Despotism is a beast of capitalism by Terry Eagleton is a curious piece. He's talking about values and how some people hold onto them and some people don't. But mostly he's talking about how those values affect society, and I haven't heard anyone else approach the issue quite like he does. Anyway it sounds pretty great to very tired me. A couple early paragraphs that kind of set the tone:
As history speeds ahead in the Age of AI, it is also being thrown abruptly into reverse. Authoritarian rule is our current Zeitgeist, spreading across the globe from El Salvador to Myanmar.
This isn’t, in fact, all that surprising. The more capitalism shatters traditional pieties, disregards frontiers and uproots whole communities, the more strident become the defenders of family, religion and fatherland. The more narratives of God, People and Nation are spurned as outdated, the more potently they return.
Kind of sounds like the gods of the copybook headings.
2 comments:
Capitalism affords opportunity for all including a few criminals, some citizens are victimized.
Solution: Restrict capitalism for all.
Regulatory burden eliminates small margin businesses, crooks adapt, consumers even more vulnerable.
Solution: Restrict capitalism for all.
Repeat as needed until nearly all of the most profitable businesses are corrupt, and infiltrate governments until they are the ones creating the restrictions, for the citizenry.
Solution: Outlaw capitalism.
Better solution;
Educate the Public.
Warn your kids those Saturday TV shows just want to sell more toys.
Warn your teens everywhere is pressure to buy, from the pusherman to walmart.
If the offer sounds to good to be true, it is.
If the offer sounds reasonable, it probably isn't.
The downside is a smarter public takes time so laws/enforcement are the stopgap.
Unfortunately we have the finest government money can buy.
But if people get smarter they can fix that too.
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