The Grand Illusion of Capital: Capitals ultimate ‘illusion’

“Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration” (Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union, December 3, 1861)

One of the most annoying, frustrating etc. experiences in my academic, educational, and intellectual life has been the unwillingness of many of my colleagues to explore the rich history of anti-Capitalist thinking. This of course, extends specifically to the Marxist traditions, but also has a variety of perspectives.

During the Mass the priest recites the words “Fruit of the Vine and work of human hands.” in reference to what was necessary to ‘make’ the bread and wine. What is most interesting to me is that the priest doesn’t mention an ‘investor’ or ‘entrepreneur’ that was needed to make the Bread of Life. It appears that someone didn’t ‘need’ to ‘invest’ in the idea of actually making food for our species. It is interesting that in the ultimate experience of our Union (communion) with God as humans we are told what is “indispensable” in creating life is nature and human hands? One of the greatest ‘illusions’ that has been perpetrated by Capital (and the Capitalist class) is the illusion of an autonomous thing called Capital. This illusion has been obviously even more perpetrated in the newest iteration of Capital which some have chosen to term Neoliberalism.

I was recently talking to a friend of mine who is also an academic and he reminded me of how ‘nothing gets done without people willing to invest in an idea’. I had many concerns and questions for him. I would also pose them to the reader. I would be interested in how others might answer it. (1) What does the term ‘invest’ actually mean? What does it ‘look’ like? If it is giving money so that the necessary items can be bought to make the item; the obvious question is ‘where did that person get the money to begin with?” (2) Does our species actually need people to ‘invest’ in our instinct for life in a very concrete way? I find it difficult to believe that people had to be ‘convinced’ to ‘invest’ in the ideas of chairs, prior to which I assume we were all standing around getting very damn tired? 😛

We have spoken so much of the ‘erasure’ of various communities in the larger historical narrative. This includes the ‘whitewashing’ of history or history as told from a Eurocentric perspective. Or how Patriarchy has silenced the voice of women throughout history. Or the incredible silencing of the Trans perspective throughout all of history. I would like to suggest that one of the most pernicious silencing has happened towards our working class community members whose ‘work of human hands’ has allowed our species to thrive. This is especially true in relation to our capacity to work together in ways that allowed us to flourish among other groups who clearly were superior to us in many very important categories.

One of the reasons why this element of brainwashing that Capital has been able to accomplish so masterfully is of such vital importance to call out is that this illusion it truncates our capacity to respond to the situation at hand. In many ways we are constantly fighting shadows as though they were reality. I have spoken about this before but two of the ways this illusion manifests itself in our public discourse is

(1) In the ‘natural’ language of private property. We don’t realize that the concept of private property, particularly in its current iteration, is merely a functional myth to support wealth accumulation. and

(2) Because we begin from this illusion, we immediately deal with the question of life on earth and all political/economic questions from the location of ‘distribution.’ We ask ourselves “By what right do we have to ask Elon Musk, Bill Gates etc. to share ‘their’ wealth (which they of course are the sole creators of!).

Because of this error, we (the much larger percentage of our species) begin from a place of defensiveness. For me this is not a ‘personal’ attack on wealthy people. ALL OF US CREATE THINGS WITH “fruit of the vine and work of human hand(s).” This in no way would negate the incredible amount of ‘work of human hands’ done by anyone among our species. To the degree that many people are deeply concerned with being ‘woke’ during these times, I think that our capacity to awaken from the dreams (actually nightmares for most people) that Capital is trying to make us believe brought forth by this insight is an important first step in our liberation.