Most people today aren't suffering under a free market; they are being crushed by a system that has inverted every value the market was meant to uphold. Everywhere you look online, the cry is the same: "Capitalism is exploitative. Capitalism is destructive."
If Communism is the shadow side of Socialism, then Corporatism is the shadow side of Capitalism.
Three centuries ago, Adam Smith outlined a truth that modern capitalists have conveniently forgotten: Capitalism cannot exist without ethics. In a system devoid of a moral framework, the results are catastrophic. True Capitalism is about the creation of value. It is a system of Motion. Only through providing value to others is capital generated. Corporatism is the inversion. It is about value extraction to protect the capital already held.
We see this in real-time when safety measures are slashed or material quality is gutted to redirect profits to shareholders. It is no longer about the product or the service; it's about the protection of the hoard. To a corporatist, the Dow at 50,000 is the only metric of success, even if the world beneath that number is crumbling.
It's a mistake to call this crony capitalism. Cronyism was merely the precursor—the "pay-to-play" gateway drug. Corporatism is the full-blown systemic takeover, and it's a devilish system.
While we're told that the Left (Communism) and the Right (Corporatism) are opposites, they are actually heading toward the same dark place: Fascism. Communism seeks the state's total ownership of the means of production. Corporatism seeks the corporate hijacking of the state to protect its capital.
Both systems end in the merger of state and corporate power. Both systems view the individual not as a soul or a creator, but as a functional consumer unit—meant only to work, buy, and die. Both systems bring ruin to the most intimate institutions, including marriage. When society views people as units of utility rather than human beings with inherent value, the foundations of trust and sacrifice required for a family dissolve.
This isn't just an economic theory; it's a visible rot in entertainment. Look at modern cinema. Why does everything feel like a bland, soulless rehash? Because creation costs money and involves risk, thus the corporatist is anti-creation.
To an unimaginative corporatist, an over-bloated $200 million film isn't a piece of art; it's capital that must be protected. To recoup that capital, the value within the piece is diluted to appeal to the broadest audience imaginable. The result is a cultural desert where nothing new can grow because the corporatist forbids it.
Everything feels soulless because Corporatism cannot create; its primary purpose is devaluation in favor of hoarding. The irony is that this system fails to understand the very thing it claims to love: Capital. When capital is hoarded at the top to protect it, it stagnates. It becomes a demonic, life-denying force. In a healthy system, capital is placed into intentional ubiquitous motion. When capital moves intelligently, value is created. When value is created, more capital is generated.
If we want to save our Western institutions, our Western art, and our Western future, we have to stop worshiping the hoard and start valuing the creation.
💙 Chris
