Capitalism versus Communism explained in Chaos Monkeys

Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez muses on the differences between modern-day Capitalism and old-school Communism (really Socialism, as societies such as Cuba and Soviet Russia were simply on the road to true Communism):

In Havana, my cousins were forced to listen to rambling speeches about maintaining core values inside a one-dimensional cult of personality. In Menlo Park, I was sitting in a tent full of people wearing identical uniforms of Facebook swag and doing the same. Back in Havana, my cousins were eyeing posters of Che and Fidel on crumbling buildings and the sides of lurching, belching buses. Alongside were rousing posters, designed in that wonderfully retro socialist realism only the Cubans still embraced: ¡TODO POR LA REVOLUCIÓN! ¡HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE! ¡PATRIA O MUERTE, VENCEREMOS! Meanwhile, I was walking around Facebook, surrounded by stenciled portraits of Mark and equally exhortatory posters: PROCEED AND BE BOLD! GET IN OVER YOUR HEAD! MAKE AN IMPACT! At their extremes, capitalism and communism become equivalent: Endless toil motivated by lapidary ideals handed down by a revered and unquestioned leader, and put into practice by a leadership caste selected for its adherence to aforementioned principles, and richly rewarded for its willingness to grind whatever human grist the mill required? Same in both. A (mostly) pliant media that flatters the existing system of production, framing it as the only such system possible? Check! Foot soldiers who sacrifice their families and personal lives for the efficient running of the system, and who view their sole human value through the prism of advancement within that system? Welcome to the People’s Republic of Facebook.

But one can simply quit a job in capitalism, while from communism there is no escape, you’ll protest. As for the actual ability to opt out under capitalism: look at Seattle or SF real estate prices, and the cost of a decent US education, and consider whether Amazon or Facebook employees could really opt out of their treadmill. I’ve never known one who did, and I know many. Ask your average family providers, even those in a two-income family, whether they felt they could simply quit when they liked. They could barely get a few weeks off when they had a child, much less opt out. Switching jobs would amount to nothing more than changing the color of the shackles.

Facebook is full of true believers who really, really, really are not doing it for the money, and really, really will not stop until every man, woman, and child on earth is staring into a blue-framed window with a Facebook logo. Which, if you think about it, is much scarier than simple greed. The greedy man can always be bought at some price or another, and his behavior is predictable. But the true zealot? He can’t be had at any price, and there’s no telling what his mad visions will have him and his followers do.

More: read Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley

8 thoughts on “Capitalism versus Communism explained in Chaos Monkeys

  1. “there’s no telling what his mad visions will have him and his followers do.”

    Martinez should no better than to tout these false equivalencies. When Zuckerberg has the folks from Google machine gunned, let me know. When Americans have to wait in line for their rice and bean rations and escape from Miami in leaky boats, let me know. Until then Communism and capitalism are not the same thing.

  2. The guys on the treadmill already had to demonstrate extreme focus on their careers before the 5 women would ever talk to them, so being up to the challenge of paying for a kid’s education worked itself out naturally. As for sacrificing families for running the system, they wouldn’t have families if they weren’t career focused anyway, so you have to credit mortal constraints for that one.

  3. While the similarities and difference between the two systems can be debated ad nauseam capitalistic greed combined with the need for power brings out the very worst elements of human nature. People are told how valuable they are only to be worked to death and then easily replaced when they falter. One only has to look at the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis to view some of the worst examples of capitalism.

  4. “Capitalism” is a term coined by Marx and was more also often historically referred to as “The Manchester System.” Capitalism is approximately useless as an ideological description of modern American corporations and government.

    Equally useless is a term like “free market.” Are Silicon Valley businesses free to not hire or fire whomever they like? Are they free to refuse to do business with any particular customers they care to refuse? Obviously not and there is no “free” market. In fact, with businesses like Airbnb the entire business model is pretending they’re not subject to the same anti-free-association laws as the rest of the hospitality industry. “Fourth Gen Americans Only” ebay would be a massive business worth billions. It’s illegal to try that.

    We live under a socialist corporatocracy and using goofy 19th century economics terms is silly.

  5. One difference is, this guy retired. Retiring under Socialism-on-the-road-to-communism is only possible by earning money illegally (say, opening a private kindergarten or selling imported/smuggled clothing) and even if you have the money, you’re breaking the law just by not having a job, and you’ll be jailed for it. If you also try to publish a book criticizing the social order the way he does (which you’ll need a foreign publisher for), good luck staying alive.

    But definitely, millionaires arguing for the equivalence of communism and capitalism is nothing if not entertaining.

  6. You can always quit the peoples republic of facebook and work for a different boss; however you can’t just quit the peoples republic of Cuba or North Korea – the border guards will not allow this.

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