No Megalomania in Capitalism (was Re: seth & defusing korea tensions)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon May 29 08:14:08 PDT 2000



>CB: Would you say that the U.S. is not run by megalomaniacal dictators

Of course not. Even when the capitalist elite appear (to us the mob) to be afflicted with megalomania, they are simply behaving as normal capitalists do -- increasing the market share, practicing mergers & acquisitions, giving incentives to CEOs. Nothing pathological here!

Besides, love of Bigness for the sake of Bigness does not run in the capitalist families. The art of capitalism dictates that you must know when you need to Downsize: firing workers, discontinuing product lines, closing factories, bankrupting companies & countries. Shock Therapists corrected the problem of megalomania in the former Eastern Bloc through the rigorous regimen of deindustrialization.

Last but not the least, images of plain & stocky middle-aged Asian men are fashion crimes of immense proportions. The capitalist aesthetic demands that we worship the Thin, (Very) Young, & Beautiful (here we follow the lead of an eminent emigre Russian intellectual). Or youths of amazing athletic graces (Leni Riefenstal Lives!). This is symbolically appropriate because both in modelling & sports eating disorder is very common, and eating disorder follows the logic of capitalism: Binge & Purge. Or Scarcity and Desire Unlimited.

Yoshie



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