One of the most damaging aspects of capitalism is the fact that it hijacks love. It seeks what motivates the individual and gains access and control over as mechanism to motivate individuals to sell themselves and act according to the desires of the controller. Instead of spending time rearing and nurturing your children you go to work so that you are able to pay a stranger to raise your children. The extended family is broken into smaller family units, thus elders are sent to facilities to die alone instead of being included in an extended family where they could nurture and impart wisdom to the children with patience. The natural love for self and community is broken, and we are fed insecurity which teaches us to depend on the state for our well being, and that dependence is commoditized. The lack of personal connection leaves the individual feeling isolated, confused, and hopeless, and thus the mind becomes disordered. This mental illness is then exploited, as society triggers the individual in attempts to control, and then sells the infirm mind altering drugs which keep the mind in an impaired state, which is done for profit.
Furthermore, the state teaches shame, which is a tactic for gaining control, which is exploited when the inevitable transgression occurs. This shame is attached to things we love and ways that we love, leaving the individual afraid to express oneself for fear of societal justification for mistreatment and exclusion. This shame becomes the mechanism by which some are degraded and labeled as acceptable recipients of the anger and frustration of the masses which prevents the individual from learning true love, as one is unable to truly know and love oneself unless one can accept ALL aspects of the self. The capitalistic society makes it difficult for a person to truly know oneself because it gives a false image of what a person should be and then shames and judges based on one’s ability to fit that image, with the elite generating relevance through supply and demand while leveraging access for control, which is a grievous, selfish, unloving misuse of power. This exploitation of power damages the individual because it does not evaluate based on merit and characteristic, but instead exalts nepotism and cronyism, favor connections over value which allows for the rampant exploitation and abuse of the talented whom lack connection, harnessing their labors under the banner of an “acceptable connected” person, which destroys moral and camaraderie and negatively impacts the image of the individual. “The connected” are taught that the “connection” is more important than individual characteristic, and although they benefit they pay for advantage with their sense of self and a dependence on false agent for sustenance which subconsciously tells the individual that they are not capable of self sufficiency.
Lastly, the capitalistic society is centered on ownership which is an unnatural concept that is detrimental to love. The mind must warp both concepts in order to reconcile the simultaneous existence of both, and that warping affects the expression of love. For example, pet owners will proclaim to love their pets, yet they acknowledge ownership of the pet, and thus justify the care of the pet as a responsibility for ownership instead of an act of love done for the benefit of the loved one. The mind creates a psychological break where we attribute love to a set of actions and responsibilities instead of an emotion, and then we dictate to others how they must act to demonstrate love instead of expressing our own needs and emotions and allowing those who love us to determine which needs they can meet and how to do so. Capitalism quantifies so we seek to quantify through attaching specific values to actions, and through the accumulation of enough “loving actions” and sacrifice of personal agency in action we determine that we are loved. This style of “love” limits the individual in their ability to love and show love to others and removes the opportunity to show love by choosing to do things from personal agency instead of obligation. Additionally, this type of love mimics society in such a way that the individual feels the need to hide the parts of oneself that are offensive to the partner or that image of love, and transgressions ensue. Capitalism also teaches acquisition so some seek to acquire as many love acts as possible, with an emphasis on sexual conquest instead of deep emotional attachment, and quantifies sex based on how “hard to get” a person is and demeans the promiscuous and justifies disregard for the feelings of such people in spite of the fact that many who are promiscuous may have become so through some predatory abuse, and even if that is not the case the judgment is still levied in an attempt to control the actions and very bodies of the individual; particularly women. Furthermore, how can one truly love a person if that person is not free to be their entire self including the parts that you might not like? Likewise, how can one love oneself if they are not able to fully acknowledge the self, regardless of societal judgment and opinion of characteristic? Thus you have a society of people pretending to be in love, making arrangements based on what is acceptable, forcing and manipulating the relationship so that the image is maintained, and denying and hiding any elements of the relationship that are less than pristine. Unhappy couples stay together because divorce is taboo in their social group, people tolerate infidelity as long as they can say that they are attached, siblings are treated unequally based on the father’s relationship to the mother, lovers justify lying to and manipulating others to protect and edify their relationships, and the expression of love is limited based on the insecurities of the person to whom one is attached. Love should not be a crutch used in lieu of personal development; love should be the society that accepts you as you truly are and provides guidance in becoming the best, most complete version of yourself.
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