I’m still used to thinking that evil people are mostly caused by material factors and their environment, but with all the stuff I’ve been seeing recently, I’m slowly becoming more and more open to the idea that “sometimes evil is just evil”.
It’s the natural tendency of an exploitative ruling class. Before there was a Musk, there was a Koch, a Rockefeller, a Thomas Jefferson and a Rochambeau. Even in feudalism we had our fair share of the likes of Popes Urbanus II and Innocentius III. I’d be way more surprised if the exploiters weren’t cruel in their exploitation, as that’d be against their class interests.
well…good part of their ideas depend from the age range of the bourgeoisie and their place of birth, extrapolated to the usual need of defending their class interest, and some alienation caused by the current stage of capitalism
-if they’re born in wealth, some of them want to feel like kings of the past, but liberalism and their bourgueois ideas of “egalite, free market and sheeit” get in their way, so they’re in a contradiction of having a king’s life, but feeling the need of being considered as royalty (musk, trump, thiel)
-if they’re born on poverty but had a quick ascension to the bourgeoisie, they still have remnants of their petty-bourgeoius ideas, and still have the pressure of attack the proletariat with special hate to keep their profits flowing, but want to destroy the “cronies” that have the power of the state to feel “safe” of having “more taxes” levied against them and their “deserved wealth and status”
I don’t really think a moral analysis of capitalism is that useful from a scientific standpoint. It only has utility in propaganda for people who can’t comprehend Marxian theory. But if we are going to carry out a moral analysis anyways, I think it’s rather apparent that capitalism requires exploiting others to get rich, so naturally, people who are the richest are those who are the most sociopathic and the most willing to exploit others.
This means paying people little while you live in immense wealth off of their labor, but even more so, companies that can skirt as many regulations as possible and outright scam as many people as possible without getting in trouble will be the most successful and thus are encouraged to do so. We already see how Musk’s companies pollute the environment and get away with it, or how he outright false advertises to get investments all the time and never gets in trouble for it.
Lying, cheating, stealing, exploiting, poisoning others, the system encourages it all. Even worse, since private companies are so tied up directly with the state these days, private corporations can benefit from massacring others with military force and conquering markets abroad in that way. The richest are those who are perfectly fine with carrying out a holocaust to make their portfolio go up a little.
Capitalism creates a system in which the most greedy and evil humans will always make it to the top. And the west has created the perfect, and longest running “breeding ground” for it. Near endless resources. A massive tax base to leech from. 100+ years of public propaganda to protect the elites from scrutiny. A mostly docile, uneducated population with just enough rabidly cultish extremists that salivate at murdering people that disagree with said propaganda. It’s all there. Perfect growing conditions for the parasites.
Capitalism rewards greed (or more accurately capital accumulation). It doesn’t reward evil, evil is a side effect of prizing capital accumulation above any moral framework. Like the paperclip maximizer, capitalism is cold, calculating, and without morals, resulting in one thing: maximization of profit.
If, in some parallel universe, the best way to maximize capital accumulation were to ensure well-being for everyone (stay with me here), then that is what the bourgeoisie would do. They are not evil, they are amoral.
Anyone disagreeing with this may want to brush up on the difference between materialism and idealism
The Western bourgeoisie are the inheritors of the unchecked great resentments, fears, and traumas of all of humanity. Patriarchy. Ownership. Paranoia. Empire. War. The West has developed these in an essentially unbroken process from the cradle of humanity. It is the pinnacle of our collective trauma as a species. Every other society that also had some or all of these was forced to confront their own inner demons when they met the Westerners. It is only th West who has not yet met the West.
500 years of unchecked European imperialism have produced a culture in which racism and supremacism are embedded to the core.
Bourgeoisie chases their own short term interest, there is nothing metaphysically evil about it. The consequences are dire for everyone in the long run. Including most of the bourgeoisie as the concentration of capital happens inside the owning class too. Eventually, with destruction of our environment, even for the very wealthiest.
Western bourgeoisie isn’t better or worse by itself. The environment there is different and bourgeois class has overwhelming political power. In e.g. China bourgeoisie exists but it has no power, it’s the most important difference.
Start with the material conditions (relations rather than stresses) leading to the idea; it should stop any metaphysical immutable explanations. As Marx said nothing human is alien (though imperialism amd fascism really tests the waters for me). As westerners have defined their westernism intriniscally linked to the exploitation of the other and until that relationship changes it will be difficult to have a western identity separate to that.
All bourgeoisie is evil and fucked up, Western one just has the most power, so they can do more shit.
the west has been sowing for 500 years and hasnt reaped much yet. combined with capitalism, this naturally produces extremely insufferable people.
That’s the kind of behavior rewarded by market competition. The ones who aren’t evil and fucked up will struggle to properly exploit and superexploit, so they either fall behind their bourgeois peers or willingly leave their bourgeois lifestyles behind for something less stressful and evil. Then there’s the people who aren’t simply born into their ruling class status, and they can only get there if they’re willing to lie and cheat and steal and kill and worse to get to the top.
In order to understand properly, I think we need to look at where and why colonialism originated and then proliferated. Not something I know enough about, admittedly. I more so know it’s a thing and that it has done unfathomable amounts of harm, less so why. But in the scientific socialist view, there should be material conditions that helped set the stage for colonialism to develop.
its not just the western bougies. There is something about unchecked power and wealth that fucks people up.
Evil is Evil, but it can’t exist in a vacuum, that’s the problem.
The way I look at it, Evil is the act which denies others of their freedoms. Good is when you free people from their chains. But you can commit evil to chain someone and liberate the other and then feel good about it.
Instead of correcting evil by doing good, now you have evil reinforcing evil and masking as good. This is how a self-reinforcing loop is created.
Our societies depend on others remaining chained. We have our freedoms, because others do not. If the others were to be liberated, we would lose the freedom we currently experience.
We don’t want to do that. We say: “Nonononono… just hold on a minute, we just need to build more technology, okay things are bad for some, but hold on with enough advancement everyone can be saved, hold on if you just redistribute what we’ve got then, then… who would know how to continue? The people? They don’t know how to work these machines!! Listen if you take away this stuff you’ll plunge humanity into darkness and regress!!! I know it’s built on slave labor, but listen to me I can free everyone from slavery, if you just give me some time and have patience, soon I will liberate everyone. Okay I know life sucks for you, but hold on, gosh darn it why do you people keep interfering with progress!!! If it wasn’t for your constant interference, if you JUST PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN and, excuse me for yelling, anyways, if you just. put. down. your. head. and did what I told you, if you and your people just did that we’d be on colonizing Mars already! Can’t you see how much burden is on my shoulders when I just want everyone to be free? :(”
