Caitlin Johnstone

Capitalism, Assange, And More Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Capitalism will keep getting more and more unjust and exploitative until people force its end. You can try making it about elite globalist conspiracies and corrupt governments all you want, but ultimately it’s really just capitalism following its natural and inevitable course. This is why I often avoid making our world’s problems about specific individuals;…

Caitlin Johnstone
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Capitalism will keep getting more and more unjust and exploitative until people force its end. You can try making it about elite globalist conspiracies and corrupt governments all you want, but ultimately it’s really just capitalism following its natural and inevitable course.

This is why I often avoid making our world’s problems about specific individuals; our world’s problems are not about specific individuals. You could get rid of all the individuals currently screwing us and if you kept the same systems they’d be replaced almost instantly.

People whose ideology prohibits them from admitting capitalism is responsible for humanity’s existential crises need to make up other reasons for those crises. It’s the globalists. It’s the Jews. It’s corrupt politicians. No, it’s just capitalism doing what capitalism has to do. There are no specific groups or individuals you could eliminate from the equation to make capitalism move in a healthy way. As long as depravity is profitable and human behavior is driven by profit, humanity will always necessarily follow a depraved trajectory.

This doesn’t mean criticisms of individuals are invalid, they’re just not striking the root. Get rid of all the elites poisoning the world today and if you leave the same systems in place we’ll find ourselves getting screwed by the Whateverski family and some guy named O’Donnell.

So many of the popular theories in today’s conspiracy circles ultimately boil down to “Oh no, the elites are ruining the capitalism!”

No they’re not. They are perfectly embodying it.

~

The Assange case is this generation’s Nelson Mandela moment. Get on the right side of it or be forever judged by history.

~

Every news outlet and every journalist who is not speaking out for Assange with urgency and force is admitting they have no intention of ever challenging power in any meaningful way; they’re saying this trial poses no threat to them. They are admitting they are propagandists.

~

It’s so interesting how all these pedantic little transnational legal quibbles about Assange and WikiLeaks can be stitched together into a prosecution whose end result just so happens to look exactly the same as powerful governments imprisoning a journalist for exposing US war crimes.

~

The Assange trial looks different when you realize it’s actually just a collaborative performance by the US and UK governments to explain why it’s good to jail journalists for telling the truth.

~

If you can’t see that the US-centralized empire is the most destructive and oppressive force on this earth, then you won’t see any part of the rest of the world clearly either.

~

Prisoner: Let me out of this cell! I’ve done nothing wrong!

Warden: Okay, here’s the key. You’re free.

Prisoner: This key is three feet long and made out of foam!

Warden: It’ll work, just keep trying.

Prisoner: This is impossible! What the hell is this?

Warden: We call it voting.

~

The outcome of the US election in November will have no meaningful impact whatsoever on humanity’s rapidly accelerating trajectory toward extinction, but it’ll be great for news media ratings.

~

QAnon is all the dumbest things about Republicans crossed with all the dumbest things about 4chan crossed with all the dumbest things about boomers crossed with the dumbest iteration of conspiracy analysis you could possibly imagine.

~

Believing this new cold war is safe because we survived the last one is as sane as believing Russian roulette is safe because the guy passing you the gun didn’t get his head blown off.

~

The position that detente should be sought with China and Russia is not a position that says their governments are wonderful, it’s the position that the neoconservative ideology of US unipolar domination at all cost is not worth gambling the life of every terrestrial organism on.

~

The Iraq invasion killed hundreds of times more people than 9/11 and was vastly more evil than 9/11. If they lied to us about Iraq, they’ll lie to us about anything.

~

In a remotely sane world, war would be the last thing anyone ever wants and would be turned to only as a very last resort. In a world that’s dominated by an empire which seeks total planetary control, wars are planned as an ends in themselves and excuses are invented to get into them.

~

The impulse to control things is why egos exist. The impulse to control things is also why empires exist.

~

Psychology is the tool propagandists use to manipulate us into consenting to the status quo. The more you understand about the workings of your own mind, the easier a time you’ll have spotting all manipulations. See how you fool yourself and you’ll see how they fool everyone.

_________________________

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39 responses to “Capitalism, Assange, And More Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. Jay Are Avatar
    Jay Are

    This article’s magical thinking presumes untaxed, unregulated capitalism’s mutually profitable exchanges of goods and services can co-exist in a socialist welfare state. No taxes, no taxfunded military, no wars. But behind socialist magical thought is always somebody looking to “redistribute” the adverse consequences socialism to non-existent capitalism, so as retain support for and likely to profit from the effortless paycheck redistribution of socialism. Lots of people would rather vote for the livings of others, than work for their own, and pretend the resulting nation of legalized socialist thieves, wreaking social and economic havoc, could become utopian paradise, if only capitalism could be destroyed once and for all. Magical thinking, it fools almost all, as long as it’s never called propaganda.

    1. John Knox Avatar
      John Knox

      You should go invade Venezuela, I hear it’s totally easy.

  2. Joe Van Steenbergen Avatar
    Joe Van Steenbergen

    Capitalism presents us with a conundrum. Capitalism lifted millions (billions?) of people out of poverty. We may not like to admit or understand that, but it’s true, nonetheless.

    But . . . it is becoming clear that the unbridled accumulation of wealth is thoroughly corrupting, to the point that the ultra-wealthy firmly believe they are destined to tell the rest of the world how to live. It is the ultra-wealthy who foment war as a profit-making machine. Question is: Given that the ultra-wealthy possess all the money (almost), all the media, all the power, how on earth could it be even possible that we could remove them from exercising nearly-ultimate power over all of us?

  3. Mae Avatar
    Mae

    Sometimes I just think we are just in a modern version of an ancient battle between the trolls and the faeries.

  4. pasha Avatar
    pasha

    Yes, we have to get rid of capitalism. But it goes deeper than that. Any system with a profit motive will eventually devolve into the same oppressive system.
    As long as we profess ourselves comfortable with the idea that one person can have billions, while billions have nothing, we will have the same system. We can go on aguing whether it’s slavery or feudal or imperial or federal or cooperative or communist or socialist or whatever.
    As the (deservedly) much reviled (and sometimes absolutely spot-on) George Monbiot says, maybe XR is the beginnings of an answer.
    If we don’t love our planet, and start behaving as if we do, we will kill it, and us.

  5. Maggie May Avatar
    Maggie May

    “They will lie to us about anything.” Including 911 and the Covid Pandemic, 2 things you refuse to cover. Bummer.

    1. David Avatar
      David

      Spot on. Im always amazed at anyone who will rant and rave about this or that but, but, BUT…. (that one thing). Because we all “know” they lie all of the time but this time they’re telling the truth. Yeah… as if.

    2. James M. Avatar
      James M.

      Agreed. When will Caitlin do an article about her own country’s tyrannical acting government?

  6. Lili-Ann Berg Avatar
    Lili-Ann Berg

    As always – spot on. Glad you mentioned psychologists – useless lackeys to the establishment.

  7. John Thomas Avatar
    John Thomas

    To get it more sharply into focus, it is *Finance Capitalism* that harbours the lethal toxin. It’s otherwise known as usury. Money has no fecundity. Interest-debt of money is fraud plain and simple. At least if ‘A’ lends seeds to ‘B’ then at payback of the seed debt it is possible to include extra seeds as a bonus. Seeds have fecundity. That sort of capitalism is only mildly toxic. But back to usury, come on, how you all gonna pay back these preposterous debts shown here?: https://commodity.com/data/debt-clock/ You can’t can you? Yet you all believe in banksters money created out of thin air but lent to you and your government at interest. Your politicians are not going to help you, they’re bankster friendly. The solution is from the street upwards. New honest interest-free money is what we need. Peoples’ money from a non-profit making People’s Bank. We’ll even lose the chains of debt-slavery! But I suspect the people of the ‘free’ world are addicted to feeling wronged in some way. They’ll even knowingly vote for misery time after time.

  8. M. Avatar
    M.

    I believe there is a trauma fetish that runs rampant in capitalism. Its an ancient and widespread residue all across history and most cultures including empires, feudalism, the stupidity of wars, pillaging, slavery, torture, banishment, with new improvements of prisons, modern warfare, surveillance, policing, ecocide, absurd political spectacles, psychiatric medications, mass media distortions, consumerism, and minimum wage jobs.
    The problem is the mind is plastic, and it shapes itself around the path laid before it. There are very few niches for people who want something different, and with such ubiquitous unacknowledged – unresolved trauma. If you luck upon a community outside of the dominant, the effects bleed into it, since none of us are spared from the reach of those still affected by it, everyone that attempts to break out already has gone through its gauntlet already. Most people would scoff to think a system that traumatizes all of its constituents isnt normal. People are trying to force something to work in literal defiance of the rules of nature or perhaps an emphasis on the rules no one wants for themselves, and their imaginations run wild with all the 2 dimensional images of the things they want.
    Emotionally we are suffocated with 3 emotions happy, content, and joyful, which people are forced to be at work in order to act “professional” and keep their job that provides them with an illusory modicum of self determination.
    People carry this baggage into other areas of their lives and dont know how to ask the questions their psyche is begging them with emotions they would rather bury and supress, express poorly, or numb with substance use or process addictions. I think this is where ttansformation begins to be possible, when we can feel and accept our full range of suffering, and attempt to engage authentically with our own shit.

  9. Brockland A.T. Avatar
    Brockland A.T.

    There’s nothing wrong with capitalism. There’s no more effective and efficient way for strangers to exchange goods and services, some of which can be quite scarce, on a grand scale.

    There’s everything wrong with cronyism, and crony capitalism is the inevitable end of allowing cronyism to run amuck, allowing cheats and crooks and psychos to prosper.

    Same thing happened under crony communism. Sure, its possible to rationally assign goods and services under central planning; its just that cronyists will more easily hack the centre.

    Under capitalism, the inevitable reassertion of real market demand is recognized as a feature, not a bug. Those on top are always at risk of falling behind or outright falling if they do inept things like be corrupt.

    Communism/socialism today would be the last resort of failing crony capitalists to freeze society with their socio-economic positions on top assured, not a great reset to social justice.

    1. Tim Avatar
      Tim

      I think there is some confusion about what “Capitalism” means. I am by no means an authority on this! I am just exploring my ideas….

      What you are describing sounds like trade. Trade is based on power; between equals it is a good thing, although if there is a power imbalance it usually becomes exploitative – so we should champion fair trade, not free trade. Trade is perfectly compatible with socialism.

      Capitalism is the systematisation of the idea that there are haves and have-nots. it is a system that allows the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, and without a strong counterbalancing force like a central authority that can redistribute wealth more equally, it is inherently unstable because of the positive feedback of wealth, and as Caitlin says, must inevitably collapse.

  10. Stephen Sadd Avatar
    Stephen Sadd

    Caitlin, when I hit post comment after fulfilling the Captcha, it does not load the post (first attempt), second, third, forth and fifth attempts, show “duplicate post” when no post has been loaded to your website. Hope this helps you understand what is happening!

    1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
      Tired and no longer active revolutionary

      You comment will not appear if you copy the URL for your website into the space for linking your Website when trying to comment.

  11. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and no longer active revolutionary

    Capitalism means every man for himself. Most developed nations practice a hybrid of capitalism for the rich most other people and socialism for poor or unemployed people. Taxes redistribute private wealth from the haves to the have-nots; from rich to poor or unemployed people. That collectivist principle manages benefits and social control from a central office = socialism.

    1. Brockland A.T. Avatar
      Brockland A.T.

      People often forget, Adam Smith wrote two books, ‘Wealth of Nations’ (the how of capitalism), and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (the why of capitalism).

      What is now inadequately called ‘socialism’, has always been component to capitalism.

  12. Stephen Sadd Avatar
    Stephen Sadd

    Google is blocking my posts from the CAPTCHA!

  13. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and no longer active revolutionary

    Understanding the workings of our minds is only the first step to a better life and a better world. Changing the workings of our minds is the crucial next step and that is where most people fail. After changing our minds and priorities we must change our actions. This is what counts. Sadly, this is too challenging for most people. Nevertheless, those few who do succeed in changing their minds, priorities and actions will become revolutionaries and cause the polarization of society and ultimately precipitate the collapse of this civilization to prepare the way for the new age of peace, justice, freedom, prosperity and good health for all survivors. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf

  14. David Avatar
    David

    I get the same nonsense from people too about how what is being done by bankers and corporations today is not real Capitalism. This is usually from people who are not capitalists themselves; they are salaried or waged workers; deeply conditioned from childhood to be ideologically capitalist. It’s like a religious belief for them. But if you talk to them you can hear their ideology & vision is essentially the Toy Town Capitalism they learned in school; you know, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. The same people often say that Socialism is anything a government does which they dont like. You cant get anywhere with people so deeply indoctrinated. They are never going to wake up or understand. Our world wont be saved from destruction by some mass awakening.

    1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
      Tired and no longer active revolutionary

      Good comment, but rather pessimistic

  15. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “There are no specific groups or individuals you could eliminate from the equation to make capitalism move in a healthy way. As long as depravity is profitable and human behavior is driven by profit, humanity will always necessarily follow a depraved trajectory.”
    .
    Capitalism without depravity. Might be worth a try. Haven’t tried that one yet. In fact, if you remove depravity from everything, everything will be much better. Anything will be perverted if it’s fueled by depravity. Even depravity itself.
    .
    “The outcome of the US election in November will have no meaningful impact whatsoever on humanity’s rapidly accelerating trajectory toward extinction, but it’ll be great for news media ratings.”
    .
    But not as great as the social uproar that will be the result shortly after the counting is over.
    .
    “Psychology is the tool propagandists use to manipulate us into consenting to the status quo.”
    .
    Another tool is “Daddy-ism”. The State is Daddy. We learn as children to try to please Daddy, in whatever form we see Daddy in no matter how old we are.

  16. John Avatar
    John

    Caitlin at her best!!

  17. Westley Avatar
    Westley

    “Capitalism…until people force its end.”
    And give us 1984? or a Society of finance without ideology?
    Of the three ideologies Liberalism, the oldest (Aleksandr Dugin) whose economic expression is capitalism triumphed as the last ideology (Fukuyama) by defeating Fascism in WWII and waging the Cold War ending Communism/socialism with the disintegration of the USSR.
    What ideology can provide repair for my washing machine?
    Seems only a totalitarian ideology “might” be able to prevent all nuclear power plants from melting down. If we move quickly.

  18. khatika Avatar
    khatika

    I noticed things started getting out of control about the time they started issuing credit cards. Debt super fueled capitalism. Capitalism is good and productive when debt is not allowed and all growth is slow and organic.

  19. Lynn Avatar
    Lynn

    Obviously, capitalism isn’t the problem; people are, communism wasn’t bad, it was bad incompetent people who made it bad. Face it, people are just bad, evil, incompetent, dumb animals, and no doubt they talk s***, write dumb books, etcetera, but so what? Take a walk at night away from a city, and we can hear coyotes and wolves howling as well. Doesn’t really say anything at all about anything that has to do with signifying that people have anything at all to do signifying that people have either the intelligence or spiritual wherewithal to exist as anything other than just another dumb animal.

    1. Losr Avatar
      Losr

      I agree with Lynn.

      It is hard to have a debate regarding whether capitalism is good or bad without first defining what it is and what the goals of a society are. That being said, I’m not sure I agree with the critique that capitalism is the root of the problem. No disrespect to the author intended, but in my opinion most people are the root of the problem. In my opinion, capitalism, socialism, communism and all the other “isms” are for the most part organizational systems. They are not good or bad, they are tools. All the “isms” can work and all can fail, it depends upon the people. Each system has pros and cons and a system should be chosen that best fits the goals of a society. If you are an imperialist and you want to take the world by force than a system dominated by capitalism may be your cup of tea. For societies that want to live in peace and have a more equitable distribution of resources then system with fewer capitalist impulses may be for you. A lot of success of the more “live and let live” systems depends on the leaders being “servant leaders”. But even an aspiring peaceful system run by servant leaders will fail if the masses are selfish.
      Yes, capitalism tends to promote more selfishness and certain types of depravity than other systems but it has its limits. Socialism, Communism and other organizational systems do not extinguish the depravity, need for control, selfishness or laziness in people, but they probably do not promote it like capitalism does. Change the system but keep the same psychopaths in charge or have the same selfish masses and nothing will materially change. Most capitalists I know will not do anything for money, especially if they have some money. Many (not all) will not kill the innocent for money or join the sex industry. Ask someone who is intellectually honest if they will agree to sit alone (awake at least 12 hours per day with no contact with the outside world) 24/7/365 in an isolated room with absolutely nothing to do for $10 million dollars a year and most will say no thank you or they will try and give it. Should we get away from capitalism? Not entirely, I think we need a mix of capitalism and socialism. The current mix is out of balance and needs to be adjusted. More importantly, most people need to improve themselves (including me) and start respecting all innocent life.

      1. Blessthebeasts Avatar
        Blessthebeasts

        There is no “mixing” of capitalism and socialism. They are diametrically opposed. Capitalism is functioning exactly as it is designed to: to favor the growth of capital above all else. Profits over people. There’s no such thing as compassionate capitalism. It’s driven by greed and power and there’s no reforming that.
        I doubt if you know any true capitalists, that is the owners of the means of production. They WILL do anything for money. You probably know alot of wannabe capitalists.

        1. Lost Avatar
          Lost

          Thank you for your comment.
          Again, it is difficult to discuss this issue because my definition of capitalism and socialism may be different than yours.
          I believe there is a mixing of capitalism and socialism in every society that I am aware of. Pure capitalism or pure socialism or the wrong mix between the two systems will result in conflict because people will never agree on the ultimate appropriate mix between the two. Yes, I suspect you are correct that the two systems are opposed and in my opinion that opposition results in conflict. I suspect that even a true socialist society would generate conflict. Did everyone work the equal amount of time today? Did everyone put in the same amount of effort or add the same amount of value or take the same amount of risk? Who is going to clean the bathrooms or who gets the corner office. Getting to a just system is very difficult and it entails more than everyone getting the same amount of money.
          You are correct, I have never met anyone that favors the growth of capital above all else and I suspect I never will. Even the people that I know that own some of the means of production are not true capitalists. I have never met anyone that would go to the extreme of committing suicide or knowingly and intentionally killing someone they truly love so their capital would grow. I suspect there are many capitalists that would allow strangers to die for the growth of the capitalists.
          In regards to your statement that “There’s no such thing as compassionate capitalism. It’s driven by greed and power and there’s no reforming that” I’m not sure I agree with this statement but I would like to think about this a bit longer before responding. Again, thank you for your opinion.

          1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
            Tired and no longer active revolutionary

            Most developed nations practice a hybrid of capitalism for most people especially the rich and socialism for poor or unemployed people.

      2. RedBaron 07 Avatar
        RedBaron 07

        The best comment on the thread.
        The ideal economy is a mixture of Capitalism & Socialism like the Scandinavian countries.

  20. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
    Carolyn L Zaremba

    Nice one, Caitlin. On point and absolutely correct. Capitalism, as Marx so well described it, is a foundation that makes for a superstructure based on the system of profit and lust for power. The laws, the wars, the social infrastructure are all slanted to favor the interests of the ruling elites. Nothing will remove these bastards from power and nothing will halt the cancerous growth of capitalism on the planet unless the foundation is destroyed.

  21. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Ms Johnstone, it truly amazes me that you can say so very much with so very little words; your writing is way beyond magnificent! Once again you have made my day. Bravo!

  22. John Day Avatar
    John Day

    https://www.johndayblog.com/2020/09/covid-goes-to-college.html
    Disclaimer: I’m write-in voting for Tulsi Gabbard for President in November.
    Paul Craig Roberts believes the plotters of a coup in the US have a lot to lose if it fails. They are under personal threat if it fails.
    ​ ​As a number of carefully researched and documented books, some written by insiders, have proved conclusively, the CIA has controlled the prestige American media since 1950. The American media does not provide news. It provides the Deep State’s explanations of events. This ensures that real news does not interfere with the agenda.
    ​ ​The German journal​i​st, Udo Ulfkotte, wrote a book, Bought Journalism, in which he showed that the CIA also controls the European press.
    ​ ​To be clear, there are two CIA organizations. One is an agency that monitors world events and endeavors to provide more or less accurate information to policymakers. The other is a covert operations agency. This agency assassinates people, including an American president, and overthrows uncooperative governments. President Truman publicly stated after he was out of office that he made a serious mistake in permitting the covert operations branch of the CIA. He said that it was an unaccountable government in inself.
    ​ ​President Eisehnower agreed and in his last address to the American people warned of the growing unaccountable power of the military/security complex.
    ​ ​President Kennedy realized the threat and said he was going “to break the CIA into a thousand pieces,” but they killed him first.
    https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/09/10/the-united-states-its-constitution-have-two-months-left/

  23. mike k Avatar
    mike k

    It’s CAPITALISM stupid!! If you believe in this evil system, you are screwed whatever you do. Your belief that a war of each against all is a good way to organize society poisons everything you believe and do. Take those goddamn glasses off so you can envision a different world!

    1. Newton Finn Avatar
      Newton Finn

      https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/06/mammon-ascendant

    2. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
      Carolyn L Zaremba

      Agreed. The race is on to see whether people see capitalism for what it is in time to prevent total catastrophe. Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky all warned of this and were vilified by the capitalists. The cancer of capitalism is at stage 4. Now is the time.

  24. Ian Perkins Avatar
    Ian Perkins

    “You could get rid of all the individuals currently screwing us and if you kept the same systems they’d be replaced almost instantly.”
    I thoroughly agree. It might be satisfying to talk of guillotining Trump, Bezos and whoever, but if the system and institutions remain, they’d not only be replaced immediately, but their successors’ security would be correspondingly ramped up.

  25. Robert V Blinch-Edwards Avatar
    Robert V Blinch-Edwards

    Please also comment on the other two most important topics. Israels’ egregious brutality towards Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza. Only yesterday Israel arm force bulldozed a house on West Bank and destroyed all the farmers crops. And the media and our government is silent. Please help and give them a voice. And C-19 which is causing more death and harm through lockdowns and loss of income than the virus. The world knows this is a plandemic to bring Agenda-21 into reality. Jon Rappoport has been one of the few independent journalist bringing this hoax to the public notice.

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