity, the chemicals, the water usage, the soil depletion, the everything. The fact that it is so all-encompassing.
The anxiety breaks when we find out what skills we bring to the table to change things, just so you know.
Greed:
The overindulgence in or amassing of pleasures or value.
This one is very judgemental so I won’t spend too much time on it. Suffice it to say, greed has a place and a reward in Capitalism where hoarding habits and motivations are at home in this system and an easy emotion to address with the addition of more stuff made from toxic unusable materials that have nowhere to go in our environment.
False Sense of Security:
The feeling of safety and order amidst nature’s chaos.
Capitalists do not often say that the world is as advanced as it is thanks to Capitalism, because braggadocio is frowned upon in polite society. But we are supposed to feel superior and proud and safe thanks to the advancements of Capitalism. A good chunk of all inventions are made of plastic which is going nowhere for the next 1,000 years and only serves to pollute our world. The value plastic provides is easily outweighed by its overstayed welcome in the environment.
We see all our needs being met, without having to wonder about where these things are coming from or, more generously, knowing something is amiss but actually having no other choice but to engage with this thing that we know is no good for us, but everything is carcinogenic so, what to do?
The answer would normally be to revolt, throw out the poison and declare an emergency to replace these things immediately.
Instead we quietly consent to the madness because it at least feels safe on the outward, verbal and conscious level. Or at the very least it’s something we can deal with. It’s not unknown. It’s not a revolution which looks hard. It is a false sense of security that we know is false and we will even try to shake ourselves out of it, but then that gets tough or boring and what’s streaming tonight? Time for streaming and chill.
Desire:
The feeling of wanting something or someone.
This reality preys upon our desires. You long for connection? There are so many apps for that. If you find yourself lonely, that’s your fault.
There are countless gurus and life coaches and psychologists and psychiatric medications and under the table drugs all waiting to help fulfill your desires.
You can pursue a vice that’s legal or get a thrill from an illegal one.
You are free.
And meanwhile all of these desires are met by plastic, oil and gas answers. The answer is to transport the desired object to oneself or to take fuel to go to the desired experience/service. To make use of single use plastic to quench a thirst rather than drinking tap water from the bathroom because ew.
Desire. It is deeply enmeshed in the Capitalist emotionality. The idea is that our desires are to be met by Capitalist Realism.
The idea of that realism is to borrow from tomorrow for today.
Envy:
Wanting what someone else has.
This is also ungenerous and judgemental so I’ll be curt. We are made to look at the life we should have and that we are ‘free’ to attain. At what cost, however. In order to climb to the aspired heights of those whom we envy, fuel is burned, energy is expended, packaging is made and discarded all so we can gain the signifiers of those whom we envy. It is an exercise in insanity.
Positive Emotions
It’s not all 7 deadly sins alone. There are many good and well-intentioned people whose everyday consists of adding to a problem. Here are the emotions that are preyed upon in order to perpetuate the madness.
Desire to be of Service
Many people working all along the value-chain from top level managers to warehouse workers have a desire to occupy themselves with something of value and service to others in order to feel useful to their society in the same way we once were useful to our tribe. The tribe is not what it once was. Disengage from the fossil fuel and animal slaughter that only serves to engender more and more misery in the world.
Taking on the Mantle of Leadership When It is Given
Many people in the upper echelon of society have always been expected to take on responsibility. The idea of saying no to a position of authority when it is given seems wrong. The idea is always that one can smarten a business’ methods and value chain. However when the salary you earn and everyone else who answers to you is dependent on consistent output then veering off-track for a sustainability gamble feels dangerous and irresponsible, let someone else pioneer and, instead, take care of your people.
Sustainability does not scale. Not really. Because it is not the age of the dinosaur, and nature does not cater to behemoths anymore, they went extinct. Sustainability has a small radius of impact in order to spare energy used to transport value. Efficient and sustainable systems are small and compact actors.
Until we know how to transport ‘goods’ without wrapping them and shipping them using ‘bads’ then we will be playing a losing game.
There are probably other good emotions that are a hallmark of Capitalism. This post is not just for trash talk.
It’s about looking into the drives that exist for this unhealthy system to perpetuate itself. This diagnosis can help in preparing for the process of fixing what happens to value in today’s world.
Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments.
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Sources:
https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/askexpert/why-does-it-take-plastic-so-long-break-down