CIVIL WAR IN CAPITALISM

 CIVIL WAR IN CAPITALISM

 

Guardian columnist George Monbiot says that ‘Brexit stems from a civil war in capitalism – we are all just collateral damage’, noting further that such events are disguised as ‘culture wars’, fooling the people into believing that these issues have nothing to do with capital. In the war between ‘warlord’ and ‘household’ capitalists, as George sees it, the former are winning in the UK while presumably they just lost in the USA. Well, to paraphrase Leonard Cohen, ‘this is how it goes, everybody knows’ or ‘nothing new on the Western front’ citing Erich Maria Remarque (alias Kramer). Capitalism’s credo is endless competition, and when the rules for a ‘level playing field’ are rigged too much, all-out war amongst the capitalists is inevitable. Marxist have long harboured the touching belief that capitalism will thus produce its own rope to hang itself with but, sadly, I believe, this can only happen in a world totally dominated by ‘warlord’ capitalists. Mind you, there are signs for this to begin to happen. The biggest stumbling block are still the state capitalists ensconced in Russia and China that are neither ‘warlord’ nor ‘household’ capitalists. Trump and Co. did however entertain the idea that Russia under Putin could be fully converted into a ‘warlord’ economy and thus be at one with the USA. China on the other hand as a nominally communist dictatorship has to be dealt with in other terms. On one hand there are encouraging signs that economic warlords in China, like Jack Ma, are upsetting the apple cart but on the other hand, Xi Jin Ping seems to be still in full control. So, until these issues with Russia and China are sorted out by the combined Western capitalist camp, the Western warlords and householders cannot have an all-out war amongst each other lest the savaged winner would be easy prey for Russia and China. As such the new and old household capitalist Joe Biden will no doubt fall in line with the likes of Angela Merkel and work on China and Russia in covert ways that a Machiavelli would applaud, what with Merkel being an expert on dismantling ex-communist states. Given that the Western ‘household’ capitalist world is breathing a sigh of relief with Trump in retreat, pronouncing Westminster democracy alive and well again, George Monbiot’s Brexit anxieties will be laid to rest with a ‘deal’ foreshadowed by the sacking of little warlord operatives like Cummings, allowing the UK to continue her path to erase the working class by raising the stakes for free (common) market capitalism as enshrined in the EU. Given also the huge profits to be made from mass vaccinations to mitigate the Covid pandemic, there is much anticipation for 2021 and beyond to restart the economic machinations that will tighten the screws on small-holders and reward the corporate elites with bonuses out of this world. George Monbiot can switch to the ‘news’ (also reported by the Guardian) that 70% of the world’s agricultural output is controlled by 1% of agri-companies run by 00000.1% of the world’s population (the last number is made up by myself). These sort of statistics do indeed point to the ultimate aim of capitalism in that, say, one agri-corporation controls 100% of agricultural output, one pharma-corporation controls 100% of pharmaceutical products, etc. While household capitalists are aware of the dangers of monopolizing industries, i.e. pronouncing such trends as anti-competitive, there is in the long term nothing to prevent it from happening, simply because competition as an economic mantra must end up with a winner-takes-all (as the American saying goes ‘there is no point in coming second’). Biden’s billionaires outbid Trump’s in a bid (excuse the pun) to slow down the mad rush towards monopolizing the economy but look at corporate structures in the US and you soon realize the concentration of immense wealth spiralling towards singularity. Just as in feudal times the sovereign ‘owns’ everything and everyone, we are now faced with a descent into some kind of neo-feudalism, ushered in by mind-numbing social media empires, massaging the 99% with snake oil and make-belief, celebrating progress in battling disease and pestilence, not to speak of the climate crisis which will be solved by corporate climate engineers. Other issues like threat of nuclear war have already been wiped off the face of the earth even though the doomsday clock is not receding. Workers in capitalist gig economies have the choice of serfdom or living on hard-to-get unemployment benefits (cf. I Daniel Blake). The bourgeoisie will be squeezed thinner and thinner, making a mark only as a class of middle-managers whose orders are to make life as miserable as possible for the workers, i.e. work itself is a commodity to compete for (read the Marxists for some in-depth analysis in this regard – the Guardian and George Monbiot are out of their depth in this regard). The general populace will live in hope to emulate the self-made billionaires who started out with a small inheritance of only a few million, for competition itself has no favourites, yes, you too can do it. You don’t have to be born rich to become rich. The sporting kid from the slums can make it too (cf. the hand of God). Or you can win the lottery. We don’t need actual soma (as in Huxley’s Brave New World) to make us all happy: all we need is the promise of the promised land (cf. Obama) where everyone has an equal chance to be what identity you want to be. Of course no one knows what the time line is: maybe tomorrow the rope is finished and capitalism will hang itself. Maybe the day after democracy will come to the USA (it never did in Leonard Cohen’s life-time when he penned these lyrics). Maybe all we have left is Shakespearian words to play with, like to be or not to be is the question. Maybe. Vielleicht. Akene. 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/brexit-capitalism