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Liberalism is an all out, whole-of-society assault on the existential question, ‘why are WE here?’ Of course, it’s quite open about this, being opposed to a collective conception of the good, but you have to understand that ALL of its institutions are directed towards this end.
Atomization, alienation, and despair are not accidental side effects of liberalism, they are the main show. It’s an ideology of systematic obfuscation, concealment, and compartmentalization with the goal of REDUCING us to powerless, ignorant, insignificant ‘individuals’.
The market system is an excellent example of this obfuscation in action. Industry is inherently collectivist, functionally organized, and hierarchical. Liberalism absurdly reframes it as the product of ‘self-interested actors’. Why? To obscure the question, ‘what is this for?’
No industrial society has ever or will ever work according the so-called ‘principles of economics’, because they do not describe anything that could exist in its own right. Rather, they organize a set of obfuscatory practices on top of industry, to conceal its functioning.
At the level of the individual, the labor relationship conceals the reasons for your work, with an obfuscatory, purely performative practice of exchange, where the individual (supposedly) gives up ‘leisure time’ to do work that’s (supposedly) in the interest of the employer.
At the level of the ‘corporation’, the corporation (supposedly) acts ‘self-interestedly’ in order to gain profit or to produce ‘value’ for shareholders; the contribution it makes to society is (supposedly) a side effect. This is all absurdist, obfuscatory performance art.
At the level of government, the government pretends to be a ‘disinterested’, ‘neutral’ party that presides over something separate from itself – ‘the economy’ – which is the product of ‘private initiative’. This, again, is purely performative and obfuscatory.
In all cases, the goal is to conceal the basic fact that industry is a deliberate, functionally-organized, collective achievement that answers to a question of higher purpose, using a set of practices that veil it in a fiction of individualistic-hedonic ‘mechanisms’.
These practices also serve the goal of CONTAINMENT. The ‘for profit’ structure of corporations, along with IP laws, NDAs, etc, serve to compartmentalize industry and reduce the sharing of technical expertise. This ensures the subordination of technology to liberal ends.
The answer to the existential question – ‘why are WE here?’ – lies in systematically REMOVING the liberal apparatus of obfuscation, concealment, and compartmentalization, in REVEALING what modern society is underneath the Liberal Containment System.
