I'm sensitive to the accusation of envy that's constantly being hurled at anyone who gets too angry or critical at the antics of the rich and powerful. "You're just seething because they're successful and you're not," says the true believer in capitalism, and you know what? Yes, I am. I'm not happy to be almost fifty and unable to stick at a job because of my chaotic brains. I don't like being a burden to Gravislizard and dependent upon his income. So yes, I am stained with the sin of envy (and all the others, so far as I can tell.)
I'm not sure how much it's supposed to matter. Aren't capitalists motivated by sins themselves? Aren't they themselves envious? For no matter how much money and success you hoard for yourself, the exponential curve of wealth inequality soars infinitely high above you. It's always possible to grab more. There's always someone who has more than you do, usually a LOT more—and even if you're lauded as the richest person in the world, like Elon Musk has been, your position is never too secure. So everyone in this system is always "competitive"—scheming, sneaking, backbiting, cheating, betraying, sometimes even fighting to seize more money and influence and market share and prestige and everything else that goes into being successful. And we're told there's no other way to live. There's no room for sentiments; there's only winners and losers. "It's war out there, Johnson! It's kill or be killed! They'll eat you alive if you don't take whatever you can grab!" How on Earth can this state of perpetual competition possibly be achieved without being hurtful and hateful towards others?
But in public, no capitalist or capitalist fanboy ever openly acknowledges that their way of life requires them to discard ethical behavior. If you believe their own marketing, capitalists aren't merely the source of all wealth and all invention, but even of all human goodness. There's nobody more self-sacrificing and morally exalted on the planet than Elon Musk, who works so hard, sleeping on factory floors (with the help of computer-generated imagery) and enduring a storm of hatred because he loves humanity and wants what's best for us all—not like the "extinctionists" who say mean things about him. There's even a scrap of truth in such rubbish‚ I'm forced to say: while I doubt that Elon Musk does anything that I'd classify as legitimate work, no doubt he's continually bustling and busy, exhausting himself, and he does somehow keep himself smiling and spouting optimistic blather even though he mut get countless reminders every day that he's hated by millions of people.
But I think what really matters here, to the capitalist mindset, isn't whether Elon Musk is actually a good person or not, but whether he feels like he's a good person. It's the capitalist version of salvation through faith rather than works: as long as Musk asserts his infinite love for humanity, you're supposed to believe him. It's treacherous and malevolent to contradict Musk's assertions just as it's evil to make a Christian doubt their faith. And it's pointless to cite Musk's known behaviors and actions—it's faith that matters, not works, and anyway all those stories about his screaming tantrums are lies from Satan The Liberal Media™ anyway.
And then there's all that money. You know how much good you can do with the world's biggest pile of money? For American society has thoroughly internalized the notion that goodness (or at least potential goodness, which matters far more to a faith-based society than actual goodness) is proportional to money. The richer you are, the more good you could do if you wanted, and therefore the better you must be. Poor people can't possibly be good, because they don't have any money to do good things with; only rich people have the power to do good.
We arrive here at the central lie that sustains avarice: the avaricious person, given the choice between any other activity and grabbing more money, will always grab more money and will indeed tell themselves that they need to grab the money first, before they can do anything else. "Let me hoard another few hundred thousand first, then I'll give you fifty cents. It would be illogical to give you money now until my finances are more secure." If you've seen Dan Olson's video on the bizarre GameStop "MOASS" investment cult, then you've seen some striking examples of such behavior, with clips of MOASS gamblers blithering about how helpful and generous they're going to be—after they become overnight gazillionaires, mind you. In the meantime it's okay to (say) steal your spouse's money in order to sustain the habit of gambling on a meme stock.
Elon Musk is going to be the most wonderful and kind-hearted person in the world...after he's King of Space, with a throne on Mars.
But you know what? I'm guilty of similar thinking. Not that I have inflated daydreams about private Martian kingdoms or making billions off a single hot stock, but I still have vague luminous notions about how there will come a time when everything is better, when my head's finally clear and everything's just somehow easier and freer and happier, and THEN I'll get round to doing something worthwhile with my life instead of watching old TV shows and blithering rubbish on the Internet. I find myself envying Elon Musk's superior drive. He's a disaster, but at least he's trying, and that's more than I can say about myself.
~Chara of Pnictogen
