Re: psychological impact of capitalism

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

>"Maslow's hierarchy of needs predicts that if securely fed and housed,
people's well-being depends less on material goods, more on factors such
as good relationships with and love of others. However, most people are
in the thrall of an economic system that ignores this fact, and
punishing generosity but rewarding unnatural selfishness. This results
in cognitive dissonance, because people feel forced to do things of
which they disapprove, leaving them feeling guilty, disempowered and
depressed. This would seem to explain why depression is booming even
amidst materially prospering populations. Although a human tragedy, this
epidemic of depression is a boon for the economy, since consumer culture
feeds off people's low self-esteem by encouraging self-indulgence and
escapism, resulting in a viscious circle of increasing consumption and
decreasing well-being."<

this makes  a lot of sense. Capitalism, when working in the pure capitalist way (as in the current era) and not facing a mass movement such as a dynamic communist or social-democratic movement, first atomizes society, making it so that no individual has any power to change things -- and makes it really, really hard to form coalitions to change things fundamentally -- while making social connections of any sort more difficult. Then, it blames each individual for their own socio-economic fate, which encourages depression since there are only a small number of chances for capitalist success (and these correspond to others' downward mobility). This is similar to the situation in many bureaucracies, though most of them have some sort of group social life and group spirit, which helps moderate some of the causes of depression. In academia, especially at the publish-or-perish places, a lot of the social life is pretty worthless, since we're all competing with each other.

By the way, a lot of this depression seems to show up as workaholicism, so it's not just consumerism.

Jim D.