How Capital Wins, Part 2

Here is an example to illustrate the preceding post. “But nationalism excluuuuudes!” people moan as if that had to put an end to all discussion of the subject once and for all. They have been schooled to believe that excluding is bad, inclusivity is good, and these are eternal truths that are not to be questioned.

If we do question them for a second, however, we will realize that exclusion is the basis of any collectivity. There is no “we” if you can’t define who doesn’t belong to the “we.” If everybody belongs, then nobody does.

Everything good in life is based on exclusion. Family, friendship, love, profession, competence, language, reading. If you call somebody a friend, this signals to the world that this person is special to you in ways that the rest of the inhabitants of the planet aren’t. Every time you say anything in any language you exclude everybody who doesn’t speak it. Of course, liquid capital hates languages because they are a barrier to sales. It would be so much easier to sell if everybody spoke the same patois of marketing slang.

The foundational principle of neoliberalism (i.e. the reign of liquid capital) is that everybody is an isolated individual constantly competing with everybody else. The “we” is anathema to neoliberal mentality. That’s why all this propaganda exists to make us unthinkingly worship on the altar of inclusivity.

And as I said in the previous post, our reward for dismantling the “we” is the feeling of virtuousness we experience while doing it. It’s a very solitary, self-righteous pleasure because it’s deeply competitive in nature.