Global Capitalism is the Cause of Nazis

This might seem like an outrageous claim, given that Global Capitalism is pretty much the direct opposite of National Socialism, but just give me a moment...

The free markets loved by global capitalist ultimately lead to large inequality for at least a section of those societies.

When we trust entirely to free markets some can and do become very rich, and many get by quite nicely, or at least perfectly adequately, but free markets have historically always created an underclass of people who have what are deemed less relevant skills, or initial access to resource to sell, who end up struggling or completely failing to get by.

People at the poorer end of the spectrum, tend for one reason or another, to develop an appreciation of the fact that life isn't exactly fair.

Well No shit! As if we didn't all know that life isn't exactly fair.

The point being, that when you find yourself in that situation, you can either complain about it, or do something about it. It's what people choose to do in that situation that is the issue.

There are Two Types of People in the World (lol)

Some people only spot unfairness when it is happening to them. When they seek to resolve unfairness, they seek to resolve it primarily for themselves.

Those with more empathy will attempt to find a genuinely fair solution for everyone.

Of course there are more than two types of people in the world. What I've just described is not actually two binary states, but the ends of a spectrum on which we reside dependent on our differing levels of empathy for each other.

When people experience unfairness due to the inherent inequalities within capitalism, they will seek to resolve it in one of three ways. Either simply for themselves, or for themselves and others who they identify with, or for everyone.

• Those who only seek to resolve the situation for themselves, are basically perpetuating capitalism.
• Those who look only to resolve the situation for themselves and others like them, are moving within the concept of national socialism.
• Those who seek to solve problems for everyone, are leaning towards international socialism, or as they're generally more simply known, socialists.

Some people say that National Socialism isn't Socialism. I think It is. It's just a socialism for a limited subset of society. It's about making sure that people like you are OK.

And this is important. Because when we assume our major enemy are national socialists, the dreaded NAZI's, we can very easily forget that actually the bigger enemy, the people who created this whole mess in the first place, the people who are benefiting most from this entire scenario, where the poor are set against the poor, are rich capitalists.

I want to be clear, I'm not making any attempt here to apologise for the past crimes of NAZI's any more than I'm looking to apologise for the past crimes of global capitalists. I'm merely trying to explain how this situation has come to be in the past, at a time when it looks like our societies may be about to make the same mistakes again, because we do not understand enough about our own history.

When we see mainstream media feeding us a daily diet of battles between neo-nazis and those of us with empathy for a greater subset of our fellow humans, remember that it is capitalism that gains most from seeing division amongst those who wish to create more fairness in the world, even if some of those people are somewhat limited in their thinking, and chose to focus on creating more fairness "just for people like them."

Just for the sake of completeness, National Capitalism isn't any better. That's just freezing people out of markets who "aren't like you".

On the Other Hand.

Having said all that, it's perhaps worth stressing that some people are just racist arseholes. But neither is racism a simple binary state. There are levels in all things. In this instance the scale goes from wanting to treat all people equally, through wanting subtle preference for your own family, community etc right up to the opposing end of the spectrum and rabid hatred of people who are "not like you". The levels to which people feel that society is unfair towards them will have an effect upon how much they feel the need to join together with others "like them" to combat any perceived unfairness, and the extent to which they will develop nationalist survival strategies.

Where there is great economic inequality, especially when there is actual poverty, it is a natural reaction for those suffering, to join together to fight it. And that is true whether you consider others like you as being just the ones with the same colour skin, or who are of the same religion, or who are from the same country, or hopefully the same planet (or universe for the sci fi fans).

It's a simple fact that it is the inequalities within capitalism that give rise to people having a desire for socialism, whether that socialism is on a regional, national, or an international scale.

The greater the inequality, and the harder it is made to solve those issues on an international scale, the more people will look to regional or factional solutions to solve those issues.

 

Some people are just racist arseholes. But inequality, and especially poverty make it far easier for those arseholes to attract people to their cause, by offering to redress a little of the balance, and a little of the unfairness "for people like them."

If we remove the inequality, or at the very least, remove the poverty, there will be far less of our fellow humans flocking to the causes of nationalist, or religious extremists.

And when you see the media full of stories about NAZIs, remember, it was capitalism, and free markets, and ultimately inequality and poverty that instigated the desire for nationalist solutions to what is ultimately an inherent problem with global capitalism.