Credit Crunch Critical for Survival of Capitalism

Who needed further proof that the current notions about the political spectrum are a myth, here it is. The financial crisis is interesting in that is leads to political players reverting to their default attitudes towards individual freedom and the role of the state. In French President Nicolas Sarkozy we find a prime example. Be prepared for the shake-out to produce more revealing knee-jerks in the coming weeks and months.

At the root of the false spectrum is the public relations stunt that was sprung by the Left after World War II with the annihilation of the ultra Right, in the defeat of National Socialist Germany. Myth-making, PR stunt, are two ways of putting it; another is defining it as 'actively altering the perception of reality'. (Only this has to be done artfully and in a coordinated fashion; not like some amateurs who are currently trying to paint Sarah Palin simultaneously as the hot and gullible hayseed, Ellie Mae in a postmodern rendition of the sixties TV series The Beverley Hillbillies, and as a gun-toting, Bible-thumbing, reincarnation of the Puritan niece of Oliver Cromwell - all at the same time.)

That aside, the dialectic myth sprung on us was that on the Left we have the humane, altruistic Socialists, whereas the Right consists entirely of vile egoistic Capitalists preying on the good hearts of the poor masses. In this dichotomy we find in Adolf Hitler the arch Wall Street Capital C Capitalist of all time; and 'third way' small l liberals as a compromise between the two polar systems, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. There is obviously something wrong with this skewed picture.

Both Left and Right are two branch departments of the same collectivist school of thought, that demands the individual to subordinate to the collective body (group, state, race, social class, nation, etc.). Although they often subscribe to the oxymoron of regulated free-market capitalism - neutrally described as 'best practice' - a majority of European Christian Democrats are at core of that ilk. The same is true of American paleo conservatives. Which stands to reason, because the structure of collectivism is religious thought stripped from the finer theological ethics, and God replaced by whatever was taken to animate and embody the collective. This is why these ideologies often take the shape of pseudo religions, rather than political systems.

Without going at this time in to the core fallacy lurking on the bottom of this Kantian/Hegelian pond (we have done that in these pages more often than we care to remember) - this world view on the political level translates into statism, collectivism and anti-capitalism; in variations and intensity it is also suspicious, critical or downright hostile towards reason, science and technology. It is in effect directly opposed to modern thinking. Philosopher and historian Isaiah Berlin coined the term, the Counter-Enlightenment.

Capitalism and free-markets are the political and economical consequences of the ethics of individual Free Will, the use of reason as the source of knowledge, and the assurance that the universe is knowable. The USA is the only country founded on these basic philosophical principles, democracy is the social translation. This Postmodern cartoon shows it is precisely that which anti-modernism opposes.

Let me at this point take the opportunity to clarify the European versus the American alignments. There are European Libertarians seriously misaligning, declaring for the crypto Socialist Obama and the severely radicalized Democratic Party, unaware that the defenders of free-markets are located at the Republican side of the aisle.

Reverting to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, even though without doubt a true philamerican, the Financial Times article "Sarkozy sets out bigger state role" is evidence that he remains at heart a statist (Gaullist) with a thin veneer of Liberalism which is shed at the first sign the principles are called upon. While singing the praises of Capitalism, he's calling for the chutzpah that is European 'self-regulation,' to be jettisoned in favor of outright state-regulation.

The coming months are critical. The crisis offers an opportunity to those who had to swallow and gag back free market capitalism for the sake of 'best practice', but who remained emotionally as well as culturally collectivist thinkers. Old ideals may well be revived. Bets are on for who'll be the first to drop the n word of nationalization into the discourse.

These true believers do not want to know that it's their own interventionism that caused the markets to fail, and when they did, it's the markets that were at fault (read "Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess" and Carpe Diem: "Flashback to the 1990s: Origins of the Credit Crisis" by Dr. Mark J. Perry). Before anything else, this circular, truly banal argument needs falsefying.

- Cartoon by Michael Ramirez -

The current credit crunch will be used as an excuse to unleash a whole new generation of big government regulation on to the free world, putting it in retrograde as it is digging in. Of all the markers required for global Fascism we come up short but one or two ... nothing a protracted recession can't cure (posting will follow shortly). We can even venture a guess what the neotot system will be called: New Capitalism, or alternatively True Capitalism, entirely Islamic banking compatible.

Already the drones are buzzing that "this is obviously the end of capitalism as we know it--it doesn't work". The coming weeks and months will see defining moments in the unrolling of our future in which Hegel's 'world historical figures' will play their part: the ethics of the Enlightenment versus the next failed attempt at Building the Collective Utopia (after over 110 million deaths, this time they'll get it right ... for our own good, of course).

- Update - Yahoo!UK & Ireland: "Government to nationalise Bradford & Bingley" -

- Filed on Articles in "The Dystopia of Paradise" and "The Economic and Monetary Dossier" -