Comment on I wonder if the "money can't buy you happiness" people ever lived in a car.
comfy@lemmy.ml 2 weeks agoThe point being that nothing is inherently wrong with making individualistic self serving choices except when there is disregard for others
Historically, individualism hasn’t been a good survival strategy. I agree that self-interest isn’t inherently wrong, although I believe much of the things we consider self-serving are ultimately only sane to do once our basic needs are met, and depending on where you are and who you are, those may be at risk soon. There’s a reason why people historically formed tribes and villages to survive, individualism is only possible when you have the privilege of an advanced enough society. The capitalist market system, in fact the market system altogether, couldn’t come into existence prior to civilization, where society was strong and safe enough that individual enrichment was a viable survival strategy.
This video makes the point I’m getting at more concretely. Can start at 15:55, when they begin talking about historical materialism. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nPVkpWMH9k
(tagging parent commenter @Cryophilia@lemmy.world because this also addresses their reply about people’s inherent self-serving)
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Interesting theory but not particularly relevant to capitalism here and now?
comfy@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
The parts I talked about are more the groundwork of analyzing the here and now, rather than actually talking about it, yes. I was addressing the points about how individualism and self-serving ‘nature’, to point out they were only capable of manifesting through feudalism, capitalism, etc., and aren’t some inherent immutable human nature. We know that egalitarian societies have been workable worldwide, it’s not some utopian idealist dream.
As for no-one coming up with workable alternatives, yes and no:
Now, whether that second example is a society that people want, that’s obviously a hotly debated topic, but I’d say objectively their system is working (in terms of stability and economic strength) and a modern alternative to our current system (their system is capable of rewarding societal values above self-service)
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s just capitalism plus a strong regulatory government, which is how all Western governments are supposed to work too. It’s fairly easy to imagine a future PRC where greedy capitalist interests have infiltrated the government over the years and crippled it like many Western ones. It’s just instead of manipulating people via democracy, they work backroom deals within the CCP to get people amenable to their interests into positions of power.
Essentially, the only successful checks we’ve found to capitalism is either a strong State or a strong Church, or both. I think we can all agree that organized religious rule is even less preferable than a capitalist oligopoly, which leaves having a strong government to balance capitalist tendencies.