A-Infos (en) Britain, Aanarchist journal Direct Action #40 - comment - The scourge of humanity: Capitalism, alienation, crime and insanity

One topic of conversation that pervades virtually every sphere of social life 
these days concerns society's general degeneration: the disintegration of 
community and the basic lack of regard for others. Unanimous disquiet is 
expressed about spiraling levels of criminal, violent and antisocial behaviour. 
Lamenting the passing of the mythical good old days seems to be no longer the 
preserve of those who are a bit longer in the tooth, and a general mood of 
pessimism looms. But why are things so bad, and what can we do about it? Well, 
here's an explanation you're unlikely to read in the Daily Mail!
Capitalism, in the words of John Maynard Keynes, is "the absurd belief that the 
wickedest of men, for the wickedest of motives, will somehow work for the 
benefit of all". In order to legitimise itself, capitalism's economic 
infrastructure is constantly reinforced by its ideological superstructure. 
Competition, greed, materialism, vanity, and obsession with status are promoted 
universally by society's dominant institutions. These values are invariably 
internalised by all of us to varying degrees over time. That way we are 
conditioned to see capitalism, its beliefs and hierarchical structure as the 
natural order of things.

During the industrial revolution the "Protestant work ethic" and the Darwinian 
idea of "survival of the fittest" were equated with individualism and the 
accumulation of wealth. This assisted the ruling classes with engineering the 
changes to society they desired. In more recent times, capitalism has undergone 
a further shift with the advent of mass consumerism and hard-nosed Thatcherism. 
The focus has moved inexorably away from the community to the individual. Love 
thy neighbour has been replaced by look after number one; mutual aid by survival 
of the fittest. Isolation and alienation are the order of the day in a modern 
world dominated by fear, suspicion and disaffection.

The education system underlines first and foremost that achievement is all about 
competition and obedience to authority, a philosophy reinforced by an incessant 
programme of grading and testing. The ruthlessness of market ideology spills 
invariably and inevitably into the world of work, with ubiquitous performance 
frameworks, league tables, sales targets and material incentives. In most 
organisations, the most ruthless, cut-throat individuals are those that get on 
and climb the ladder of success. Conversely those following altruistic and 
socially useful professions are among the most poorly rewarded. A recent 
illustration of this was provided with the revelation that in the last year top 
corporate executives received a 37% rise in income; nurses in comparison have 
recently been offered a paltry 2% wage increase - effectively a pay cut taking 
inflation into account.

Advertising constantly blights our lives with its unattainable, contrived images 
of perfection; designed to both create and feed off dissatisfaction. Even in the 
sanctity of our homes we suffer a steady barrage of TV and radio ads, 
cold-callers and junk mail. Celebrities are held up as role models for us to 
aspire to, encouraging mass consumption.

Entertainment reflects a perverse voyeuristic snapshot of the prevailing social 
decay. Violent computer games enable us to effortlessly wipe out our adversaries 
in the virtual world. Bookshops abound with biographies of hard men, football 
hooligans, and figures from the criminal underworld; as do texts cataloguing the 
gruesome exploits of serial killers. Gangster rappers are the new darlings of 
MTV, draped in 'blinging' jewellery, cavorting in flash cars surrounded by 
scantily-clad women. Hollywood movies portray breathtaking violent action scenes 
and gangster 'cool'. TV soap operas normalise the aggressive machismo and social 
dysfunction going on around us.

Even popularised leisure activities promote social alienation. Football grounds 
act as a (controlled) pressure valve for our frustrations. For 30 quid or so we 
can temporarily regain that lost sense of community and vent our tribalistic 
spleen at the referee and people from other towns. Pubs and nightclubs exude a 
competitive edge where alienated sexuality and macho violence are the 
(alcohol-fuelled) order of the day. Keeping fit entails handing over wads of 
cash for gym membership, all for the privilege of a few minutes pounding the 
treadmill, listening to pre-recorded music, and avoiding human contact at all 
cost. Betting shops, casinos and lottery schemes sell us the 'get rich quick' 
dream - at a price. Notably, all forms of entertainment contaminated by 
capitalism, including music and theatre, are designed to take our cash whilst 
providing a temporary and in some cases brain-numbing escape from our misery. We 
have been rendered largely passive spectators where once we were actors and 
performers in our own right. (Fortunately, in less commercialised quarters, some 
communities still enjoy making their own music, theatre, games, sports and 
entertainment without any recourse to monetary gain).

On a global economic scale, businesses that fail in the profitability stakes 
fall by the wayside with mass redundancies. Big corporations gobble up smaller 
ones. Powerful states bully weaker ones. The rich get richer, the poor get 
poorer. The natural environment is sacrificed on the altar of material greed. 
People starve in their millions and die because of lack of access to basic 
necessities such as clean water, when the world produces more than enough to go 
round. The spectre of war is an ever present reality. Massive profits for the 
few, misery and enslavement for the rest. Governments murder; banks and 
corporations rob. What fine role models we have. That's capitalism, and that's 
its depraved morality.
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So, why all this crime and antisocial behaviour? Well, if all the above wasn't 
enough, society divides us from an early age into successes and failures. The 
failures, unable to achieve status by legitimate paths, often seek social value, 
reward and respect by alternative means. In the poorer, more brutalised sections 
of society, social deprivation is amplified and most acute. Problems such as 
poor housing, overcrowding, lack of opportunity, drug abuse and readily 
available weapons fuel gangsterism and violence - the devil makes work for idle 
hands. In areas where weapons and gun crime are the norm, some join gangs and 
carry weapons purely for self preservation (a sentiment expressed recently by a 
member of So Solid Crew, released from prison for possession of a firearm). Turf 
wars are fought to secure lucrative drug markets and enforce territorial 
dominance, with innocents tragically caught up in the crossfire. It's 
capitalism, but without the state's support. Meanwhile, the heroin and crack 
addicts accept defeat and rob their neighbours blind to feed their habits.

Needless to say the right wing press fulfils its role dutifully in preserving 
the status quo, pointing out what needs to be done to put things right. The 
usual suspects are wheeled out (single parent families, permissiveness, 
immigrants, hoodies) and the finger of blame firmly pointed. One of the basic 
tenets of the political right's social policy rests on ridiculous notions of 
genetic inferiority as causes of educational failure and crime. This (often 
racist) scapegoating serves to create further distrust and division. The climate 
of fear is exaggerated and cultivated to ever greater degrees. Politicians are 
press-ganged into passing draconian legislation and rigorous sentencing to 
preserve the dwindling social order. However, government strategies such as the 
'war on drugs' fail miserably simply because they fail to address the root 
social causes.

Buoyed by the anxiety they have helped to create, the authorities intensify 
their monitoring of us. Surveillance by CCTV and ID cards become the norm with 
our every movement tracked. Even our e-mails and trips into cyberspace are open 
to scrutiny.

Fleet Street and other pillars of the establishment enlighten us by advocating a 
return to the much cherished 'family values' as the panacea to cure all ills. 
But the specific type of family relationship which exists under capitalism is 
yet another major contributory factor in explaining the dysfunction which 
blights our lives.

In his book "They **** you up" the psychologist Oliver James concludes that:

[L]ow quality care and lack of continuity in early childhood are the core causes 
of crime and mental illness. To believe, as so many British and American leaders 
seem to, that genes are the main reason the poor are poor, the bad are bad and 
the mad are mad is simply incorrect.

Whilst some who are imprisoned are there because they have consciously acted 
against laws which are fundamentally unjust, many are not. Studies revealing 
widespread patterns of mental illness and personality disorder amongst prisoners 
in British and American jails demonstrate a clear link between madness and 
badness. It might therefore be argued that the prison population and society as 
a whole would be better served by treatment rather than punishment within 
inhumane institutions which Kropotkin famously described as "universities in 
crime". But surely this underlines why families and family values are so 
important? Yes, but it's not that simple.

In pre- and post- capitalist societies, a system of social kinship exists 
whereby the community acts as the focal point, with values such as mutual aid 
and cooperation taking precedence over selfish individualism. Family life is not 
structured around a small socially isolated unit in which each constituent part 
plays a set and distinct role. Extended families and cohort systems mean that 
if, for example, a parent becomes unable to care for their children (due to say, 
illness), then other support mechanisms are readily available to ensure a 
consistency and continuity in care for those in their formative years. Note that 
all the available evidence shows that our experiences in early life play a major 
part in shaping our patterns of behaviour in later years, which is why if you 
suffer from abusive or unresponsive care in a modern day family arrangement, 
immediate support systems are less likely to be accessible. Unsurprisingly, a 
large proportion of prisoners surveyed had been in local authority or foster 
care at some point in their childhood. It does not take a genius to surmise that 
poverty is a major factor in determining the ability to provide good quality 
childcare, and opportunities later on.

The pioneering sex-pol writings of Wilhelm Reich in the 1930's continue to be 
relevant and provide further fuel to fan the flames of resistance to the 
contemporary nuclear family. Reich analysed the various means by which modern 
human beings have been rendered receptive to authoritarian, hierarchical and 
class-based culture. Combining radical psychoanalysis with Marxism, Reich 
concluded that the patriarchal nuclear family functions as the epicentre of 
reproduction of capitalist/authoritarian ideologies. Imbuing its offspring with 
a sexually and morally repressive conditioning reflective of society's dominant 
values, it functions as a mini-state generating mass produced individuals who 
crave authority and fear self-determination. In Reich's words, "sexual 
inhibition alters the structure of the economically suppressed individual in 
such a manner that he thinks, feels and acts against his own material 
interests". Manipulating us into fulfilling pre-ordained roles, the nuclear 
family thereby also ensures that we accept our subservient status in the 
capitalist hierarchy. Moreover, it should be no surprise that many of those 
convicted of sexual offences derive from the most sexually repressed and/or 
abusive environments. The extensive paedophilia exposed in the clergy is just 
one example. In a society which juxtaposes archaic religious concepts of 
chastity and guilt with pornographic images which alienate and commodify our 
sexual needs, conflicts are rife. Such conflicts often lie at the root of much 
neurotic, controlling and abusive behaviour.

Compounding all this, we've become saddled with debt, the threat of redundancy, 
the need to juggle commitments, congestion charges, stealth taxes, the insanity 
of the rush hour - the list is endless. One in five adults suffer from a mental 
illness at some time in their lives, and 1 in 25 are on anti-depressants. 
Medical treatment usually involves 10 minutes with the GP and a course of 
tablets; a metaphorical sticking plaster for the chronic malaise of modernity. R 
D Laing's view of some mental illness as being symptomatic of our attempt to 
adapt to the madness of society and family life still strikes a chord.
Capitalism, its values, institutions and morality provide profound and powerful 
forces which erode and devalue the sense of benevolence, good will and humanity 
common to us all. The disturbing picture that has been painted however, should 
be countered by the recognition that despite all the depressingly negative 
influences we are exposed to, acts of goodness still vastly outweigh acts of 
malice. Maybe there is some hope after all, and it must be conceded that 
sociological and psychological explanations of behaviour, however astute, can be 
overly deterministic. What they do consistently demonstrate is that humans are 
sociable creatures, capable of evolving, rationalising and adapting to 
completely new social conditions.

The conclusion, predictably perhaps, is that in order for the systematic 
deterioration in the human condition to be reversed, a completely different type 
of economic and social arrangement is required. Founded on the principles of 
mutual aid, cooperation and a system of production/distribution based on need, 
the contradictions and inhumanity of capitalism will be forever banished. The 
new order will not be reliant on force or fear. It will prioritise social 
justice, forging a community spirit, a culture of tolerance, equity and 
libertarian socialism. Put simply, life would be much easier and better for all 
if we worked together. This new world is within our grasp if we are prepared to 
throw off the shackles of the bosses and state which enslave us. Their 
primitive, outdated dog-eat-dog ideology (which makes enemies of us all and 
drives us round the proverbial bend) must be forever consigned to the dustbin of 
history. A new era awaits.

Our starting point, building a new society within the shell of the old means not 
just taking control of the means of production; it is about reaffirming 
solidarity and social support networks where we live. It is about recognising 
and challenging oppression whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head. It is 
about sharing and developing organisations, social clubs and entertainment 
outside of the control of the system. It is about politicising the community, 
family, the pub, football ground and the bedroom. In Reich's words it is 
"finding connection with the petty, banal, primitive simple everyday life of the 
broadest mass of people". It is about playing to our own rules, not 
capitalism's. It is about enabling us to express and explore our sexuality 
without fear of ridicule, and rejecting the rigid authoritarian morality and 
roles foisted upon us from an early age.

Ultimately, let it never be forgotten that being loving, kind, unselfish and 
compassionate is truly revolutionary (spoken like a true hippy!!). In turn, a 
strong sense of community, reflected in workplace organisation, and 
interconnected across capitalism's artificially created boundaries, provides a 
powerful means for social transformation.
_________________________________________
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