I received a comment on TikTok recently in response to a video I posted about Mark Fisher’s 2009, Capitalist Realism. Sadly, it’s since been deleted, maybe because some people suggested it was disingenuous. I don’t think it was: I think it was a good question, and one a lot of very reasonable people ask all the time. It said:
I’ve endured plenty of hardships but I worked very hard and exercised a lot of discipline to get where I am. I’m sure that anyone who exhibited comparable qualities could enjoy at least a meaningful 'capitalism’ that would appeal to my vantage point. I come from a third world country and worked my way through the social strata by recognizing the makes of ‘a good life’. Could anyone recommend a book that would challenge my world view?
I’d like to take the time to suggest a reply.
Firstly, it’s usually a bad idea to argue from one’s own personal experience to the experience of society as a whole. There are about 67 million people in Britain alone, and while hard work and discipline might work for some, it might not necessarily work for others. Added to which, successful people – for understandable reasons - often discount the role luck had in helping them along. Are you sure you’re not doing the same?
Secondly, there are lots of books about what’s wrong with the present system, from Gavin Esler’s, Britain is Better Than This, to James O’Brien’s How They Broke Britain, and more generally, Ha-Joon Chang’s 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism. I could go on, but you can easily check related books on the internet. There are lots.
At bottom, I think you’re really asking what’s wrong with the present system. Consider two thought experiments, in which I’d like you to ask yourself, What might happen next?
1) One year, in their summer exams, all pupils attain the top grades. No one who took the exam gets less than 90%, and since the grade boundary for the highest grade is 85%, there can be no dispute. For several years prior to the publication of the exam results, there had been indications that this was a shockingly capable year-group, but, until now, no one knew how much so.
2) You go for a job interview at a top firm. In the waiting room, you get talking to the other candidates. It turns out that one of them – let’s call her X – impresses you as being not only much better suited to the job than you, but much more capable in every way. Nevertheless, when the interviews are all over, and the results are announced, X doesn’t get the job: you do.
As regards what might happen next, my feeling is that in
(1) There would be panic. Employers wouldn’t know who to hire, and universities wouldn’t know who to enrol. Instead of celebrating, the government would turn on the exam boards; they’d be sent back to re-mark their own marking. Why? Because every modern society ‘needs’ a certain degree of failure to keep functioning. When my own father was in his early twenties, he worked an eight-hour shift for a Tioxide manufacturing firm called British Titan, in Middlesbrough; when he got home, he had to immediately go to night school for several hours to study for higher exams: everyone did: the employer insisted. But hardly anyone passed those exams. There’s a 2013 Channel 4 Unreported World episode called ‘Hong Kong’s Tiger Tutors’ that shows more or less the same thing: students learning English, all of whom work hard and exhibit discipline, but the vast majority of whom fail. Why? Because the system can only cope with certain numbers of successful people. You are obviously one, but again: are you so sure luck had little to do with it?
In scenario (2), you might feel a twinge of guilt for a while, but then you would persuade yourself that you must have been wrong about X. You also forget that, at the time you were in the room being interviewed, you thought the interviewer wasn’t entirely competent. You also know that, the way things are in our society, you’re unlikely to get another chance like this, and that others will consider you ‘stupid’ if you try to rectify the situation. Assuming it even is rectifiable.
Now consider what would happen if the situation in (1) was allowed to stand. How would it benefit the students? We teach pupils at school to work hard and to value a good education above all else. But a glance at the Sunday Times Rich List shows that the most (conventionally) successful people aren’t the most (conventionally) well qualified. The number of astrophysicists and engineers in that list is usually … well, nil. And then look at Private Eye: consider the corruption levels amongst people who are doing well. And finally, look at the world’s leaders: do they seem like the best candidates for their jobs? The USA has a population of 333 million – does anyone seriously believe that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are the best it can do?
In short, the further we get from society’s educational establishments, the less education – beyond a certain basic level: you really do need to be able to read, write and add up - seems to matter. What matters are qualities of character: specifically, ambition, cunning and a dose of ruthlessness.
Now, coincidentally or not, those are all the qualities that make a good capitalist. Therefore, in a capitalist society, it’s not surprising that the top jobs are usually held by people who are ambitious, cunning and ruthless, rather than people who are kind, well educated and self-effacing.
Which harms us all.
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