This post should have come in first before I wrote Capitalism I , II and III . In this I wish to explain what I think is Capitalism and what people think about Capitalism. Please do not assume that I am a 'communist' because I am not. I do not really believe in any 'isms' because they are attached to individuals/'philosophers' and I am not into hero worship on serious issues. So let us get this clear that when I criticize Capitalism I am not supporting Communism ! Let us also get this clear at the outset that Capitalism is like sensuality or what is known in traditional Hindu philosophy as 'kaam' or 'kaama' . 'Kaama' is a vice like 'Krodh' (anger), 'Lobh' (greed), 'Mada' (arrogance) and 'Moha' (undue attachment or love for someone/something) ; but the big thing about 'Kaama' or sensuality is that it is so beautiful that it appears more like a virtue than a vice or should we say more like a friend than an enemy similarly about Capitalism. So if you feel you are too much in love with Capitalism just remember this!
Now the problem I have with Capitalism is a bit different than one would expect - I have no problem with Capital but only with 'ism'. Let us take the example of Chikan - chikan is a special kind of embroidery done only in Lucknow - authentic Chikan embroidery cannot be produced on a commercial scale anywhere else except Lucknow because it is a very complex art and also because a special kind of bleech is used to wash the garments to give them the white colour. The potential of Chikan has not been fully explored and most of the profit is still made by big exporters based in Mumbai as the industry is not organised. The worker who produces the chikan embroidery is generally very poor but he/she is poor because by and large he/she is not willing to work hard and stick to deadlines. This is where the wholesalers come in they take the risks they invest money and get high blood pressure and heart attacks because the chikan workers by and large are very very lazy - even if they are offered double the money they still go according to their whims - also a lot of stuff is lost or stolen by them and there is nothing the wholesalers can do about it. It has been this way since the last hundred years, many wholesalers lose heart and close shop. I know this because many of my relatives are in this business. So I guess Capitalism is more being wronged against in this case than doing the wrong and probably it has been this way even before the world Capitalism was coined . I am not saying that wholesalers are entirely in the wrong in this or the workers but one thing is sure and that is that things are going to remain this way in this industry in the near future. There were some efforts by some so called NGOs to organise the workers and give them more profit but ultimately it turned out that those NGOs were being run by polished con people.
My problem is with the 'ism' . People with capital were always there and big business families like the marwaris were always there and probably controlled a big chunk of business but this Capitalism is a new phenomenon. 'ism' means the whole society is oriented towards that idea. The endeavours of the society the government and everybody else is to achieve the goal defined by that 'ism'. So suddenly only those people who have the Capital can really do something only those. Because they have the money to pay MSM and other advertising pimps. Their voices are the loudest since they have banner ads on internet, ads on FM radio, big print ads in major newspapers, on TV, huge billboards and God knows where. This is what I am against ! Did you know that the so called spiritual channels on which polished 'Mahatmas' give discourses charge a hefty fee to air the discourses! And since this is how it is you can very well understand who gets to have his/her discourses aired. This is not to say of course that all the mahatmas that speak on those channels are fake of course not but having to pay an unbelievable amount of money for spiritual discourses thank God in-spite of Capitalist propaganda still appears wrong. I wonder whether people will think the same away in a few years. So this Capitalism means that only babas like one who was recently arrested will get to speak and to mislead people.
Also this whole emphasis on generation of 'revenue' means that the most attractive jobs in coming days will be in 'sales' which means that people will be 'selling' something to their neighbours all the time and getting all kinds of diseases in the process as they are controlled by slave drivers. Isn't this a throwback to the early barter system society the newly material society when the emphasis was to hoard and barter 'things' and the more advanced stage which came later was the spiritual society when people exchanged spiritual ideas to achieve a higher stage in spiritual development. So is the Capitalistic = materialistic society a progressive or a retrogressive society.
I have written about this earlier but must write again - when society becomes Capitalistic and the already corrupt capitalistit MSM has to survive in this it has to delve deep into morbidity to bring out a new 'pearl'. They have almost done with gay and lesbian themes and now the next stage is incest and bestiality! A gay character already coming up in Archies comics (if I am to believe certain tweeters on twitter) to keep up with newer morbidities.
This is the problem I have with the 'ism' you see - it is not about the PR definition of Capitalism - the 'privately owned means of production' and blah blah blah... spare me that crap please!
When the whole of society is geared up to this - freedom is curtailed - and the fallacy that Capitalism = freedom comes to the fore. For example content in MSM - as you might have observed they favour only a certain kind of news mainly those connected with celebs, sports, beauty pageants, sex scandals, soap operas ... well you know all that so where is the freedom .. are their correspondents free to do a story they think is important! These are early stages of Capitalism in MSM a later stage would be - they would never hire a correspondent who shows even the smallest traces of being original .. Ha Ha!
So well this was in short - a short objection to 'ism' in Capitalism that I am dead against. I will expand this further as I am able to organize my ideas.
Thanks for tolerating!