If it’s just human nature, then why do we need a militarized police force to enforce order? Having workers go to a workplace, do labor, and then send the profits to some far away entity that probably isn’t even there is actually very far from human nature. It’s something that necessarily requires the implied threat of violence to maintain. Same with tenants and landlords. No one would pay rent if it wasn’t for the police, who will use violence to throw you out otherwise.
It also frustrates me how that argument just waves away the incredibly complex and actually extremely arbitrary legal structure of capitalism. What about human nature contains limited liability for artificial legal entities controlled by shareholders? “Ah yes, here’s the part of the human genome that expresses preferred and common stock; here’s the part that contains the innate human desire for quarterly earnings calls.”
From what I’ve learned it feels like we’re just not supposed to be critical of it. It reminds me of being a kid and adults being upset when I ask too many questions or questions they might not want to face. I know you didn’t ask but Mark Fisher has a compelling way of describing it as capitalist realism and I wanted to leave this quote:
Capitalist realism as I understand it cannot be confined to art or to the quasi-propagandistic way in which advertising functions. It is more like a pervasive atmosphere, conditioning not only the production of culture but also the regulation of work and education, and acting as a kind of invisible barrier constraining thought and action
“Capitalism is just human nature.”
If it’s just human nature, then why do we need a militarized police force to enforce order? Having workers go to a workplace, do labor, and then send the profits to some far away entity that probably isn’t even there is actually very far from human nature. It’s something that necessarily requires the implied threat of violence to maintain. Same with tenants and landlords. No one would pay rent if it wasn’t for the police, who will use violence to throw you out otherwise.
It also frustrates me how that argument just waves away the incredibly complex and actually extremely arbitrary legal structure of capitalism. What about human nature contains limited liability for artificial legal entities controlled by shareholders? “Ah yes, here’s the part of the human genome that expresses preferred and common stock; here’s the part that contains the innate human desire for quarterly earnings calls.”
edit: typo
From what I’ve learned it feels like we’re just not supposed to be critical of it. It reminds me of being a kid and adults being upset when I ask too many questions or questions they might not want to face. I know you didn’t ask but Mark Fisher has a compelling way of describing it as capitalist realism and I wanted to leave this quote:
Mark Fisher ❤️