Metacapitalism — from Fascism and Nazism to ESG and the Great Reset

Feminism, abortion, gender ideology… if those themes are en vogue, is because someone is making money out of them.

Feminism, climate change, CRT, gender ideology, abortion… if those themes are en vogue, it is because someone is making money out of them

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”
Samuel Johnson

English essayist (and meme extraordinaire) Samuel Johnson didn’t mean his words as a denunciation of the love one feels for one’s country. Rather, they’re meant as a denunciation of selfish, petty lust for power by special interest groups, who turned the patriotic sense of community into a tribalist esprit de corps.

When Johnson stated those words, the telegraph hadn’t been invented yet. It took 30 days to get from London to New York. It was a world controlled through what we can call the “vertical rule” of nation-states: the sovereign rule over a territory, a language, and a culture. In today's world, we are quickly moving towards the “horizontal rule” of supranational organisations — which seeks to iron out cultural wrinkles, if not straight-out steamroll them.

Chauvinism Reloaded as Identitarianism

In such a world, where the globe — or at least the Western hemisphere — is the common territory, money is the common language, and liberalism, the common culture; ESG aims at becoming the common law. The chauvinism that Johnson denounced in the past has now morphed into globalist identitarianism. Globalism has become the last refuge of the corporate scoundrel.

Gone are the days of multilateral institutions being instruments for the spread of democracy and peace, facilitating the free movement of people and the free trade of goods. Encroaching ever more into the lives of the citizens, the supranational Leviathan is now a de facto layer of government.

In a drive to undermine democratically, bottom-up crafted constitutions, Globalism seeks to impose Law through policies and resolutions crafted — in a top-down fashion — by unelected, faceless bureaucrats working for the supranational project: to kill the nation-states and socially engineer a new transnational ruling class.

The atomic unit of the globalist bureaucracy is the mix of a bureaucrat and a demagogue: a bureaugogue. Someone hellbent on advancing the Globalist ideology by expanding its bureaucracy to Kafkaesque levels, therefore rendering it almost impossible to be reversed. Openly trying to win by confusion.

In the limit, democracy is a regime where the people decide what the political class will look like; in the global plutocracy, the political class decides what the people should look like. A case in point is Ireland’s 2018 referendum on abortion. Enacted by a so-called “Citizens Assembly” — a group of 99 citizens chosen by politicians through a very obscure process — the referendum was ultimately successful thanks to the help of Big Tech. The metacapitalist¹ goal is a democracy without the people, as Olavo de Carvalho noted.

The metacapitalist goal is a democracy without the people

Turning the Key from Globalisation to Globalism

Milton Friedman’s pencil allegory encapsulated brilliantly the elegant allure of globalised capitalism: the ultimate mechanism to unleash free markets and deliver unimaginably high living standards.

His reasoning is bullet-proof in the frictionless world homo economicus inhabits. But it loses power in a world hijacked by transnational corporate interests. That was a very difficult realisation for me, and the reason why I’m a conservative, and not a libertarian. We can even pinpoint the exact moment his argument falls from grace:

“That is why the operation of the free market is so essential, not only to promote productive efficiency, but, even more, to foster harmony and peace among the peoples of the world”

Here, one of the greatest geniuses of the 20th century apparently betrays his own doctrine that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” If that is true, then the social responsibility of markets is to increase efficiency. Full stop. Promoting harmony and peace should be left to the peoples’ moral systems.

He also seemingly ignored the advice from one Adam Smith — even though Smith is quoted in Friedman’s rationale — who noted that:

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices”

In the absence of objective, common moral standards, Globalisation became the siren’s call of Globalism, leading us to outsource our democratic process, downgrade our national community, and corrupt our moral standards as a result. We can also pinpoint some key milestones of Globalisation’s decay: China’s entry into the UN (including the Security Council) and the WTO; and the EU taking over the currency, courts, and political systems of once sovereign, independent nations; are chief among them.

In terms of semiotics, we gave Russia the World Cup and the Winter Olympics; the Summer Olympics to Beijing, and a World Cup to Qatar — to be hosted in stadia built by slave labour, just like our iPhones. If normalising brutal dictatorships is an acceptable price for shiny gadgets, imagine the type of bargains Global elites are striking within our own feeble democracies.

Globalist backroom deals that gave us Covid, Ukraine, and — soon — Taiwan; are the same ones that gave us BLM, the Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street

Social-Democracy Evolves into Metacapitalism

“Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube (let others wage war, thou, happy Austria, marry)”
House of Habsburg, unofficial motto

The House of Habsburg was arguably the most successful European dynasty. Their innovative approach to empire-building proved to be vastly superior to the costly art of war; at the core, was a proto-metacapitalist system that engineered protected markets through supranational collusion, ensuring a steady flow of tributes from their captive public.

This strategy stemmed from the ultimate realisation that the best way to guarantee you’ll always win a game is not by owning the board or the pieces; but rather by owning the rulebook.

The Habsburgs’ trick is hardly lost in time. Mussolini’s corporate state and Hitler’s Beamtenstaat — with the caveat that both were revolutionary regimes, as opposed to the Habsburgs’ conservatism— were reincarnations of the same principle, but imbibed with the “permanent revolution” engine developed by Marx & Engels.

Trotski, however, provides the best interpretation of “permanent revolution” as a bridge from the corporate world into communism: for the new economic structure to be successful it needs to percolate the vertical structures of power within the nation-sates (governments, corporates, unions, universities, the media) and create a layer of transnational “horizontal rule” above them; the same totalitarian socialism at the root of Fascism and Nazism, is at the root of ESG.

The same totalitarian socialism at the root of Fascim and Nazism, is at the root of ESG

It is undeniable that, for better or worse, Mussolini’s Corporatism inspired much of today’s corporate law. It was only a matter of time until its underpinning totalitarian ideology would find its way as a paramount strategic objective of the modern pragmatic corporation. Hence the artificial corporate worship of “pride month,” for example.

Rather than owning companies through the shareholder ledger, the Globalist cabal now seeks to own companies through the Board of Governors— much like Mussolini and the Nazis did. And ESG standards set the rulebook for this game.

Profit as the Original Sin, ESG as a New Age Indulgence

The justification for the State to intervene in private businesses is rooted in the totalitarian/revolutionary idea that “the rich only got rich by exploiting the poor”, a concept first developed into policy by Niccolo Machiavelli (and hijacked by Mussolini, Hitler, and a varied sort of SJWs), who wasn’t shy to advise it as a tool to assert political power:

“That Men rise from humble to high Fortunes rather by Fraud than by Force”
Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy

“Tax the rich!”, “We are the 99%!,” those are chants that would sound very familiar to those involved with the Kristallnacht or the BLM riots… “none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy,” is a good summary of those chants, in the words of Friedman himself. It is not difficult to see, however, that these ideas are a product of the Marxist’s theory of value, which sees labour as the only source of value, giving no regard to entrepreneurship or risk-taking.

Such totalitarian tendencies were successfully kept in check for the past 80 years until the rise of an upper echelon of mega-capitalists that are willing to kick the ladder of free markets to protect their stake in the global power structure.

The convergence of those tendencies created a consensus, a marriage between a socialist nomenklatura that has outgrown violent revolution and a metacapitalist elite that has outgrown disorderly competition: a new version of crony capitalism that, instead of maximizing profits, seeks to minimise dissent. In a hyperconnected world, where few markets remain to be explored, the cake has grown to its full extent, now it’s time to divide it.

A new version of crony capitalism that, instead of maximizing profits, seek to minimise dissent

This is the Great Reset — or stakeholder capitalism —, in a nutshell: a Trotskists’ wet dream while he/she sleeps in Rockefeller’s linen sheets.

Blurring the Lines Between Political and Economic Power

Marxism is foremost a philosophy of history, not a philosophy of economics. Marx’s so-called contribution to the field of history is known as “historical materialism” (whether this is just a derivative of Hegel’s historicism is out of the scope of this article).

Since Thucydides, history has been defined as the history of wars and the biography of great men. This began to change during the so-called Englightenment period; and — just like with most things “enlightened” — it ended up in disgrace, with the Marxist worldview becoming hegemonic: history is now the history of the class struggles.

The prevalence of historic materialism has redefined the social power structures, completing the shift from a concentrated and objective decision-making process, to a scattered and subjective one. That, of course, created an appearance of a more distributed political power. But that’s only correct for “nominal” power. “Real” political power, as it does in any socialist system, now is centralised on the nomenklatura², creating a paradox where the more scattered political power gets, the more centralised it becomes.

In capitalist free markets, the capital allocation process (i.e. economic power) offers a counterbalance to political power, with the capital being allocated according to its expected financial return. In the historic materialist, metacapitalist world, the lines between political and economic power are blurred, with increased state interference causing capital to be allocated according to its expected political power returns.

Rightfully so, then, the globalist nomenklaturas have identified ESG as a secular opportunity to channel economic returns into political power returns, and therefore bypass the democratic process.

Algorithmic Decision-Making

Nothing represents more the fight for control over the commanding heights of metacapitalism than the arms race around artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. In the old world, an army represented power, then markets represented power, and now the algorithms represent power.

Like Virgil (“knowledge”) guiding Dante through the Inferno, algorithms are aimed to guide our free will through a world that has lost purpose, a society that has turned secular, humanist, and devoid of meaning. But, ultimately it is Beatrice (“love”) who delivers Dante into paradise. In the absence of love, reasoning becomes a mere attempt at precognition.

But remember, the goal is to minimise dissent. So it is handy to have precognition of results, reducing uncertainty. And no better way to obtain precognition than to sequester one’s attention so you can influence outputs. The psychologic theory of value.

In AI, “grid-searching” is the process of scanning (your) data to configure optimal model parameters for a given output (i.e. your behaviour). How to increase your propensity to support abortion? Or climate change? Or ESG? Or CRT? They will grid-search you, and they won’t even read your Miranda rights.

ESG is the industrial policy that governs this assembly line of attention spans. Just like farming lands were to feudalism, and natural resources to early capitalism; cognitive influence is the prized scarce resource in the metacapitalist economy.

And just like AI, ESG is a blunt force weapon disguised as a precision instrument, making the system more robust and less prone to variability in the short term. Minimising dissent. Increasing precognition.

“Why I Write Such Good Books”

“One day there will be a need for institutions in which people live and teach as I understand living and teaching”
Friederich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, Why I Write Such Good Books

Nietzsche is arguably the best interpreter (even if incidentally) of permanent revolution. He is the “new philosopher” that is guiding the Übermensch after all. In the chapter of his Ecce Homo titled exactly “Why I Write Such Good Books”, Nieszche foretells one day his writings would be guiding institutions. He was right.

But the Nietzschian nihilistic allure is nothing new, it is just the other side of the coin to Malthusianism. And the line that connects both philosophies is the idea of l’appel du vide, the call of the void, the impulse to destroy what we don’t understand or can’t control.

It’s easy to see the l’appel du vide behind other phenomena, such as gender ideology. Confused, ignorant, — and mostly semi-illiterate — individuals sacrificing language and biology on the altar of nihilism. Writing books in the void.

“If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal” 
St. Paul, First Epistle to the Corinthians 13:1

St. Paul has warned the Corinthians about books written in the void. And that serves as a warning to metacapitalists as well. First, you can virtue-signal all the ESG that you want, this doesn’t mean that people won’t be able to see right through your lack of morals.

And second, the more the ESG nomenklaturas distance themselves from the public good objective of ESG (i.e. internalising externalities) and move towards the totalitarian goal of building their version of a “better world”, the more they will be preaching to the wind because the people will know that there’s no truth in their words or their acts.

It is no wonder, therefore, that the opposite of a bureaugogue is called a populist. And this is yet another example of reverse entropy in the modern world: the political class shaping the people and a supranational nomenklatura determining our moral standards. The battleground of history has moved from wars to politics and now to identities. From Thucydides’ “honour, fear, and interest”; to maximising well-being; to minimising dissent.

It’s up to the people to not let our rulebooks be written into the void.

Honour, Fear, and Interest -> Maximising Well-being -> Minimising dissent

Notes

[1] In the words of philosopher Olavo de Carvalho, metacapitalists are “the macro-investors that were made so stunningly rich by the capitalist game that they somehow transcend it and do not accept the risks of a free market anymore.” That is the definition adopted throughout the text. (back)

[2] Nomenklatura here, of course, is a reference to the top brass of the Soviet Union’s bureaucracy; but there are many examples of modern nomenklaturas: the EU Commission, all the faceless UN committees, the plethora of unaccountable NGOs, the CCP, the Russian autarky, and most of the parliamentary governments in Europe. (back)