4.1: A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (late-stage Capitalism)
“Jeez!” blurted George, exasperated by this anti-capitalist onslaught. “How am I supposed to handle all of this information? If half of what you’re telling me is true, I’d have to believe I’m not who I think I am. I’m just a puppet of a mysterious master race. I hate to repeat myself, but you do seem to be trying to convince me I’ve been abducted by the Matrix again.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, George. You’ve just made a pretty good summary of what I’m saying!” Confirmed the Director with a cynical chuckle. “I understand that it’s almost too much to take in. And if we
assume for a moment that what I’m saying is accurate, we have to ask ourselves why we allowed ourselves to get here. “
“I agree,” said George thoughtfully, now beginning to wonder if there was anything he could rely on anymore.
“But that’s why I needed to tell you the whole story; if you only heard part of it, you wouldn’t believe me!” Explained the Director once more.
“You’d assume that if things were really this bad, the government would have stepped in by now and clamped down on it. After all, Capitalism clearly isn’t playing by the rules, and their psychotic behaviour is damaging the fabric of society, so why do we let them get away with it? Well, if that’s what you’re wondering, I’ve got news for you because, far from trying to stop these GRiFTers, the politicians are more than happy to help them.
“What’s wrong with these people?” asked George, exasperated. “Don’t they have enough money already?”
“Marx predicted all the way back in 1840,” replied the Director” He could see that Capitalism would probably collapse under the weight of the social inequality it created. Later, Marxists added to his list the commodification of culture, the rise of consumerism and the need for increasingly authoritarian governments to suppress dissent.
“It isn’t too difficult to make the philosophical case that Capitalism is, in its purest sense, intrinsically undemocratic because it is simply a mechanism for generating profit. It has no objective other than that and, therefore, has no moral dimension. As such, there’s always a tension between ordinary people who just want a fulfilling life and the Elite who are pathologically driven toaccumulate wealth. This inevitably leads to where we find ourselves now, which some call Late Stage Capitalism.
George wasn’t sure what this meant, but he didn’t like the sound of it.
“And no matter how hard the GRiFTers try to paper over the cracks, they just can’t hide the societal dysfunction. Just look at the unsustainable levels of poverty and unemployment which have brought on an opioid crisis in the USA where people use drugs to escape their grim reality.”
“How ironic!” Commented George.
“What’s that?” asked the Director, surprised by George’s intervention.
“Well, wasn’t it Marx who said Religion was the opium of the people? Asked George innocently.
“Yes, it was!” replied the Director, a little taken aback. “Did you learn that in school?”
“No, it was a line from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, explained George, deadpan. “But I took it to mean that Marx was referring to opium as a pain reliever and that the proletariat resorted to religion in the same way, to take away the pain of their miserable lives.”
The Director was dumbfounded by George’s dialectic analysis and vowed never to dismiss Bill & Ted again.
“But why is that ironic?” asked the Director, still reeling.
“Well, in Marx’s day, religion may have been the opium of the people, but in modern America, it’s opioids that is their new religion.”
“Ha! Beautifully put,” was all the Director could think to say, beguiled by George’s innocent take on life.
Getting back to business, the Director picked up his narrative again. “All this goes with the increase in violent crime and a terrible rise in mental health issues, especially among the young; falling educational standards, increased homelessness, growing racial inequality and the general decay in infrastructure such as roads, public transport and schools. Not to mention an electorate that’s given up voting for governments they think are all the same.”
“And TRUMP!” Shouted George
“Exactly!” Agreed the Director. “What better example of a society rotting from the head down than an orange reality TV character being elected its president! Not forgetting the accelerated destruction of the ecosystem he wants to accelerate while ignoring the science that explains why this will kill him.”
“And that’s what I mean when I talk about Late-Stage Capitalism. It’s the death throes of a deeply compromised and corrupted system.”
For a moment, George thought about the three Porsches sitting in his garage and the private doctor he saw every week to provide his anti-depressants. It made him feel guilty.
Winding things up, the Director went on:
“You think that the Great Depression of the ’30s, the Sub-Prime Crash of 2008 and the climate crisis we’re now fighting might have made us question this volatile system we’re still clinging on to, but not a bit of it. Despite all this, it’s business as usual. Whatever happened to the three strikes and you’re out rule? Isn’t it time we began exploring alternatives?”
“It doesn’t seem too much to ask” agreed George.
“But there’s a reason we don’t, which I’ll now quickly explain.” Said the Director. “And after that, I promise we’ll move on to something more positive. Something I believe is a nice, gentle, uplifting, and achievable solution that can save all our skin. Up for that, George?”
George nodded. This was a teasing cliffhanger he couldn’t refuse.
4.2: Everybody Hurts
“So with Frankenstein rampaging across the countryside, forcing us serfs to cower in our hovels, high on opioids, in fear of school shootings or of simply breaking a leg and being unable to afford the medical bills, you’d think there’d be more of us asking whether Capitalism had something to do with it.”
“You’d think.” Agreed George.
“So what’s your theory as to why we don’t?” Asked the Director, looking over to see George, still plodding along the towpath like the slow but loyal carthorse Boxer from Animal Farm.
“Beats me,” shrugged George, “But I’ve got a feeling it might have something to do with that Heggy thing?”
“Very good, George, very good! I’ll make an anarcho-syndicalist out of you yet.” Laughed the Director, enjoying himself. “Maybe if you’d been more of a political junkie or you’d studied economics at university, you’d already know about this, but most ordinary folks rarely hear reasoned criticism of the Capitalist system. Partly, that’s because we’re just too busy putting food on the table and getting by, but it’s also because, in many ways, we just like things the way they are. We enjoy watching adverts on the telly, thinking about which new iPhone we should buy, and deciding where to go on our holidays. We’re essentially signed-up members of the Capitalist system.
“As I’ve said before, we prefer feeling safe and warm under our duvet rather than face the cold, hard reality, and we’re happy to keep taking the sleeping pills handed out like Smarties by the GRiFTers.”
“Smarties?” Asked George.
“Never mind,” replied the Director, not wanting to be knocked off course at this critical point in his story.
“Is this the bit where you ask me to take the Red Pill or the Blue Pill?” laughed George.
“Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after me”, responded the Director, equally amused.
“But let me tell you about this Heggy thing, George, and then you can decide whether I’m crazy or not.”
“My mind will remain open like a parachute until you’ve had your say,” reassured George.
“Thanks, George, I appreciate that.” Replied the Director sincerely.
“OK, we don’t think about this very much because it never occurs to us. And this might seem odd, given what I’ve been saying about Capitalism for the last three hours.”
“Now I think of it, that does seem a little strange.” Confirmed George, sounding curious.
“Well, I know you’re not a massively political person, George, but don’t you think something this important should take up more of your time.”
“Definitely,” agreed George. “I spend way more time watching TikTok and YouTube videos of idiots discussing celebrity boxing matches than thinking about politics or the climate, but even so.”
“You’re not alone,” reassured the Director. “I’m not surprised you haven’t given it much thought. That’s just the way it is, as it was so eloquently expressed by Bruce Hornsby and the Range in their 1986 classic. “
The Director then burst into an out-of-tune rendition of the first few verses.
“Standing in line marking time, waiting for the welfare dime
‘Cause they can’t buy a job.
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies’ eyes just for fun, he says,
“Get a job.”
That’s just the way it is,
Some things will never change
That’s just the way it is,
But don’t you believe them…”
George had a flashback to his own dad singing this song (badly) when he was a kid, which made him warm even more to the Director. “I guess that’s right.” Was all he could think of to say, relieved the Director had stopped.
“Capitalism is everywhere,” continued the Director, slowly building on his argument. “It dictates how we live our lives, how we feel when we go to work, how we relate to our bosses, how we plan our careers. That’s how our parents made a living and how we expect our kids to do the same. Sure, every four or five years, we vote for a right or left-wing version of Capitalism, and we think that will make a difference, but really, they’re just different flavours of the same TV dinner.
“And if you had the imagination to think outside this construct, you’d be labelled an anarchist or a communist, and almost nobody does that because people would think you were a bit of a nutter and possibly a danger to society.””You can’t say nutter these days,” advised George judiciously.
“You’re right,” agreed the Director, realising his error. “If you don’t buy into the current political system that’s either one form of Capitalism or another, you’d be considered a person with a potential mental health condition.”
“Better,” nodded George approvingly.
“Thanks,” acknowledged the Director. “Because in our current society, it’s easy to assume Capitalism is the only game in town, that there isn’t any other sort of alternative out there and that it would be a waste of time to even think about such a thing. That’s just the way it is.”
“Yes, I see!” interjected George quickly, keen to prevent the Director from bursting into another Bruce Hornsby medley.
All this talk about how things might not be all they seemed was beginning to disturb George’s equilibrium. He’d been OK earlier when the Director was giving his history lesson, yet over the past hour, as he’d been asked to speculate on how Capitalism might not be all that it was claimed to be, he’d begun to feel he might have slipped into a sort of parallel universe where black was white and white was black.
The Director could see from George’s face that he’d unsettled his leading man. After all, George was a proud American, and he’d have spent his entire childhood saluting the flag and being warned that Communists were enemies of the state. So, suggesting Capitalism was a form of mind control was bound to be disconcerting.
“Feeling OK, George?” Asked the Director sympathetically. “Thinking outside the box always feels unsettling at first, but don’t worry, we’re just spitballing here. Nothing terrible is going to happen. I won’t report you to the Un-American Activities Committee. You’re not going to be run out of Hollywood.”
George knew all about the Un-American Activities Committee, having appeared in a straight-to-video movie called The Red Peril early in his career. As he reflected on this, he realised this conversation would have got him blackballed back in the ’50s.
“You don’t think we’ll be blacklisted for making the Dragon movie, do you?” Asked George earnestly, now concerned that his association with this particular Director might not be so great for his career.
“Who can say?” Replied the Director playfully. “I think Clooney once worked with Ken Loach, and he still seems to find work”, lied the Director in jest.
This made George feel better despite having never heard of the guy.
“But what this does show us, George, is just how pervasive this need to defend Capitalism is within a Capitalist system. The GRiFTers and their political stooges don’t want you to explore alternatives to the system they make their money from. Orwell would have called that a Thoughtcrime.
And this is an excellent example of what I mean by that Heggy thing. The thing that Gramsci called Cultural Hegemony. Have you heard of Gramsci, George?” asked the Director, not feeling optimistic.
“Can’t say as I have.” Replied George, “Unless he was part of the 1950s Yankees team that won the World Series, which, given where this conversation is headed, I doubt.”
“No, he didn’t play for the Yankees, though he was Italian like Joe DiMaggio, but I imagine the similarities end there.”
“Oh well, it was a long shot,” reflected George. “So tell me about Gramsci.”
“OK, well, Antonio Gramsci was the founding member of the Italian Communist Party. He spent the last eleven years of his life in prison, where he’d been incarcerated by Mussolini.
“Benito Mussolini was a fascist dictator, which, as dictators go, is the worst kind. Anyway, Benny didn’t much like Antonio’s ideas, which is hardly surprising given that Gramsci was trying to warn his compatriots that they were being groomed into loving Capitalism. He wanted them to
realise what they were taught at school and what marketing and advertising was selling them as adults was a distorted version of reality. And he called this grooming and gaslighting Cultural Hegemony.
“Ah – the hegemony!” Responded George knowingly.
“That’s right,” confirmed the Director. “His ideas also explained how this hegemony made it difficult to think critically about Capitalism and why it felt weird to even doubt what Mussolini was selling them. Fifty years earlier, Marx had called this sort of thing false consciousness. Similarly, in 1964, the German socialist philosopher Herbert Marcuse described a “one-dimensional society, where people are encouraged to conform to a narrow range of values, with a focus on material possessions and immediate gratification”.
“More recently, the British philosopher Mark Fisher called it Capitalist Realism and suggested that it closed the mind to alternative economic systems and stifled political action. And that’s precisely what Mussolini tried to do to Italian society in the 1930s. Obviously, he was keen to keep this to himself, perhaps sensing that if the working class ever found out, he’d swing from a lamppost. Funny how things work out…
“So you see, George, criticising Capitalism isn’t easy, not for Gramsci, Mark Fisher, Herbert Marcuse, or me or you.”
“I’m afraid you’re not making me feel any more comfortable,” said George, sounding sanguine.
“I can see that from your face.” Replied the Director, smiling. “Isn’t it interesting how subversive thoughts like this can make us feel uncomfortable? It’s hard to step outside our social conditioning. Capitalism really does have a sort of mind-control over us, and we really have been programmed to not ask too many questions.”
George was now deep in thought, mulling over the disorienting emotions this new information was stirring in him, and hoped the Director might stop talking for a while to let this new information sink in. Or perhaps he wanted the Director to stop because part of him simply didn’t want to think about it anymore.
Unfortunately for George, the Director wasn’t about to stop now.
“Actually,” continued the Director, “this is precisely why I made the Dragon film as an allegory in the first place. If I’d challenged Capitalism head-on, the studios would have turned it down — and I wouldn’t have blamed them. There just isn’t an audience for this sort of story. The mainstream would rather not think about it. It’s too serious and depressing.
“I ran the original script past a couple of producers, and they said it was too far-fetched and no one would be interested. So then, after some back-and-forth, it dawned on me that the only way I’d get it made would be to wrap it up in some sort of allegory and pretend it was about something else. That’s how I reckoned I could draw the audience without making them squirm too much. Only afterwards do they realise the story was really about them. It’s an old trick. There are many examples; Swift did it with Gulliver’s Travels, and Orwell did it with Animal Farm.
“It’s just a tactic to get around the hegemony: To fly it under the radar without them realising you’re criticising them.
“It’s difficult to pull off. How do you get an audience to see the problem when they’re standing so close to it? Or, in the case of Capitalism, when they’re up to their necks in it? No offence, George, but given that you’d actually been in my movie and still didn’t understand it, I realise I really do have to spoon-feed these ideas if the eco-worriers are going to appreciate the deeper meaning.”
“Oh, no offence taken,” replied George, somewhat offended.
“So,” the Director continued, “maybe it’s a stroke of luck that we’re now strolling along this towpath at ten-thirty at night, and I have the chance to lay out my thoughts in all their gory details.”
George nodded, though he wasn’t sure if he agreed with this statement or not. Part of him felt as though he’d been ambushed, but then he remembered he’d been the one to instigate the conversation, so perhaps he only had himself to blame.
“But, if you allow me, I have one last coda to add.”
“Be my guest,” replied George, unsure what a coda might be but hoping it didn’t take long.
“I’m no expert about this,” continued the Director, “but I wonder whether Gramsci really appreciated just how deeply entangled his countrymen were in the Capitalist dream: That they weren’t just passive hostages but sort of willing collaborators, more than happy to keep popping those Soma pills and ignoring the cliff edge, just so long as they didn’t have to face reality.”
4.3: Mad World
“Interesting” replied George, aware that he’d soon be seeing the jolly lights of the Albert Bridge around the next bend in the river and, beyond that, his hotel, nestled within the awesome Battersea Power Station, where he’d soon be having supper.
The seemingly endless walk was almost over, and so, too, he hoped, was the almost constant monologue he’d been subjected to. But with the end in sight he felt a renewed enthusiasm, so George engaged with the Director’s political hypothesis one last time.
“So are we really so dumb as to not realise that Capitalism is just a giant Ponzi scheme?” Asked George, hoping to show the Director he’d followed the argument so far.
“Sadly, my friend, as I said right at the start of the evening, I’m afraid we are. And on top of that, we’re lazy, and we don’t want to have to think. And on top of that, we’re hubristic, so we assume we’re somehow immune to the bad things heading our way. Other than that, yep, I think we’re in great shape!”
“That’s a bleak view, Sir. Are you sure we’re worth saving if all this is true?”
“Interesting question,” responded the Director. “I sometimes wonder if the Earth is generating a fever to kill off its human virus. And part of me doesn’t blame it if it is.”
“But are we worth saving? It’s something I’ve asked myself quite a few times. Indeed, I often look at our species and think we are utterly despicable, but then I’ll be sitting on the tube or something, and I’ll see a simple act of kindness, and I’ll wonder at how miraculous we are. It reminds me that, given the right conditions, the world could be at a beautiful point in its evolution. So I keep going.”
“I agree,” said George sincerely, making the Director want to hug him.
“But, if an alien were to drop in on Earth tomorrow,” continued the Director, squashing flat what might have been a beautiful moment, “they’d probably think we were part of some sort of bizarre death cult.”
“Really?” questioned George. “You’re comparing Capitalism to a cult now?
“I know it sounds wild, but hear me out because, when you think about it, it isn’t so crazy. It’s just the hegemony that stops us from seeing it.”
“Go on,” replied George sceptically. “You’re going to have to work hard to convince me on this one.”
“OK,” replied the Director, accepting the challenge. “Capitalism certainly displays many of the hallmarks of a stone-cold cult. Think about it for a minute: First of all, cult members never recognise they are in a cult.”
“True, but that’s maybe because they’re also NOT PART OF A CULT!” Laughed George, “But keep going, I’m still listening.”
“OK, well, how about the fact that a cult sets up an Us vs. Them situation, so you’ll be treated with hostility if you don’t support the cult. You’ll be called a communist or something and cast out of society. I think we’ve agreed that’s also the case with Capitalism.”
“I guess.” Replied George, still highly dubious of the Director’s argument but unable to refute this specific observation.
“What’s more, cults also go in for emotional manipulation, with the cult leader often brainwashing their followers, making it difficult to be critical of their actions. And, if you agree with Gramsci about the hegemony, that’s what Capitalism does through its marketing, advertising, and education.
“I guess that’s also true,” confirmed George grudgingly, his scepticism gradually draining away.
“The other reason it’s challenging to think of Capitalism as a cult is that it’s part of the mainstream, and, on the whole, cults tend to be outside of the mainstream, looking in. But maybe Capitalism is just the world’s most successful cult. One which has taken over the mainstream and doesn’t allow minority groups to so much as whisper there might be something wrong here?”
“I guess that’s also true”” agreed George again, beginning to see this wasn’t such a crazy comparison after all.
“Yes, and it’s also true, George, that cults set up false narratives. GRiFTers do this through the client politicians they fund, lobby or just outright bribe to warn us of the threats from immigration, socialism, criminal gangs and the rest of it. Listen to the politicians, and you’d think everyone is out to steal your money through taxes or abuse your good-will through crime.”
George had now stopped trying to argue.
“But finally, and most importantly,” pressed the Director, “cults manipulate their members into thinking that all sorts of crazy ideas are perfectly normal.”
“Such as?” Asked George, still clinging to a thread of scepticism.
“Well, take your average high-flying corporate exec,” suggested the Director. “When you think about it, isn’t it bizarre that the same person will behave totally differently, depending on whether they’re at home or at work?
“At home, this person will be kind and loving towards their family and happy to lend a hand in their local community. They might even help with charity fundraising, just like the rest of us. But sit them behind a desk in their smoked glass office, they become cut-throat, competitive business sharks ready to do whatever it takes to succeed.
“They’ll lie, cheat, bully, pollute, cut down rain forests, offer bribes — you name it, they’ll do whatever they can get away with if it helps them climb the greasy pole. And, what’s more, they’re encouraged to do it by Adam Smith’s Invisible Hands applauding them as they perform their anti-social behaviour.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” Asked George, still unconvinced.
“Absolutely I am!” shot back the Director. “I was in the marketing game long enough to watch tobacco executives swear blind cigarettes didn’t cause cancer, and pharmaceutical execs selling cheap drugs at a massive markup which millions of the poorest can’t afford. And you’d think water was a basic human right, but not for Nestlé, who routinely buy the rights to community wells, cut off the water which supplies those communities and then sell it back to them in plastic bottles! Look it up if you don’t believe me! In the past, they even sent out women dressed as nurses to convince vulnerable mothers their own breast milk wasn’t good enough for their babies and that only Nestlé Baby Formula would do. All in a grubby effort to make an extra buck. Or rather $11.5 billion extra bucks. Capitalists even start wars to get their hands on the minerals and oil they need to make their money. That war in Darfur? What do you think that’s about?”
George shrugged, as he had no clue where Darfur was, let alone the cause of their civil war.
The Director could see this item of current affairs may not have been too high on George’s radar, so he thought he’d better keep it short. “There’s a civil war going on in Darfur, George, with millions of innocent people killed or starving. On the surface, you’d think it’s a local tribal disagreement. But if you dig a little deeper, you find foreign actors fighting over gold reserves. It’s always just about the money.”
“Foreign actors?” Asked George, deeply confused. “What, like Gérard Depardieu?”
“No!” Replied the Director, momentarily irritated by George’s ignorance. “I’m talking about Egypt, Iran, Russia and the UAE, amongst others, financing proxy armies for their own ends. Look at almost any war, and there’s invariably a man behind it seeking more money and power.”
“Putin?” Asked George.
“Money and power.” Affirmed the Director.
“Trump?”
“Money and power.”
“Netanyahu?”
“Yep, him too. Money and power. All of them are so insecure in their own skin they need to prove something to the rest of us. So don’t tell me I’m exaggerating about appalling Capitalist behaviour because I could read you a list of examples until the end of next month, and I’d still just be scratching the surface. The truth is much worse than we like to admit, so, on the whole, we just try not to think about it.
George ruminated on this, finding it hard to believe what he was hearing, yet after a while, he somehow knew in his bones the Director was right.
“And finally, while you might question my comparison, think about Jim Jones or David Koresh: a cult leader like this will often ask his followers to kill themselves.
“Oh, come on!” Exclaimed George incredulously. “I can just about buy the idea that corporations start wars to make money, but I’m not sure I believe they’d go as far as have us kill ourselves too!”
“Well, not directly, George, but think about it for a moment.” Invited the Director in a deadly serious tone. “This is exactly what they’re doing when they ask us to ignore climate change. They want us to ignore the truth and concentrate on what will make them more profitable. It’s insanity.”
George was now perplexed and disorientated and beginning to doubt just about everything. “But people can’t be the same at work as they are at home. Business is ruthless. If everyone was nice to each other at work, nothing would get done.”
“Who says?” Shot back the Director uncompromisingly, adding, “And how much should we get done anyway?” Framing the phrase within inverted commas. “Perhaps that’s just a myth that goes unchallenged. How much does a doctor get done when they go to work? How much does a teacher get done?” Or how about a social or charity worker? They all get a lot done, but they don’t do it because they’ll get a bonus or a pay rise. They’re motivated by more than money. They do it because they’re passionate about what they do – because it satisfies them.”
“So don’t give me this BS about having to be cut-throat and ambitious, as if nothing else counts. We’re so lobotomised by Capitalism that we fall into the trap of believing that nothing else matters but money when, all around us, there’s a myriad of examples from everyday life which prove that’s a lie. We can all feel richer than any amount of money can give us if we look beyond this lie we’ve been groomed to believe in.
“We’re so signed up to the Capitalist cult that we’ve practically got Stockholm Syndrome. We’ve fallen in love with our captors. But now, thanks to climate change, it’s time to wake the fuck up and see the GRiFTers for what they are: sad, poor, emotionally bankrupt psychopaths!
“You know George,” continued the Director, now winding up this particular part of his thesis, “For the past three years, I’ve been looking into the climate crisis and wondering what we can do about it. It wasn’t a political crusade. I didn’t have any preconceptions about what those answers might be. I just wanted to know how I could best help us avoid it. But the more I looked, the more I realised the cause of the problem was Capitalism. This made me wonder whether I hadn’t somehow radicalised myself. I seemed to agree a lot more with Karl Marx than I did before, which was a surprise. But the more I looked, the more I could see how the facts speak for themselves. And then it dawned on me: I hadn’t radicalised myself by taking a cold, hard look at Capitalism.
On the contrary, I’d gradually been DE-RADICALISING myself, and I’d recommend everyone have a go for themselves! By taking a rational look at how Capitalism operates, I gradually saw how a finite world that encourages selfishness and greed is far more divorced from reality than one in which we try to help each other for mutual benefit. Capitalism distorts how we see the world, and just like the dragon that’s addicted to power, we need to de-radicalise ourselves and recognise our addiction to those ideas if we are to survive into the next decade.
The Director had been in full flow for the past ten minutes. There had been no opportunity for George to get a word in edge-ways, even if he’d wanted to, but now the bright lights of the hotel were close at hand. The doorman, with whom George had struck up an amiable friendship over the previous six weeks, was tipping his hat and opening the door.
With a hint of pride, George ushered the Director in before him. The long walk to a post-Capitalist awakening was over.
