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The Capitalist Degree of Immortality

Author

Listed:
  • Bichler, Shimshon
  • Nitzan, Jonathan

Abstract

This note offers some speculative ideas worth considering. One of the key features of all hierarchical civilizations is their rulers' fear of death. This fear was famously narrated in the ancient myth of Gilgamesh – the Sumerian king who realized that, like all other humans, he too was destined to die and embarked on a desperate quest to annul his mortality . According to Lewis Mumford, this quest for immortality is the main reason why society's rulers are forever obsessed with building and fortifying power hierarchies – or 'megamachines', as he called them. Controlling these megamachines, Mumford argued, is the rulers' way of playing God, a futile yet all-possessive effort to conquer the future and live forever. In capitalism, the rulers finally figured out how to do it – sort of.

Suggested Citation

  • Bichler, Shimshon & Nitzan, Jonathan, 2021. "The Capitalist Degree of Immortality," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2021/06, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:capwps:202106
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fix, Blair, 2021. "The Ritual of Capitalization," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue 97, pages 78-95.
    2. Nitzan, Jonathan & Bichler, Shimshon, 2009. "Capital as Power. A Study of Order and Creorder," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 157973, December.
    3. Fix, Blair, 2021. "The Ritual of Capitalization," SocArXiv cf5xv, Center for Open Science.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    capital; capitalization; future; immortality; power;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General

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