Who said there isn't revenge in Capitalism?

FROM: REVENGE POLITICS, REVENGE ECONOMY, REVENGE CULTURE

Photo By Max Haiven on April 20, 2022

By Michael Kpade

Understanding Revenge Capitalism on a Traditional Level

The quest to understand revenge capitalism is a confusing and arduous task. When Max Haiv describes the “what is” of revenge capitalism, he claims that he is not here to describe what revenge is but rather what it does, in the present moment. In colluding the brutality of revenge and effects of capitalism, he concludes that “revenge is a useful adjective to attach to capitalism because it helps explain the seemingless irrational certainly bloodcurdling violence of that system which reduces so many of us to utter worthlessness and disposability” (Haiv). While we can agree with his message and his claim on the impact of capital, this essay intends to respectfully challenge the notion that capitalism only appears as vengeful and irrational. In fact, I assert that Capitalism is rationally vengeful in every sense of the word. There is a clear reason for its vengeful nature, and there is also clear logic behind its task for revenge and enslavement of the soul. In this essay we presuppose that the reader understands the calamities of capitalism. This paper intends to describe the vengeful origin of capitalism. Capitalism is revenge on the bourgeois demand for freedom. It is only an existential crisis of bourgeois society where the laws and freedoms of capital & property start to contradict itself. It commodifies every existence on the planet and outside, including the most important inherent human quality; freedom and life itself. The question this essay poses is not just what and why is capitalism the way it is, but how do we answer its vengeance?

The Vengeful Origins of Capitalism

The birth of capitalism can be traced from the establishment of feudalism, to the rise of the corporatocracy. To understand the exploitative nature of capitalism, one must first understand the task of bourgeois society — To transform society into continuous states of freedom and becoming. This was revolutionary to trade, labor, equality, class and the way of life. Bourgeois ideology does what Rousseau and Jefferson promise i.e to “find these truths self-evident that all men are created equal with rights to life, liberty and property (Pursuit of happiness)”.

The impact of this on the feudal community was phenomenal in the sense that it did transform society– in theory and in practice. The French & American Revolution are testimony for the demand for these newfound bourgeois rights. The rights to life, liberty and property redefined freedom and made away with the stagnation of life, value and the oppression of previous decades. The truly revolutionary idea was the demand for the rights to property. Within this freedom lies the abolition of feudal slavery, and the various forms of forced labor (among white people of course). To own property is to own the rights of your own labor and essential your own life, because in the end what is property if not the fruits of your labor? And what is labor if not the product of your life? And if I must go further, what is life, if not the manifestation of love? Bourgeois society grants the opportunity for the freedom to life, love and labor.

However it's crucial to understand that what was once meant to be bourgeois is not what Marx and we are experiencing today under capitalism. In our crisis, the bourgeois ideology comes into contradiction with itself. The freedoms become divisive, the liberties are taken for granted and the rights to property are abused. Why does bourgeois society become this perversion called capitalism? It's simple. In an effort to demand freedom, capitalism arises as an unforeseen effect of the abuse of these ideologies. It presents itself in appearance as a sort of vengeance on the insistent global demand for freedom. By commodifying freedom and life itself , it makes each a product that must come at the cost of another. It convinces us that it is normal for oppression to exist so that a select few may enjoy the benefits of freedom. Furthemore it confirms that by predatory value extraction both the oppressor and the oppressed benefit. It fails to mention however that they only benefit under the banner of capital, everything else deteriorates as a result. Even the radical bourgeoisie (Adam Smith, Abbe Sayez) were critical of what could become of present day capitalism. They protested against imperialism, slavery and all the institutions of unfreedom. In A Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith is skeptical of the future of bourgeois society, claiming that we were either going to achieve true freedom or perfect slavery. By indoctrinating our education capitalism presents itself as a necessary type of evil to ensure its own existence. It preys on the power of the few who benefit from it this reinforcing class conflicts. In doing this it achieves vengeance on the demand for the abolition of class. To ensure its existence, it totalizes its own identity, and commodifies the cost of freedom in the most cataclysmic way. If we were to ask capitalism, What is the price of freedom? Its first answer would be “for whom?” Its next answer would be “Everything and Everyone else” True to that Capitalism sacrifices every other life form and existence to the continuous reproduction of capital and growth of wealth for what we know now as the bourgeoisie. Capitalism only replaces feudalism for a false notion of freedom while the inherent value of it becomes lost.

Capitalism, Enlightenment, Domination

Adorno and Horkheimer claim in the DIalectic of the Enlightenment,”“world domination over nature turns against the thinking subject itself; nothing is left of it except that ever-unchanging” (Adorno & Horkheimer). They speak on the purpose of enlightenment and its objective connection to the reproduction of capitalism. It describes it as mastery and in this case world domination over nature. In the year 2022, these crises are well underway and the predatory value extraction is only an example of how capitalism spurs the violent domination of nature. No entity in this world is free from the grasp of capital. And the factors of its vengeance are personified in the very destruction of the natural forces that determine our survival. However its vengeance does not end there, in manipulating the essence of enlightenment, it influences the transformation of rational thought from animism to reification. In animism, the dead are given the value of life. It is the rational process used to govern the components of mythology such as spirits, ancestors, gods and demons etc. But in reification, there is a deadification of the living or more concretely; the thingification of person and the personification of things. Capitalism establishes vengeance, by ripping mankind of the very value of life. In capitalism we are all commodities. The actual labor we produce is irrelevant, so long as it serves the reproduction of capitalism. No individual is important because it is not even the talent or the passion of people that matters but the deadened presence of an object that pushes the mechanical process to function. It estranges man from the true meaning of life. It mocks us and our freedom. Because through that illusion it has enslaved us to ourselves, to our society. It hopes to eradicate us because in increasing domination over nature it decreases the probability of our survival as a species. It is through these acts of vengeance that we recognize an ecological crisis. It is through reification that we recognize the lack of empathy and the hunger crisis, homelessness crisis etc. Again it is through the destruction of mankind's inherent value to love, life and labor that we experienced the racism crisis, the hate crime crisis, the standard of living crisis. My people , do not let the world lie to you. By disguising itself as a creation for the flourish of humanity, capitalism has gained a position to wreak havoc and destroy the essence of us all.

Revenge Or Justice

The question now is, how do we absolve ourselves from the vengeance of Capitalism? Will we shrink by and forfeit our demands for freedom? Will we lose hope and eternally fall under the guise of capitalistic brutality? No. The question of giving up isn't even an option in this text. However the question of vengeance is a lot more misleading than one might initially assume. On whom do we get violence on? In Revenge Capitalism, it is described as a patriarchal construct. Then is the target of our vengeance, the patriarchy, the oppressors, the corporation? if we are to judge on the sake of vengeance for vengeance sake, then perhaps but essentially, itt is wholly misguided to direct our vengeance on an individual or a group. That will not stop capitalism, and it will not end our oppression. My people, it is not vengeance we should strive for but Justice. Capitalism eats away at all the life and love of the creations of the world. Let us reclaim it. It is our birthright, like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglas, exclaimed, we believe these rights to be self-evident that all men are equal and entitled to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To give away all that in the name of this abridged version of property, is a mutilation of the soul. Our revenge against capitalism is steadfast and deadly. Because while it is easy to punish our oppressors, these corporations, it is significantly harder to influence systemic justice. Ideological Justice. Critical Justice. So far as we live under capitalism we will continue to die in the streets, be plagued by gentrification, be convicted unfairly. We will all be subject to loss of life and love and eventually the true meaning of property because on your deathbed, you will not recognize yourself. You will not be your own creature. I implore you, the children of America, when you hear vengeance, do not be fooled by some violent barbaric iteration of the word. King was not naive when he asked for non-violence. He was strategic. And so must we be. The corporatocracy has amassed the power of nations. They have the ability to restructure countries in their own image. They have earned their place in capitalism. They are not willing to give it up. We are fighting an uphill battle. To fight against capital is to fight against every institution that already exists. Martin Luther King once said “ Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything against love” The actual path to victory may be unclear. It may be fragmented, but I believe developing this mindset is crucial. We are fighting for a cause much greater than anything anyone has ever fought for. The freedom to life, love & labor. And no matter what you achieve under capitalism, you are not free until we are all free.