The Capitalists have a Religion in my view their Religion to worship and desire Power

[tradeunionsupporter]

The Capitalists have a Religion in my view their Religion is to worship and desire Power Wealth Money Gold Greed and Exploitation Death War and Murder does anyone agree with my theory about Capitalism/Capitalists ?


What is Capitalism? In contrast to Socialism and Communism, Capitalism is the control of goods and services through Corporations (Microsoft, McDonalds, Enron etc.) which produce only to make profits for their shareholders and the rich. Capitalism eventually leads to Imperialism as it expands, (the conquest and exploitation of other, usually smaller nations) or possibly even fascism. The primary source of profit, and thus the wealth of the capitalists comes from surplus labor. Surplus labor is the extra hours spent working by a member of the proletariat. This can only be extracted, exploited from the working class, a class that must sell its labor power to survive since it is separated from the means of production. Basically, if one is a factory worker and works an eight hour day, at the very least two of those hours go unpaid. Repeat, AT LEAST two of those hours GO UNPAID. If they were paid in full, there would be no profit for the capitalists. Their goal is simply to maximize profits by extending working hours and slashing wages. Essentially, Capitalism is the dictatorship of the majority (the proletariat or working class) by the minority (the bourgeoisie or capitalist class), in short, exploitation, greed, and death.

http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/Communism/faq.html

[Zav]

That's pretty much accurate, although workers are usually paid for all of their labor (withstanding overtime), although not the full value of it.

[ComradeMan]

The Capitalists have a Religion in my view their Religion is to worship and desire Power Wealth Money Gold Greed and Exploitation Death War and Murder does anyone agree with my theory about Capitalism/Capitalists ?

I think it's going a bit over-the-top with hyperbole to call it a "religion" to be honest.


or possibly even fascism.

Fascism and Nazism are not the same and I don't think that capitalism inevitably leads to them to be honest. The fascists were corporatist, basically syndicalists gone "bad" and the Nazis were anti-capitalist in their own way. Both Fascism and Nazism place the state above all else whereas in "capitalism" the state serves business ;)

[Dave B]

According to Engels religion was a set of supernatural ideas and belief systems etc that were derived from, a ‘superstructural’ reflection and fantastic mirror image of their own material and thus ‘economic’ interests or circumstances (the ‘base’)


Or in other words religion operates as a kind of allegorical representation or parable of the ‘real’ world for the religious.

It is a bit of a difficult idea for those without that essential part of intelligence, imagination.

Although fortunately there is an excellent representation of it in the ‘new’ series of Star Trek TNG with the Ferengi; who are presented as having a ‘Ferengi essence’ as part of their ‘species being’ that is capitalististic.

And this, in accordance with trans-historical Feuerbachian theory, is reflected or mirrored in the Ferengi religious belief system. Thus;



The Ferengi concepts of the afterlife are a mirror of their pursuit of wealth in life. When a Ferengi dies, he is said to meet the Blessed Exchequer, who reviews the financial statements of that Ferengi's entire life. If he earned a profit, he is ushered into Ferengi heaven: the Divine Treasury, where the Celestial Auctioneers allow him to bid on a new life. Ferengi who were not financially successful in life are damned to the Vault of Eternal Destitution.

When a Ferengi prays or bows in reverence, he holds his hands in a bowl shape with his wrists together. A typical Ferengi prayer begins with this phrase: "Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, allow this bribe to open your ears and hear this plea from your most humble debtor." As is typical, this is accompanied by placing a slip of latinum into a small statue made in the Exchequer's likeness.

Ferengi also make regular pilgrimages to Earth's Wall Street, which they view as a holy site of commerce and business.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferengi#cite_note-1

Thus from Frederick Engels in Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy


According to Feuerbach, religion is the relation between Ferengi’s based on the disaffections, the relation based on the heart, which relation until now has sought its truth in a fantastic mirror image of reality — in the mediation of one or many gods, the fantastic mirror images of Ferengi qualities —

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1886/ludwig-feuerbach/ch03.htm

And;



Nothing exists outside nature and Ferengi, and the higher beings their religious fantasies have created are only the fantastic reflection of their own essence. The spell is broken; the “system” was exploded and cast aside, and the contradiction, shown to exist only in their imagination, was dissolved. One must himself have experienced the liberating effect of this book to get an idea of it. Enthusiasm was general; we all became at once Feuerbachians. How enthusiastically Marx greeted the new conception and how much — in spite of all critical reservations — he was influenced by it, one may read in the The Holy Family.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1886/ludwig-feuerbach/ch01.htm


Thus you also have the idea in a religion of the working class and oppressed, that those who worship power and wealth are in fact worshipping a different deity than their own.

Thus Luke 4


5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

And naturally enough you have a God that favours the poor with the last shall be first etc etc.

Whilst some now may not appreciate the potentially seditious content of some and the most relevant parts of the new testament, the established church did and organised the burning of the first bible to be printed into English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale


Although in retrospect perhaps they had nothing to worry about and underestimated the stupidity of the potential readership.

[tradeunionsupporter]

Thank You for all your answers.

[Waltraute]

religions, as do people, develop over time: capitalists have become more succinct in their apologetics for capitalism,; perhaps we should have a few Marxists infiltrate as marketing majors

[gendoikari]

Capitalists don't worship power, they worship the allmighty dollar and hold communion with the blood of the workers and break the bread of production among their own aristocracy.