The infinite potentials of capitalism

The French philosopher presents his new book
The infinite potential of capitalism.

Interview with Jean Michelle Oignag.

In his home in Paris, the great French philosopher, a friend of Sartre and Prevert, presents his latest work to a selected audience of journalists. For us, Lucia Mondella

Professor, why capitalism seems to be stronger than communism, so that even the Chinese regime is corrupted by this form of economic policy?

“Because capitalism is based on the law of the jungle. Of course there are many nuances and, in large part of the world, this simplification may seem ridiculous, but it is necessary to understand what is capitalism. The main difference between the two economic systems is that communism is more “artificial” and therefore more immature.”

Is the system or the population to be immature?

“Objection understandable, but a system is a system only if it is applied. A theoretical system can not be defined neither mature nor immature. We need proof of the facts. “

And the facts say that capitalism is winning.

“In the short term, certainly yes. But when capitalism will come at the peak of its development, humanity will tend to its opposite, leaving progressively individualism. Moreover, we are already experiencing this stage in much of Europe, even though the imbalance will continue to grow. “

In other words, capitalism must express its full potential before exhausting its thrust.

“Exactly. I note with pleasure that you carefully read my book. The communist regimes have failed and will fail precisely because they concentrated on a principle valid in itself, but in fact inapplicable. The individual and social entelechy tends to break all ties, to realize that some restrictions are necessary to reach a balance.”

In short, capitalism is the only way, a required step.

“All cultures have initiation rites. The significance of these rites is that the young person can join the adult world, the world of power. But, to be exercised, the power requires inner stability. Otherwise, the risk is to pursue personal aims and not collective. As a society, we are still in adolescence. We see others as a potential enemy, even when they assist us in our battles. However, this is a necessary stage to maturity, without this step can not be achieved any project of social equity. “

And so here the infinite potentials of capitalism, that, in its profound injustice, pushes the individual to fight to improve their social status.

“Unfortunately, this is particularly true in techno-economic terms. But it is indisputable that this rule has repercussions even in cultural and scientific sphere. Communism, however, in the attempt, often hypocritical, to apply the principle of equality, has choked the main reason that drives man to fight, that’s happiness. Comunism has turned people into numbers, into barcode that should not have claims, but only enslave the supreme good of the nation, one of the strongest forms of alienation. The advantage of capitalism is not to be pretentious. It simply means that the stronger has the right to win the weak, just like in nature. “

Homo homini lupus in positivist sauce?

“Why not? Latin mottoes enclose ancient wisdom and they has been too often misunderstood or made absolute. I believe that the era of empires is about to end, so we should keep in mind what happened after the so-called roman’s peace.”

Do you refer to the current situation in the Middle East and to the current U.S. government policy?

“I refer the claim to be bearers of peace to the sound of bombing. Stalin’s motto, which unites in a deadly embrace war and peace, is only valid if there is balance in the forces. Today there isn’t this balance and the risk is to back up to a position anterior to the advent of democracies.”

[italian version]

The system will implode

As in the best milleniaristic traditions, defeatism seems to be for some a dark evil that infects all the structures and superstructures of complex configured systems, like our modern society. Is there something that should make it wiser in spite of a fat and juicy optimism, so dear to some clockwised and old fascioned [1] politic?

Now it’s clear that neither side can be neither fully wrong, nor fully right, but there must be an indisputable way to determine if the fucking glass is empty or is filling up. It is important to find the method, before you decide how to act.

It seems to be the hot water discovery after it was invented solar thermal and solar photovoltaics, as if the arduous climb to the mountain of knowledge could suddenly revert to the slopes of obscurantism and superstition, to tumble into a den of lions or into the moist, blackened dungeons of the witch hunt.

That’s why I like defeatists. They are motivated by fear that those times could come back, because they have the perception that they existed, while who flaunts optimism and would impose it at all costs, make me distrustful. Because I suspect that they have not learned anything from history and the confirmation comes through numerous reproaches from an optimist person to a pessimist one, and rarely on the contrary.

Gramsci, an italian politician, said: “The pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.”

This is epistemological guarantism, because nature is fundamentally evil and life a magic and highly unstable equilibrium. It is the transience of life to force us to keep our feet on the ground, while the hope is that makes us fly.

Pessimism of the will and the optimism of the reason, however, lead to fascism, as an example of precognitive blindness. Because a pessimist will is a desire that tends to the death and an optimist reason is a reason that thinks enough of itself, a disease that leads to solipsism.

However, the system will surely implode. You just need to determine how, where and when. And how to contribute. And if we are ready to assist the event.

[1] it’s a joke of words between “old fashioned” and “fascism”.

[italian version]