Monday, February 23, 2009

Bestest Buy

The focus for my resistance to capitalism isn't on the products it creates. Many of the products can be helpful in any form of society: for example, washing machines free up time for creative endeavors. My resistance focuses against the desire capitalism creates for these products, because it's the desire for the washing machine, fueled perhaps by a commercial or a friend's glowing recommendation, that makes the consumer want to go to the store to buy one. The desire for the washing machine dictates the need to spend money - what capitalism runs on - and that is the breaking point in the consumer's freedom. The need to spend money on a washing machine then becomes the desire to accumulate money, and that is the point at which the consumer loses control to Capital. The goal of having free creative time has transformed into the desire for money, the symbol of exchange.

Products aren't inherently evil. Here's to invention and production (science and industry) in the service of humanity, not in the service of Capital.

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