Capitalism Is A Death Cult
The headlong rush toward restarting the US economy is an act of mass human sacrifice to the economic system
The incendiary slogan “Capitalism Is A Death Cult” was in use prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, in reference to the wanton destruction of the environment in the name of growth and profit. But it has gained a new salience in light of current events. With the reopening of businesses shuttered at the outset of the pandemic, the implicit doctrine that money is worth more than human life has now become explicit.
Among the first proponents of rebooting the U.S. economy was Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), asserting there are “more important things than living.” Holding that business interests are more valuable than human life should be anathema to those identifying as pro-life, but such inconsistency seems to leave true believers untroubled. Apparently, the only thing that trumps their god’s law is the almighty dollar.
Even as hotspots proliferate in formerly unscathed areas, conservative lawmakers and judges grope for plausible rationale to fly in the face of advice from health care and scientific professionals on how to minimize fatalities. They like to paint their official pronouncements as somehow made in defense of the rights of citizens while ignoring the fact that death is the ultimate violation of civil rights. The only interest being served is actually that of industry’s hallowed right to make a buck at the expense of the individual’s well being.
Sacrifice is all the rage now that sheltering in place has fallen out of fashion. But whose sacrifice will it be? One would be naive or stupid to believe it will be that of the political and financial elite, even though they’re the ones calling for it. New Jersey’s own bilious blockhead — though not an elite, a wannabe surrogate — Chris Christie bleated that just as Americans died in two World Wars, they must now “stand up for the American way of life,” and die in the interest of reopening the economy. His muddled logic seems to pose that since “there are going to be deaths no matter what,” why not sacrifice more lives if it means a bigger bottom line?
That the fallout of government ordering businesses to reopen will mean a resurgence of death from the virus is cynically regarded as a PR win, because laborers such as meatpackers, transportation workers, and grocery clerks — rather than be publicly hailed as heroes — can instead be used as scapegoats for the rising death toll. The fewer of them that survive, the lower the unemployment numbers, as more human fodder step in to take the place of the fallen. And since blacks and Hispanics are more likely to die, the racist agenda of Trump’s America will be well served. To indemnify industry from any responsibility for factories becoming death camps, “legislators want to immunize their employers from liability even as they force them to work under unsafe conditions,” writes Adam Serwer in The Atlantic.
“America’s leaders have treated those workers as largely expendable, praising their valor while disregarding their safety,” continues Serwer. The reason the Trump administration pushes reopening plants without sufficient coronavirus testing is simply “because it did not consider the lives of the people dying worth the effort or money required to save them.”
The Ecstasy of Martyrdom
Aside from the consignment to death of some who must work in unsafe conditions, an especially appalling phenomenon to surface — sparked by social media astroturfing by right wing groups such as the Michigan Freedom Fund, linked to the wealthy DeVos family — is the debris surge of angry working people who are all too willing to sacrifice themselves upon the alter of commerce. But why? While many workers who are being squeezed financially must now put their health in jeopardy for a paycheck, why did some rabid defiers of Safer-At-Home guidelines hold demonstrations with a sense of righteous indignation? Who are these people who equate social distancing with vile tyranny? Why were they so angry about staying at home for their own safety?
Their rage comes from the knowledge of their own powerlessness over the raw deal they’ve been handed. Most Americans are — to varying degrees — aware that they are being used by the system. It resonates with them when they are told “the game is rigged against them.” No matter what they do, they will never attain the wealth, power, and freedom of those who own the country. They are therefore indignant at the prospect of foregoing cold comforts that mitigate their sense of injustice and betrayal. Since they have been denied the advantages of the masters of the society whom they serve, they rate themselves due a modicum of pleasure, even if it ends up costing them their lives.
Activities such as going to movie theaters, getting hair quaffed, drinking in bars, bowling, and gambling at the casino are not essential services worth contracting a deadly disease over, any more than attending Shakespeare festivals, gathering for book clubs, or taking in the opera are for those with more bourgeois tastes. But so many are willing to expose themselves to the virus because deep down they feel life is not worth living without these precious little mollifiers. Their sense of outrage is so great that they will not brook one more deprivation. Not one more denial.
Savvy politicians and conservative ideologues in tune with this disaffection will tap into these frustrated desires and convert frivolous diversions into blessed sacraments worth dying for — primarily to kick-start the sputtering economy by encouraging consumers to buy — but ostensibly as expressions of American freedom. Validating the public’s worst impulses (AKA pandering) is a time-honored media strategy.
While the elite dine on swans, the majority have only whatever indulgence they can afford in order to placate themselves. They are more than ready to fight for their right to party. And if a sacrifice is required for the economy to provide what meager consolations are available to them, they will make that trade while calling it their patriotic duty.
Adherents of This Cult Are Willing to Nullify Rational Thought and Common Sense by Whipping Themselves Into Ideological Frenzy
Sanctifying the impulse to do as they please, adherents of this cult are willing to nullify rational thought and common sense by whipping themselves into ideological frenzy. Like suicide bombers or snake handlers, they no longer fear their own destruction but willingly give themselves over to be subsumed in the ecstatic ritual of consumer capitalism, all the while chanting, “USA, USA, USA.”
It is their God-given right — they believe — to go out, earn and spend their allotted pittance just as they have been indoctrinated to do. The cult demands it of them. And if they must die for the cult, it’s a glorious martyrdom they’re proud to embrace as true Americans.
