The selfish nature of capitalism and subsequent decay of empathy dosnt contradict how I alluded to the chauvinism and evil that can come from living a relatively comfortable life compared to others. That comfort is the material reality that creates many to be passive in the face of mass death and the possibility that organized human life may cease to function on a global scale in the coming decades. You can jump through whatever epistemological hoops you'd like, it won't negate this material reality. Yes, oh the rich suffer too because they are under capitalism and conditioned as well but theres a reason communist of the past have sent people to hard labor or to the countryside .
Don't know what you mean by this counteracting force and so on with cis white men but as a cis white man myself who has had many peers who are the same and have met my fair share of true racist and other kinds of brutes I can tell you there's people who hold those beliefs because they what want to protect what they see as a way of life and power not being "left with with mental scars of capitalism" as if they didn't suffer those scars much less then others who aren't white and or poorer. There's all kinds of reasons for racism and other kinds of bigotry some of it is indeed alienation and disenchantment, but don't underestimate the simple greed and hatred that living in a comfortable bubble based off of exploitation brings.
Our primary divergence concerns the operative function of relative material comfort and the utility of understanding the delectics of conscious accumulation and obedience by way of a plush existence from a strata of human beings (Myself included). It is important to note that we cannot see into others minds and on the whole I am not trying to make grand claims about human nature.
Yes capitalism creates selfishness and "addiction to selfishness" as you put it, but at the same time you stated material comfort dosnt "inherently corrupt people". While perhaps not totally inherent, in a class society it [comfort] quite often does corrupt, for comfort is often related to inequalities and exploitation. The corruptive seduction of power and money is a tale as old as tales themselves. In the so called rich countries material comfort (WEALTH) corrupts not just the bourgeoisie but most of us in various ways. For instance most of us watch the world burn and continue to simply consume and help spin the wheel (think of the grand gear spinning machine with workers slaving away on it in the film Metropolis but the machine and man are one), afraid of upsetting the End Of History. And most rich people know full well the "nature of a class society" and actively fight any force against their chaotic order (like how Chomsky notes the bourgeoisie often use Marxist logic but in the opposite direction). Class society is not some stressful discovery for most, as if bourgeoisie institutions do not breed people with the knowledge of class society to be used as a weapon. It is reductive to say the wealthy and many of us in the rich countries in general are simply trapped in some ideological prison.
And sorry some reactionarys -particularly organized ones- ARE de facto ontologically evil. Power in general can create ontologically evil individuals, for that which has a cause can still be freely undertaken. The game of "psychological explanations" eventually ends up hitting a dead end in realpolitik.
In other words what can be the function of over emphasizing false consciousness in the face of conscious retreat to material comfort, active cruelty and the accumulation of wealth for individuals? The theory of false consciousness has its limits, and can obscure the ability for material accountability for injustices. Essentially in this sense functioning as an efemeral distraction, wading in circular logic.
And facing the reality of evil [that to put it simply, those in power weild it with explicit purpose and self aware consciousness -right ideals be damned- and therefore must be viewed as responsible for actions as human beings, and can often only be redeemed through struggle] does not change socialist/communist goals. Because the ideal of a classless more egalitarian society transcends the question of the moral responsibility of individuals. Of course the goals of socialist and communist should be to create a better life for the people, the poor and the desperate. And to not valorize struggle and death for the sake of struggle and death.
I am not saying one should inflict trauma for the sake of moral purity. But will trauma have to be inflicted on some? Will many have to struggle more then they have in the past?Will some lose out on their wealth and power? Furthermore is giving away degrees of comfort for causes of proletariat/polity and comradery a necessity, a desire for the good? Absolutely. That is the reality that the social democrat chooses to run away from, always compromising with capital and the powerful.
The point isn't that comfort in life creates a horrible person, -because life doesn't exist in a vacuum- but material comfort in a class society can. A life without extreme events dosnt default towards cruelty, but power does, whether operative and benefitted from in the passive sense with degrees of separation, or swung like a hammer kinetically. Alienation cannot be transcended without understanding these material relations as the center of our co existence. Overly naval gazing psychological analysis often has the operative function of peddling a world view that starts from the perspective of the self, emitting illusions that distract collectives from looking at what is obvious.
![[CW: racism, homophobia, extreme chuddery] Chuds possess no creativity or meaningful thought whatsoever](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/XVmRkwUA41.png){kind=link}
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The selfish nature of capitalism and subsequent decay of empathy dosnt contradict how I alluded to the chauvinism and evil that can come from living a relatively comfortable life compared to others. That comfort is the material reality that creates many to be passive in the face of mass death and the possibility that organized human life may cease to function on a global scale in the coming decades. You can jump through whatever epistemological hoops you'd like, it won't negate this material reality. Yes, oh the rich suffer too because they are under capitalism and conditioned as well but theres a reason communist of the past have sent people to hard labor or to the countryside .
Don't know what you mean by this counteracting force and so on with cis white men but as a cis white man myself who has had many peers who are the same and have met my fair share of true racist and other kinds of brutes I can tell you there's people who hold those beliefs because they what want to protect what they see as a way of life and power not being "left with with mental scars of capitalism" as if they didn't suffer those scars much less then others who aren't white and or poorer. There's all kinds of reasons for racism and other kinds of bigotry some of it is indeed alienation and disenchantment, but don't underestimate the simple greed and hatred that living in a comfortable bubble based off of exploitation brings.
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Our primary divergence concerns the operative function of relative material comfort and the utility of understanding the delectics of conscious accumulation and obedience by way of a plush existence from a strata of human beings (Myself included). It is important to note that we cannot see into others minds and on the whole I am not trying to make grand claims about human nature.
Yes capitalism creates selfishness and "addiction to selfishness" as you put it, but at the same time you stated material comfort dosnt "inherently corrupt people". While perhaps not totally inherent, in a class society it [comfort] quite often does corrupt, for comfort is often related to inequalities and exploitation. The corruptive seduction of power and money is a tale as old as tales themselves. In the so called rich countries material comfort (WEALTH) corrupts not just the bourgeoisie but most of us in various ways. For instance most of us watch the world burn and continue to simply consume and help spin the wheel (think of the grand gear spinning machine with workers slaving away on it in the film Metropolis but the machine and man are one), afraid of upsetting the End Of History. And most rich people know full well the "nature of a class society" and actively fight any force against their chaotic order (like how Chomsky notes the bourgeoisie often use Marxist logic but in the opposite direction). Class society is not some stressful discovery for most, as if bourgeoisie institutions do not breed people with the knowledge of class society to be used as a weapon. It is reductive to say the wealthy and many of us in the rich countries in general are simply trapped in some ideological prison.
And sorry some reactionarys -particularly organized ones- ARE de facto ontologically evil. Power in general can create ontologically evil individuals, for that which has a cause can still be freely undertaken. The game of "psychological explanations" eventually ends up hitting a dead end in realpolitik. In other words what can be the function of over emphasizing false consciousness in the face of conscious retreat to material comfort, active cruelty and the accumulation of wealth for individuals? The theory of false consciousness has its limits, and can obscure the ability for material accountability for injustices. Essentially in this sense functioning as an efemeral distraction, wading in circular logic.
And facing the reality of evil [that to put it simply, those in power weild it with explicit purpose and self aware consciousness -right ideals be damned- and therefore must be viewed as responsible for actions as human beings, and can often only be redeemed through struggle] does not change socialist/communist goals. Because the ideal of a classless more egalitarian society transcends the question of the moral responsibility of individuals. Of course the goals of socialist and communist should be to create a better life for the people, the poor and the desperate. And to not valorize struggle and death for the sake of struggle and death.
I am not saying one should inflict trauma for the sake of moral purity. But will trauma have to be inflicted on some? Will many have to struggle more then they have in the past?Will some lose out on their wealth and power? Furthermore is giving away degrees of comfort for causes of proletariat/polity and comradery a necessity, a desire for the good? Absolutely. That is the reality that the social democrat chooses to run away from, always compromising with capital and the powerful.
The point isn't that comfort in life creates a horrible person, -because life doesn't exist in a vacuum- but material comfort in a class society can. A life without extreme events dosnt default towards cruelty, but power does, whether operative and benefitted from in the passive sense with degrees of separation, or swung like a hammer kinetically. Alienation cannot be transcended without understanding these material relations as the center of our co existence. Overly naval gazing psychological analysis often has the operative function of peddling a world view that starts from the perspective of the self, emitting illusions that distract collectives from looking at what is obvious.
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