Afternoon Comrades.
Where to start, right? Obviously, I am not talking about writers block but whenever I sit down on Monday to map out what to write about on here during the week these past few months have been increasingly bewildering, I guess, that’s not the right word but close. There is always a part of me, similar to most people I would imagine that would like to hyper-focus on a very specific event that has happened in the last few days, and that is ok, I do feel thought there are other platforms that are better at reactively aiming to point whatever atrocity our ruling class has decided to normalize at the point - and there is no shortage of brutality to choose from.
From the ongoing genocide in Gaza and occupation of Palestine, entirely financed and supported by our governments here in the “west”, to the continuing revelations that our legacy media across the entirety of the “west” are nothing but propaganda outlets for the capitalist class - obviously I am referring to the recent Intercept expose that, should you not have read it yet, please do:
I did initially want to write about the above, the weaponization of media by the capitalist class but stopped, and this happens a lot, only to remember that the NYT, as well as any other respected media outlet that we have been taught to believe have always been consent manufacturing fascists- let’s all remember how the NYT was used to moralize the invasion of Iraq under Bush Jr. Hence, the above shouldn’t and doesn’t come as a surprise, which, to be clear does not mean it shouldn’t be exposed, these acts are crimes against humanity but it’s not something for here.
The cold clarity that comes with working within marxist thought, well, hopefully, drives myself to ask why, what is the root cause of this fuckery so that I can construct ways and means to solve the problem at the root rather than engaging on the fronts defined by the ruling class, which is always a losing war. Always.
Over the last decade or so I have tried my best to apply the methods within marxist theory to refine my root cause analysis of what plagues us a species, and yes, of course, capitalism, but it goes deeper than that, and we have a brilliant analysis of capitalism and what is wrong with it ( by all means, do read Marx’s Capital but do so with the David Harvey’s reading companion ) and this where a lot of the internet bootlickers get their bullshit “meeeh but human nature” bullshit from - to explain. Marx and Engels, on rudimentary observation dealt with capitalism but seemingly ignored human nature, which is as wrong as it gets but it is a general believe here in the west - make of that reality what you wish - but the fact remains that their root cause analysis most definitely dealt with what drives the modern horrors we call western civilization drives: greed.
Greed is something we will talk about a length this week, the ideas, constructs, the psychology of what drives greed to the logical materialist conclusion to eradicate greed, property and the material as well as metaphysical reality thereof.
If you look at the fuckery so visibly at play in our faces over the last decade and ask yourself why, dig a little deeper than the latest agit-prop dopamine slide on social media you will always come back to greed, greed sits at the heart of our reality, but why?
Greed has a strong biological basis. However, it has an even stronger social basis. This sets it somewhat apart from self-preservation and reproduction. To examine greed and how it fits into human sociology, we need to start from the beginning.
The definition of greed is an extreme or excessive desire for resources, especially for property such as money, real estate, or other symbols of wealth. Here we run into two problems: defining excessive, and defining wealth, especially in terms of human psychology.
In basic terms, "excessive" is possessing something to such a degree it's harmful. For example, excessive drinking leads to falling down a lot and hating yourself in the morning. Excessive eating leads to bellyaches and obesity. Excessive speed leads to cliff edges and telephone poles. These are aspects that most people would agree are harmful.
However, all these things are harmful only to the individual. How could a desire for wealth be harmful? Every person needs a degree of wealth to survive: you need to buy food, pay the rent, get clothing, transportation, haircuts, cable TV. Without money (a symbol of wealth, or rather a transportable symbol of resources necessary to survival) you could starve or freeze to death, something that is definitely harmful. In addition, the more wealth you have, the better the quantity and/or quality of the things it brings you can get. Again, how could a desire for wealth, and thus the things it gets you, be harmful?
The answer lies in the fact that humans are social and cultural animals, not just individuals. Why then, if greed is not only biologically desirable but socially and societally desirable as well, does greed have such a bad name? It goes back to the fact that humans are social and cultural animals, not just individuals.
Remember that greed is a valuable trait for the individual. It makes them fight for a larger piece of the pie, a good idea from a biological point of view. However, since humans are social creatures, and greed says that an individual should take more than their own share, greed creates social conflict, as those who lose out resent those who win more than an even share. Those that are particularly greedy (read, particularly good at getting larger pieces of pies) are particularly resented. Why are lotteries and sweepstakes so successful? Why do Reno and Las Vegas attract millions of people to their casinos? Because, no matter how much it is decried, people are greedy: they all want more than they have, the more more the better. So much for the human nature argument that makes sense, but again, it goes deeper than that, broadly speaking, that material conditions define human behaviour.
Coming back to it all, if you want to understand your alienation with what the ruling class has decided to normalize in our time there are two important realities to internalize.
For one, understanding your alienation with that absolute horror of western civility simply means that you have retained your humanity. That’s good. Digging in deeper than we have to understand that behind these horrors lies greed, not some secret cult of lunatics but greed and thus we get to the conversation of what causes greed and then, how to eradicate that for the betterment of us all.
It’s going to be a week comrades, thank you for being here, your attention and time.
Yours,
V