Why Capitalism Survives Even When Everyone Hates It скачать в хорошем качестве

Why Capitalism Survives Even When Everyone Hates It

Most critiques of capitalism miss what actually makes it work. They assume capitalism runs on greed, comfort, or personal happiness. Žižek says that’s naïve. In this Grow In Ten explainer, we unpack Žižek’s unsettling claim: capitalism functions less like an economic system and more like a religion — one built on sacrifice, obsession, and endless circulation. The true capitalist isn’t a pleasure-seeker. They’re someone willing to risk everything — even their life — so that capital keeps moving. You’ll learn: • why capitalism cannot be explained by egoism or happiness • how profit functions as an ethical command, not a personal reward • what Walter Benjamin meant by calling capitalism a religion • why most anti-capitalist critiques collapse into vague moralism • why “money should serve people” explains nothing • how past alternatives to capitalism failed — and why that matters • the real danger: abolishing markets without sliding back into domination and servitude Žižek also explains why movements like Occupy Wall Street mattered — not because they offered solutions, but because they cleared the table. “I would prefer not to play this game” is not a program. It’s a pause. And Žižek insists that pause is necessary. The modern impulse is pseudo-activism: Do something. Act now. Fix it. Žižek argues the opposite: The 20th century tried to change the world too fast — and paid for it. What we lack today is not outrage, but thinking. The episode closes with a strategic insight: Real change starts with issues that shake ideology without requiring fantasy solutions — reforms that already work elsewhere, but expose contradictions at the core of the system. The takeaway: Being “anti-capitalist” is easy. Knowing what comes next — without repeating past disasters — is the hard part. And that work doesn’t begin with slogans. It begins with thinking.