Whilst enjoying this Boxing Day lull on this very hot day I read a bit of a book my mate Lui gave me as a Christmas present, Capitalism a Horror Story. It looks at Capitalism from a Marxist horror movie lens. Interesting perspective! Some good chapters covering some interesting films, like the Platform, Parasite and Ready Or Not. One chapter is all about the cultural impact of the books Frankenstein and Dracula. The author cites Frankenstein’s monster as the monster that represents and inspires the working-class mob to potential revolution; and Drac as the aristocratic uber Capitalist drinking the blood of the working classes. It’s fascinating stuff.
Read another chapter of Capitalism: a Horror Story. This was on Ghosts and the Haunting of Modernity – basically about internet ghosts. It was a bit more coherent than the previous chapter on Witches. Some good points made about our dependence on the internet (and technology in general) in the Covid era and its potential dangers (and solutions). It looked at the films Pulse, Unfriended: Dark Web and 2020’s Host. All what the author calls ‘screen films’, films totally made up of internet camera imagery. I must check them out. The characters in the film Unfriended start off by playing a game called Cards Against Humanity via Skype. I checked that game out on Wiki. It looks like fun, I like its word play. But I’ll never get my friends to play it. They just don’t play these Trivial Pursuit type games, which is a pity, coz I love them (and have multiple versions languishing in my closet).
Read a bit more of the Capitalism book. Chapter was Crises of Liberalism and Necro Neoliberalism. Cute title, huh? It featured the Saw Film series and The Purge series. Capitalism is basically a machine that chews us workers up and spits us out. When we fall on hard times it’s our fault, not the system’s. Or as Kramer says in the Saw films: ‘Choose: live or die.’ It’s all about individualism and blame.
I read another chapter of Capitalism: A Horror Story. This was about Monsters and Utopia. It was way too techie and egg-heady for me, but one good point was made. We are already living in a Utopia. It’s just not ours; it belongs to the rich and powerful. This is why they are so hell bent on maintaining the status quo. They get to keep their utopia. Main point of the chapter seemed to be that, in order to wrest the Utopia from the rich and scatter it to the poor, we need to become monsters, whether the monster of the mob or of an organised social justice movement.
Whilst doing some Stock Rotation in the library today I came across a book, a graphic non fiction, called Hyper Capitalism by Larry Gonick and Tim Kasser. I decided to borrow it, thus keeping it from the fate of being rotated elsewhere. It’s a nice dissection of the titular subject with lots of amusing illustrations and feeds my Lefty responses. Kasser is the psychologist who provides the text and theory, Gonick the cartoonist.
I’m still reading through the Hyper Capitalism graphic non fiction. I do wonder about the author’s thesis that owning stuff, being an uber-consumer, leads to anxiety. I wonder, because most of my consumption is to do with what would be called Art, and I don’t feel anxious about it. And, do the rich feel this anxiety? I suspect not. As I mentioned earlier, in relation to the Capitalism a Horror Story book, they have their Utopia now. But I’m really liking the book.
I just read a section where they talk about the difference between what are called intrinsic values and extrinsic values. Extrinsic values or goals are associated with rewards from things or people external to the person who holds the value. This highlights a materialistic point of view, including the desire for money, greed and an individualist outlook. Intrinsic brings inner satisfaction. This highlights a benevolent or universalist point of view, including a desire to help others, belief in community and health. So, if we were to look at most stories in Western society we would likely find most of them are extrinsic goal-directed. We find characters who are motivated most often by the need for financial success. We generally have to look to the Japanese, and especially that sub genre of manga and anime called Iyashekai, to find stories that are intrinsic goal-oriented. It’s interesting, and I’ve started to work out a whole theory about all this based on something I call Therapeutic Values that I’ve described elsewhere. It originates with the philosopher Alain de Botton. But I won’t go into it here. Maybe I’ll write a full blog about it later when my ideas start to cohere.
I’m still reading through that Hyper-Capitalism graphic book. I’m up to the section where the authors have come up with the ‘5 Commandments of Capitalism’. Namely, Though Shalt Consume, Globalize, Deregulate, Cut Wages and Privatize. This is a pretty accurate and comprehensive description of what they do.
I finished the Hyper-Capitalism book with the Part 2 section, which looked at solutions to hyper-Capitalism. The first chapter was about Mindful Buying – something I’m all about. There was also chapters about Voluntary Simplicity and Sharing, things I try to be about. In fact, I had a bit of a ‘spring clean’ today getting rid of more books and generally tidying up in preparation for my cd display bookshelf. Anyway, in this section Thoreau’s Walden was invoked as well as a number of famous ‘simplifiers’. The concept of ‘time affluence’ was also mentioned. I take it this is basically another way of saying work-life balance. The chapter on Sharing gave good examples of how we can share goods, resources and services. The first example given, I’m happy to say, was good old Libraries. You know it! The authors also mentioned tool libraries, toy libraries and seed libraries. Time banks, coops, alternative ownership structures and more were also mentioned. It was all presented clearly and with much humour. I actually would like to own a copy of this book. But for now, since it’s a library copy I’ve rescued from the dreaded stock rotation, I’ll return it so maybe, just maybe, someone else will give it a read.