Today we hear allegations from politicians leading the ostensibly Free World that the public is being brainwashed by "radical Left ideology" (MTG).
But what about the indoctrination of the population from birth through the media, starting with television, into the ideology of ruthless, dog-eat-dog capitalism under the guise of individualist freedom? Such indoctrination amounts to inculcating, hammering in with the heel of a boot, a set of ideas that explains the world more or less crudely and deceptively. Under this ideology, each individual has the opportunity to compete to earn income, to acquire property and, sweetest of all, the freedom to enjoy spending it on consumer goods and services. This consumption, in turn, realizes sales revenues for the capital advanced, from which profit is derived as a residue, once all costs have been deducted.
The ugly blemish in this ideology is that the more or less fair, more or less bruising, more or less violent competition for income produces both winners and losers, and that, via the (at least nominally democratic) political struggle over state power, the winners are able to rig the rules of play in the gainful game to ensure that they come out on top and hang on to their advantages, privileges, etc. And what are the rules of play? First and foremost, that the rights of private property be protected. How are these rights of dissociated private property exercised? For one, to enjoy the personal consumption afforded by spending income. For another, to deploy acquired private property to generate more income, untrammelled by the resistance of trade unions and environmental regulations, which drags down profits from their potential maximum.
And private property itself? It is the deceptive camouflage for the endlessly valorizing Medium of thingified value that is covered up precisely by the ideology of individualist freedom. Anyone daring to unmask this ruthless ideology for what it is, of course, is branded a "Left wing lunatic". But even those advocating a softening of the ruthless rules of play of the gainful game, say, by protecting workers' rights to organize in trade unions or by mitigating environmental destruction in social-democratic style are labelled "Left wing lunatics". And millions of indoctrinated voters, who have fallen for the ideology of unfettered individualist freedom and all it stands for, go along with this, even if they are losers in the gainful game. Demanding merely crumbs from the table, consisting of affordable groceries and cheap gasoline, they are what you call suckers, about whom W.C. Fields said: "Never give a sucker an even break." (1941) To be sure, never has the deep truth of this cynical saying, with some thought, been more disgustingly visible than today. It's a pity, only, that no one is looking deeper, including even those who are purportedly "rethinking capitalism"*).
*) Annual theme for 2025 at The New Institute in Hamburg (accessed 27 March 2025).
Further reading: 'An Invisible Global Social Value' TT&S Vol. 5 no. 2, 2024.
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