[this] semblance of redemption.
If I possess this kind of wealth, I have the illusion
of omnipotence and immortality.
Wealth [Vermogen]
What a beautiful word.
Infinite wealth means infinite capacity;
finitude fades away.

What is salvation?
This illusion is surely enough.
There is a very theological dimension to it,
and that dimension has nothing to do with
material greed.

There are many shades of the death drive in capitalism. We destroy so much! Everybody knows that things today are stillborn.

Excerpt, Capitalism and the death drive, by Byung-chul Han p. 106

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Wanted to comment on these words found near the end of Han’s substantial and readable critique of capitalism.  Capitalism, a way of thought, a reflex of concept and affect, a metaphysic that underpins all of the societies which participate in global trade and communications — is at the root, of all other subsidiary discussions which we may choose to have.  To criticize capitalism is to lay an axe to the root of the tree.  Is this a philosophical advocacy of revolution?  Perhaps, but not in the old-school manner of uprooting the old and moribund order.  After all, there’s no longer any Bastille which we might storm, nor any Regent ruling by divine right to be deposed.  Power is more diffuse, distributed, but exercised no less than in the old school way.

“Redemption” is the ultimate desideratum for every living human being.  In what does redemption consist?  If you live in a capitalist society redemption is defined as belonging to a very wealthy class, the “one percent” which derive wealth from assets owned, “earning” returns by the movement of “the markets.”  That sounds manifestly abstract.  It’s not abstract at all for those who live outside of that rarified, esoteric reality.  My mind goes back to the image of Jeff Bezos waiting to greet William Shater of Star Trek fame after his suborbital flight as a passenger on a Blue Origin rocket.  They both chortled for the camera, breathless in delight at Shatner’s first hand experience of space.

Is this the redemption which capitalism offers?  If so, Byung-chul Han asserts this is a semblance, an ersatz redemption.  After all, redemption is the rectification of finitude, the ability to preclude the “game over” screen that pops up when you’ve made your final play at the arcade pinball game, — your time has run out.  The time runs out because you’ve failed to keep the lights blinking and the bells ringing (if you are a uber wealthy capitalist such as Bezos) or if time just runs out if you are one of the rest of us.

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Christmas day is five days in the future.  The Christmas story, Christ-mass is after all a redemption story.  I will do my best to say something about that tomorrow.

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There’s music, always music !  Let there be music !  This one is mad enough to get us through the day.

In The Year 2525

by Zager and Evans

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, or say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyes
You won’t find a thing to chew
Nobody’s gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you
In the year 6565
Ain’t gonna need no husband, won’t need no wife
You’ll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long black tube

In the year 7510
If God’s a-comin’ he ought to make it by then
Maybe he’ll look around himself and say
Guess it’s time for the Judgement day

In the year 8510
God’s gonna shake his mighty head
He’ll either say I’m pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I’m kinda wondering if man’s gonna be alive
He’s taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain’t put back nothing

Now it’s been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man’s reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it’s only yesterday

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today ….(fade out)

Written and composed by Rick Evans in 1964.

It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks commencing July 12, 1969.

2525, only four more years to go.