Thoughts on the perception of capitalism while reading Michael Hays essay about Mies van der Rohe
..But what underlies this acceptance of a drive towards technological control in the minds of the ‘middle’ and ‘upper’-classes - “We cant stop going! We’ll all die!” - and therefor upholds such faith in capitalism? What kind of hopeful and aspirational images are still allowing people to accept it as ultimately necessary and therefor good because it is a means to an end?
A side effect of the dread refuge dialectic as the “biological” motor of our actions - for example ‘we fear death by asteroid, therefor the only thing that can protect us is space travel to colonise other worlds’ - propels a faith in the pursuit of technological progress which is perceived as the only means by which to achieve a control that will finally set free from a terror of helplessness as nanoscpoic, fragile organic beings immersed in an indifferent, spectacularly violent material universe. The perception that must necessarily be maintained, is that we are always, ‘getting somewhere’ and that therefor, capitalism is a means to an end that is working…more or less.
We do not see people exchanging money in stories of the distant future - for instance Star Trek - and think about it: would you hope that if we were to colonise a planet in Trappist 1 with no technological life, we would import capitalism? No - Of course not! Capitalism has never been idealised by anyone as an end unto itself. It has been justified as the best way to arrive at total control that we have found yet, even though things get very ugly and we might (or already have) lost part of ourselves along the way. The most serious problem with all of this faith and hope is of course, it would seem by judging global-capitalist societies current trajectory, is also not really going to get us anywhere but sick, lonely, infertile and dead.
..But what underlies this acceptance of a drive towards technological control in the minds of the ‘middle’ and ‘upper’-classes - “We cant stop going! We’ll all die!” - and therefor upholds such faith in capitalism? What kind of hopeful and aspirational images are still allowing people to accept it as ultimately necessary and therefor good because it is a means to an end?
A side effect of the dread refuge dialectic as the “biological” motor of our actions - for example ‘we fear death by asteroid, therefor the only thing that can protect us is space travel to colonise other worlds’ - propels a faith in the pursuit of technological progress which is perceived as the only means by which to achieve a control that will finally set free from a terror of helplessness as nanoscpoic, fragile organic beings immersed in an indifferent, spectacularly violent material universe. The perception that must necessarily be maintained, is that we are always, ‘getting somewhere’ and that therefor, capitalism is a means to an end that is working…more or less.
We do not see people exchanging money in stories of the distant future - for instance Star Trek - and think about it: would you hope that if we were to colonise a planet in Trappist 1 with no technological life, we would import capitalism? No - Of course not! Capitalism has never been idealised by anyone as an end unto itself. It has been justified as the best way to arrive at total control that we have found yet, even though things get very ugly and we might (or already have) lost part of ourselves along the way. The most serious problem with all of this faith and hope is of course, it would seem by judging global-capitalist societies current trajectory, is also not really going to get us anywhere but sick, lonely, infertile and dead.
