Science, Materialism and Capitalism

Capitalism requires materialistic individuals whose validation and sense of meaning come from the outside. The powerful forces within us can and will destroy capitalism. Meanwhile, we are helpful workers and consumers desperately trying to fill the void within us with stuff. For every one of our spiritual, mental and physical needs there's a response from the market. Middle-age male insecurity? We have testosterone replacement therapy and all sorts of bullshit to regrow your hair. Teenage angst? Social media and more bullshit to get rid of your pimples.

I remember desperately asking my parents for a twirling baton I had seen on TV. When it arrived, the splendor of its cheap plastic bedazzled me for exactly ten seconds. Now it's part of the thousands of pounds and counting worth of junk that I've helped litter this planet with.

We get fooled again and again and yet we can't just fucking learn. Additionally, the market just gets more and more adept at exploiting our weaknesses.

But it's not just the market, we are accomplices as well. We go through life looking outside for a solution because we're just to afraid of looking inside, because personal growth is just too damn difficult compared to calling 1-800-MORE-BULLSHIT.

Science has been brought into the fold of capitalism slowly but surely. Being perceived as objective, science was too powerful not to have as an ally. Money bought science in subtle and not so subtle ways. From using pseudo-science on the margins all the way to outright corruption and collusion in trials and studies, money has bought a good deal of scientific backing.

Science has also been a powerful ally of capitalism by endorsing materialism dogmatically. Science has tried to mold us into mechanical beings that respond deterministically to the circumstances the way the balls in a pool table would. Reducing our minds to the synapses in a brain that, true, is incredibly complex, but that does not contain the fullness of our consciousness.

To be continued.