Capitalism as Death Cult
Thoughts on Thanatos.
From a Jungian/Freudian perspective, Thanatos and Eros are the forces of death and life. Psychologically, they encompass creativity, reproduction, growth (Eros), destruction, death, and malignant urges and thoughts (Thanatos). We all have both of them. In a biological system, they should exist in balance, as life depends on death to continue. Everything that lives must die, decay, and be reused to sustain subsequent life.
What if the primary energy that underlies capitalism is Thanatos? Colonialism is invested in the devaluation of life and patriarchy privileges power over life. None of these things strives for equity or the survival of our species or the world. Thanatos is the opposite of Eros, or the naturally opposing force. They should be balanced. But it’s like these stupid made-up ideologies are determined to destroy everything, including themselves while pretending they give you eternal life. If you believe in the illusion of scarcity, you buy into the pyramid scheme of oppression.
I keep thinking about the fundamental imbalance that patriarchy creates, which is the same imbalance that colonialism creates. Both conjure an illusionary pyramid of human value. They claim the pyramid is the natural state of things. The people at the top hoard resources and power but are also isolated, miserable, and fearful. Humans don’t do well in isolation; we’re built for community. When we’re fearful, we just want it all to stop. We can’t think about the future or the past. We’re stuck in the moment; we only want control and power over whatever freaks us out. This insecurity doesn’t make us happy or satisfied. It shuts down our frontal lobes and leads us to make shitty decisions. When our hindbrain runs the show, Thanatos shows up to stop the pain by any means possible. There is no creation in this place, only destruction.
We are such a weird species. We can feed, clothe, and house everyone on earth and likely provide them with healthcare and education. Instead, we waste tons of resources every day and let people starve. We create tons of unnecessary waste and use toxic instead of renewable resources. We murder each other over fear, greed, the capitalist fantasy of scarcity, and the false promise of safety from existential reality.
We know on some level that this is madness. The student protests for Gaza, which are now spreading across the world, are a manifestation of resistance to the eternal gaslighting of colonialism and capitalism. The press doesn’t cover this much, but the main demand of the protesters is university divestment from organizations that fund the war in Gaza. The protesters understand that capitalism and colonialism are inexorably linked. Hell, colonialism created capitalism.
I’m not saying we should embrace the forms of communism that have failed spectacularly. I’m saying that we have the collective brainpower to come up with something better than what we have right now. Something that integrates Marx’s prophetic understanding of the failures of capitalism (alienation, hoarding of resources) with what we’ve learned over the last hundred years about what types of economies and social systems can be made sustainable. Some countries feed, clothe, and treat their populace like their employers (because of taxes) instead of inconveniences. Others, like parts of the US (despite the current madness), have managed to be multicultural, multilingual, and socially progressive without exploding.
Social hierarchy is poison. It’s made-up bullshit to rationalize domination by a select few. It’s led to genocide, chattel slavery, war, and untold suffering. Economies that allow billionaires to exist while children starve are not sustainable or useful.
My graduate research suggested that Thanatos was a driving factor behind verbal hate online. The fear of death drives people to project their suffering onto others who don’t look like them or don’t strive to look a certain way by literally buying into healthism. But deep within, we must know that we are mortal and we will die. We know that any attempt to make the other the cause of our existential fear does nothing but create more suffering. Our souls know this, even if our brains resist.
The fight to end the genocide in Palestine is emblematic of this cognitive dissonance coming into consciousness. It’s a fight to end this madness. To force those blinded by engineered fear to recognize that we are one species, one family. We can’t keep excising pieces of ourselves, physically or psychologically, and expect to survive. And ultimately, the desire to survive should outstrip the fear that keeps us trapped in false, contradictory ideologies.
Reality is breaking through. We know climate change is an existential threat that must be reversed. Genocide is impossible to justify. All people — LGBTQIA people, women, Black people, brown, Asian, and disabled people must have equal rights for our species to survive. Community, food, shelter, education, and healthcare must be available to all.
Fear and othering have never, ever led to anything but horrors. We must grapple with the horrors we have visited on others, make reparations, and educate every person on the history and the peoples of the lands we inhabit.
Never Again means everyone, and it will come to pass when we collectively choose to stop ignoring history and start dealing with reality.
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