2.5.3. The capitalist methods of persuasion

The automatist society manifesto  

 

2.5. The evolution of methods of persuading servants to execute orders

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2.5.3. The capitalist methods of persuasion

The slaves riot and their retreat into (religious) prayer are the main social reactions that led to the suspension or improvement of classical slavery. The feudal lord practice of collecting taxes from the "free peasants", who lived on his lands, was a very clever strategy of the feudal system to diversify and improve Greek-Roman slavery. Instead of terrorizing the order taker with direct threats to more efficient work, the feudal lord gave him freedom of choice. Here is the pragmatic core of the Christianity free will theory. This abstract theory has had a very pragmatic application. The peasant who worked more or less efficiently, however, could keep a larger share of the goods produced, after another share was paid as taxes to the feudal lord, and thus his wealth was bigger. The one who produced less, remained with lesser, and was poorer. Unlike the classical slavery threats to produce more, the feudalism used another profit strategy: it encouraged extra work, but not forced it, so the servant had a certain illusion of freedom. Although the feudalism and capitalism are seen as completely different systems, we can still see in the first one the capitalism itself very roots.

Although the early Christianity preached the values of poverty, money and wealth gradually began to become fundamental values of its later variants, such as the Catholicism and, later, the Protestantism. This change of direction was directly recognized, either at the colloquial level, or at the scientific level by the famous sociologist Max Weber, especially through his book "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism". That is why the American "Christians" of the 18th or 19th century, especially the Protestants, had no problem restoring the classical slavery, despite all the criticism leveled at it by Jesus and the Church Fathers. Recently, even the Orthodoxy has turned on the money values, although there are still important figures here who disavow the culture of profit.

But the capitalism actually has its origins in the Christianity free will theory. This allowed the free peasant's freedom to work more or less, or not to work at all, and to live in poverty, praying, unlike the classical slavery, which did not tolerate disobedience and inactivity. The difference between feudalism and capitalism is that the last one specific job is much more restricted than that of the former. The territory of the owner's factory is much smaller than the feudal land. Both the capitalist owner and the feudal lord claim ownership of that production space. The difference between the two is that the feudal lord claims ownership of the (processing) natural resources and less of the production tools, while the businessman owns only the production tools and not the natural resources that the factory processes.

Subsequently, through lobbies or various schemes, the big industrialists bought the natural resources, or transferred them from a certain authority. But initially they bought the raw products, which they later processed in their factories. The production space restriction looked like certain equalization between the master and the subject, which seduced the feudal peasant. The feudal domination of huge tracts of land in the name of a false "divine right" no longer seemed credible to many medieval subjects. Because the industrial business owner did not use the feudal theory of "divine right" that the feudal lord claimed, he seemed more just. That is why many peasants thus preferred to leave the feudal lands, risking a nomadic life until they were employed in the factories of the industrialists. Having a closer way of life to theirs, the industrialist boss seemed more humane than the feudal lord, secluded in his castle and isolated from the community. But in fact, over time, the capitalism has created the most radical social segregation, and the wealth of the industrialists has led to a chasm between masters and subjects as never seen before in history.

The medieval peasants, who turned into factory workers, were lured with welfare but gradually lost their freedom. This is the capitalism principle, which he is not shy to express (although the last part is a big lie): "you work hard and live well." This predisposition to social ascension has materialized in the twentieth century in the "American Dream" mentality, according to which, if you are a hard worker and have no dissident activity, the system will reward people, and will get rich. Such a statement is true, according to the previous centuries wealth criteria, as it was similar to food and clothing, plus housing-specific commodities such as toilets connected to hot water and sewers. However, if in exchange for these comforts you lose the right to socialize or walk in the natural space, due to lack of time, then the wealth exists only at the surface. But if increasing living standards or access to technology leads to a decrease in fundamental personal freedoms, then such a practice is unfair. It contradicts the very principle of the increasing freedoms that the technological evolution and, implicitly, of the human being standard of living, must bring.

The Christianity brought the liberation to the slaves from the yard of the Greek-Roman aristocrats, but somehow under the influence of the compulsion to repeat , they returned to the new masters’ yard, the capitalist industrialists. In a way it can be said that the liberation was not real even during feudalism, because the slavery virus followed them, as in a pandemic, by the master property extending to the places where they settled. But the fact that "Caesar" was far away most of the time, in addition to the Christian ideology of hope, gave them the illusion that they were free. On the contrary, the capitalists rebuilt this slavery, preserving the illusion of medieval freedom. The different rest space from the work place, and the avoidance of corporal punishment after disobedience, were realities that gave the work relationship a freely agreed the aspect of freedom, and not classical slavery. In fact, this difference is more apparent, as I have shown in this section . But the difference between these profit extraction systems exists in fact; the industrialists were happy if any worker resigned, unlike the Greek-Roman master or feudal aristocrat. Unemployed people were waiting at the factory gate to get hired, initially voluntarily leaving the feudal lands, and then out of necessity, after they had gone bankrupt or converted themselves into industrialists.

Apart from these, there is the modern order takers superior training to handle the capitalist technology , , which was done by a new-liberal mentality, but not with a conservative-fatalistic one , specific to the classic slave. The ostentatious morality simulation, which I described in the previous section, was a real PR strategy by which the new masters wanted to win the public sympathy, promising that they would be good and merciful to the potential subjects. The bourgeois experience has confirmed that the wage-earner is far more profitable with his enthusiasm at work, pursuing his "American Dream", than the fatalist classical slave, who resignedly accepts his destiny. The industrial economy operates with the enthusiasm of its subjects. The modern order taker needs more liberties than those offered by the feudal era, in order to regain its enthusiasm, after being squeezed out of strength during the work schedule.

The experience of medieval freedoms given to the classical slave has been preserved in the industrial age until the contemporary period. Thus, the system no longer puts those brutal pressures on it as in the past, such as the direct threat of death or beating. Instead of these, the capitalism created a disinformation bubble around the potential servant, a kind of Matrix. Through this disinformational mechanism the common people are drawn into this dirty game of giving up its own freedom in favor of obedience, recruitment and taking orders in a hierarchy of command. The ads are mostly false, das I have shown in this article .

The paradox is that the advertisements mythomaniac-disinformation function is preserved even when they tell the truth. The almost obsessive repetition of a product benefits becomes a lie precisely because it prevents the human being from thinking about his own metaphysical and religious condition, and even from resting, in the most mercantile sense of the word. The ads harass the individual's emotional peace and psychodynamic balance . This misinformation influx leads to all kinds of needs increasing, especially the sexual and food ones, which involves over-consumption and wasting. The fairy-tales about ecology and stopping global warming told by the demagogues are part of the same disinformation bubble, in the context in which the whole capitalist system operates on over-consumption, waste, and constant abuse of the environment.

Observing this common people predisposition to "treat" its psychological pain with greed, the modern society has developed over time a megasystem of artificial lust creation. Theadvertising has exactly this role in deep sublimating in the "target" the fact that she/he is living a boring, uninteresting and despicable life, and that this could change if buys different products. Here we see a subliminal attack on human freedom, which makes the free trade appearance an abusive subordination.

The artificial creation of human desires, as the consumerism advertising does, practically manipulates the value of demand from the famous economic law of supply and demand. Such a practice destroys any idea of a free market. The purpose of stimulating these artificial cravings, by issuing specific advertising messages, is done precisely to bring it into a seemingly free labor-wage exchange relationship, which I have detailed in this section .

With the industrial age, the illusions have become much more real, more pragmatic, linked to an immediate reality that produces some satisfaction, even if only a passing one. The medieval daydreaming of a happy life in the afterlife has been replaced by the capitalist daydreaming of a happy life in the real world, just as social privileges themselves had. The new executor wanted this illusion to have a greater factual correspondence with reality. The exaggeration of this satisfaction, its oversizing to the stage of nirvana, of mercantile heaven, is the main feature of this new economic exchange between the slave and the master. It does seem fair, but, as I have shown in the section linked above, it does not differ in principle from that of the classical slavery.

But these concrete illusions still remain illusions, as were those of Christian rhetoric feudalism. The entertainment industry is a lucrative industry designed to artificially create optimism in the tired and depressed soul of the modern order taker. Like Plato's Cave myth, the capitalism creates a cave of blind enthusiasm, a manic happiness fueled by "happy ending" Hollywood movies, and psychoactive substances.

Baiting with a high lifestyle and belonging to the social elite is a strategy made both at the macrosocial level, by manipulating the money supply circulating on the market , as well as at the microsocial level, through the corporations strategies for recruiting and modeling the employee's behavior. This is done in two steps, respectively:

1. uprooting the employee from the current lifestyle;
2. the progressive reduction of individual freedoms, already given and lived as rights guaranteed in the previous lifestyle.

This thing is done through a perverse luring strategy, almost identical to the fishing pond luring. Initially, for a short period of time, the system/company offers higher wages than the ratio between the work activity efficiency and the labor market. Then, either the wages gradually decrease or the volume of work increases in such a way that the exchange no longer reflects the balance between the current remuneration market value and the work performed, as described above. Once the employee gets used to a certain high lifestyle, it becomes dependent on the hierarchical system, and, statistically, can no longer resign. There are some who do it, however, but most of them accept this status, as evidenced by these statistics. It will be difficult for most of them to return to their previous lifestyle and will accept the new conditions of the employer, although initially they would not have accepted them.

The capitalism has prepared some small gifts of indulgence, which have increased since then, such as the free weekends. Then it offered the paid days-off of the legal holidays and the seasonal vacation. Finally, as an extreme solution, there was the unpaid dismissal introduced for those who have the political leaders profile, in order to avoid starting a possible uprising in the workplace that might attract others into it. From this point of view, the wage slavery is radically different from classical slavery; the submission refusal led to punishment both for the one who adopted it as for the other slaves; on the contrary, the same thing leads to dismissal in capitalism and the dissidents exclusion from the group of other subjects, so as not to induce them revolt ideas.

These measures have a very precise purpose: they are meant to make the most of the obedient man and to offer it a period of rest when is tired, and to be let go when is about to erupt in revolt, before taking revenge on someone close to the circle of masters. Despite its cynicism, that has remained the same as in antiquity, it is a remarkable evolution of slavery. We must fully admit this! The work termination allows other naïve enthusiasts to be extracted the profit from, without causing other traumas to the disappointed one, as the classic slavery done to the unproductive slaves, through corporal punishment or even death. In over 3,000 years of classical slavery, the masters have learned that the slave revenge through rebellion is unprofitable for all.

In the next section I will describe the misinformation, as a manipulation bubble in which the order taker is a prisoner.

Gabriel Baldovin