In this financialized hall of mirrors, narcissism replaces identity and the authentic self is rendered incoherent.
Correspondent Dani A.M. (of Removing the Shackles) was kind enough to identify three bits of advice from my recent conversation with Max Keiser on Summer Solutions (25:45): (9:20 min: “We've been brainwashed into financializing the human experience.”)
1. Stop financializing the human experience
2. Acquire skills, not credentials
3. Vote with your Feet
These are the themes I'll be addressing this week.
What does financializing the human experience mean? It means turning everything into a financial transaction that profits an enterprise and the state.Since the state needs profitable enterprises to generate its tax revenues (and to pay wages that generate payroll/income taxes), the state is an implicit partner in every financializing the human experience transaction.
In an increasingly cashless, debt-dependent culture, every financial transaction generates income for banks: credit card and debit card fees, interest on credit cards, etc.
Here are some common examples:
— Mom and Dad work long hours to afford childcare. Maybe they like working for the state or Corporate America more than caring for their kids (or sharing the care of several kids with other parents), but the system incentivizes maximizing income and paying for childcare as a profitable transaction.
In other words, childcare for many has been distilled down to a financial decision.
— Dinner with friends is purchased, generating income for an enterprise, a bank and taxes for the state. If people no longer learn how to cook, then sharing a meal with friends necessarily becomes a financial transaction.
— A sense of self must be purchased via signifiers of identity and self-worth.
The obsession with brands and other signifiers of belonging reflects one thing, and only one thing: a pervasive fragility of self. Unsurprisingly, our selfhood is incredibly fragile in a culture that glorifies the impossible (thin, fit, super-smart, witty, personable, creative, wealthy oh and of course humble) and sows insecurity as a means of selling you something.
