Will Dougherty (sorry)

If you have a womb, you are a woman. Otherwise, you are not.

people don’t like capitalism because it expresses the reality of human nature, which is not purely Selfless and Altruistic—it is also Self-Interested and Egoic. the alternatives to capitalism fail because they are predicated on the idea that only the flattering parts of human nature will act themselves out inside of the system. in the end though, human nature reveals itself and infects these aesthetically virtuous ideals with the reality of how people act when it comes to power, control, autonomy and fear. human nature is fundamental. all of its shades get revealed and expressed through any system imposed upon it, which results in a system built solely on the ideals of Virtue, Altruism and Equality being over-taken from within by the Self-Interest and Ego that the system failed to account for (the same psychological axioms hold for the collective as they do for the individual: shadow qualities will possess the object if they are not confronted and integrated consciously). a failure of any system to acknowledge the complex, nuanced and not solely-light side of human nature ends up subjecting all of its subjects to the ugliest parts of human nature in their fullness—individuals who wrangle the system into their possession, and use fear, force and power to control everyone inside of it. study the history of how these “alternative” systems play out in reality, instead of being enchanted by the fantasy of how you hope they would. it isn’t pretty. the shadow of humanity is dark and dense. capitalism is the only system that has been able to transmute all of humanity’s shades of light and dark into a working, free system that allows for agency, ambition and merit to liberate its members to climb as high as they want to/try to within it; instead of forcing them to remain at a certain position in the system out of “kindness, humility, and generosity” to others. progress requires ambition. knowledge requires freedom. show me a system that prioritizes knowledge and progress without granting agency to all of its members. i don’t think you can! because knowledge and progress require agency, autonomy and incentives that drive individuals to *pursue* challenging and demanding pursuits—and to know that they will be uniquely rewarded for those pursuits. until this alternative, not-yet-discovered-system is revealed, the conversation should be about how to harness the most effective and free system we have identified yet—capitalism—to create the Good we want to see in the world, instead of reverting to old, malignant systems that have repeatedly failed to produce either freedom *or* virtue over time.

If you are white and want me to take heed of your review of SINNERS, you must first sing me the song of Your People

so what are we calling this one. just “great depression 2”? “greater depression”? any suggestions? anybody?