I think the reason that much of the world is moving toward autocracy is because capitalism requires exponential growth that democracy just can’t provide. See what I did there? I took out all of the actors, that’s something the “market” likes to do. It’s a way to obfuscate the role that any individuals may play in our foray into global destruction. It’s better expressed that our modern day industrialists, or oligarchs, or techno-authoritarians, or just jagaoffs, let’s just call them jagoffs, have gone off the frickin rails as they always will. If you let them. The key is that we don’t let them do whatever they want because they always run everything into the ground and then need to be bailed out. Only this time, there’s probably not going to be a way to bail them out. You can’t bail anything out when the oceans have died or the food chain has collapsed.
Capitalism itself is not sustainable, it’s a dead-end system that devours resources faster than they can be replenished. So even though the jagoffs— mmh, I changed my mind, let’s go with industrialists, it’s darker. So even though the industrialists think that unfettered capitalism leads to exponential growth, they’re obviously delusional. In their minds, the system needs more people, a lot more people, billions and billions of people to fuel the growth needed to sustain capitalism. So, in the long run, if we want to maintain the type of existence that capitalism demands, then we’re going to need a lot more natural resources—more than are available on the planet we live on. So now Jeff Bezos is talking about taking industry off-planet and Elon Musk is talking about terraforming Mars. And can I just say that’s all insane without sounding like a Luddite? Is there a place somewhere in between being a Luddite and being a self-possessed meglamaniac these days?
So, in reality world, the only political system that has allowed capitalism to exist and could keep it from decimating the environment, exploiting labor and then running itself into the ground is the kind of Democratic Socialism that FDR brought to America. A system much like what Western Europe still has some of today. And the reason is pretty simple. Without guardrails to preserve natural resources and protect labor, capitalism will always overexploit until it burns itself out. So what Democratic Socialism does, if practiced right, is allow societies to reign in the jagoffs, I mean the industrialists, I gotta keep that straight, and create systems that protect both labor and the environment. And also in reality world, this system fostered a more sustainable economic growth than unfettered capitalism has ever been able to achieve. But the jagoffs never seem to get that straight.
When FDR pushed for the New Deal and the creation of what is now being called the deep state, he explicitly stated that his goal was to save capitalism from itself. Because, and this is me, not FDR saying this, capitalism is a time bomb. But that’s effectively what he was implying. Capitalism can only exist in tightly controlled spaces, or inevitably it goes bust. That’s what makes what’s happening now so dangerous. We have too much technological know-how to let capitalism be the dominant mindset. Our top capitalists are valueless, lacking empathy, and clearly delusional.
So, what we have now is capitalism eating democracy so that it can shed any constraints in its thirst to devour all of our natural resources. But of course, I once again took out the actors. It’s really just a bunch of jagoffs, I mean industrialists, that have lost their frickin minds. And now they are bent on creating a global fascist order, or a global kleptocracy, or just rule by jagoffary, to unleash unfettered capitalism, and that will inevitably lead to a global catastrophe. We shouldn’t need the threat of global destruction to tell us not to pollute the water we drink or the air we breathe, but even the threat of global destruction is not enough to deter the industrialists. So here we are. At a time when we need global cooperation on a level that we have never achieved, we are instead ignoring all the blinking red warning signs and taking all constraints off of the industrialists that brought us this oncoming global disaster in the first place.
A lot of people tell me that the “market” will solve global warming. Really? Let’s put the actors back in, shall we? Will Silicon Valley solve global warming while its main goal is developing the most reckless energy-intensive product of all time? Will the oil industry solve global warming while it’s tripling its plastic production and has a green light to drill, baby drill from the new autocrats? Will Elon Musk solve global warming by taking so much ketamine that he magically wills the Earth back into an equilibrium? That last one is probably the most likely scenario because it’s more likely that our current industrialists will gleefully run the planet into the ground and take out most of the life on Earth with them. No, our only option is to stop them.
If COVID-19 proved anything, it’s that the world can mobilize and come together as long as we have the right people in charge. But it also taught us that the stress of global trauma can easily be exploited by bad actors. And right now, if this autocratic trend continues, with America at its helm, well, the right people won’t be in charge—just as the reality of climate change gets all too real. Thirty years ago, climate scientists predicted basically everything we are experiencing today. What are they saying will happen in the next thirty years? Or fifty? Or one hundred? It boils down to this, no pun intended. Drastic increase in extreme weather, loss of coastal cities, acidification of the oceans, collapse of biodiversity and food chains and much more. And all of this will trigger mass migrations and resource wars. I would imagine part of the thinking of the autocrats is that draconian police states will fare better in that scenario, you know, lock everything down and keep everyone out. Just like in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. It’s an old fallicy that rich people fall into, the idea that their wealth and isolation can protect them from global disaster. That’s why we hear so many stories about billionaires building bunkers. I just wanted to say billionaires building bunkers, but it is true, they are.
Anyway, that’s how delusional they can be, and that’s why we have to take the keys away from them. Otherwise, they’ll end up like Prospero, and we’ll all suffer the consequences of their madness. The only solution is for us to view the natural resources of the planet as something that we need to maintain for future generations. The industrialists will never understand that, but many people do, and we need to put them in charge. But first, we have to reign in the industrialists.
**I copped the phrase capitalism ate democracy from my wife Kahrin. I had to give credit for that one because it’s pretty good.