Capitalism Is Driven by Mental Illness

10
1037

From Caitlin Johnstone: “I saw a fascinating tweet by BloomTech CEO Austen Allred the other day that stirred up a lot of thoughts here.

‘Of the Silicon Valley founders I know who went on some of the psychedelic self-discovery trips, almost 100% quit their jobs as CEO within a year,’ Allred said, adding, ‘Could be random anecdotes, but be careful with that stuff.’

Allred tweeted this in response to writer Ashlee Vance sharing that he’d been told by a venture capitalist, ‘We’ve lost several really good founders to ayahuasca. They came back and just didn’t care about much anymore.’

There’s some very useful information in those words. They reveal a lot about the insane mess our species finds itself in in today’s world, and provide insight into how we might find our way out.

I mean, think about it. How bizarre is it that our entire civilization is structured around values and priorities which are so fake and ridiculous that ingesting an ancient psychedelic potion causes even wealthy CEOs to quit their jobs and change their lives?

All it takes is a slight shift in consciousness, a little tilt in perspective, and you immediately see that this whole rat race of domination and acquisition and productivity and wealth hoarding that all our political and economic systems have as their foundational premise is completely destructive to happiness and human thriving.”

Article →

***

Back to Around the Web

10 COMMENTS

  2. I expect more from Mad in America than to cite an article which supports the willy-nilly description of anything and everything as ‘mental illness’ and the solution to all the world’s problems as merely shifting our consciousness. That’s just silly.

    Report comment

      • Yes, there is money in mental illness under capitalism, but there is also money in creating cures, publicity, and art with the power to heal.
        My conclusion after having lived under a few political systems: Modernity is a major cause of mental illness.
        Not that we have good data, but I suspect the loss of autonomy probably starting with the enclosures led to more alcoholism and domestic violence, and industrialization finished off sanity both in the East and the West.
        Is this preferable to the mental illness you get in traditional societies? Or the culture of enmeshment (and in the case of India, rape) that comes out of policies like one-child-family, and sex-selective abortion?
        I do see a few advantages to capitalism. Under communism, you could spend your childhood in a Kinderwochenheim (like daycare, only for the entire week), where you’d be raised according to a schedule that planned your pee breaks to the minute, and a decade in advance, or a gulag complete with corrective rape and physical torture (Jugendwerkhof).
        At the same time, America had Willowbrook, which apparently wasn’t too different. At least the American public learned about this, and was enraged. Other than that, I am still trying to figure out the differences.
        I originally tried to figure out who went insane first, women or men, and came to the conclusion that this doesn’t matter. What matters is whether the trauma/parentification/spousification parents subject their children to results in them giving up on wanting to become parents themselves, and I think the bleak birthrates answer that question.

        Report comment

  3. Here a few quotes from Mark Fischer author of Capital Realism.

    Capitalism promotes a culture of constant comparison, leading to feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.

    Capitalism thrives on our exhaustion and alienation, feeding off our insecurities and anxieties.

    In capitalist society, the self is reduced to a commodity, just as all other aspects of life are commodified.

    We are trapped in a cycle of work and consumption, constantly chasing after a fulfillment that capitalism promises but never delivers.

    Report comment

  4. This sums it up:
    By Micah Ingle, MA – October 26, 2022

    As a radical approach to psychology and psychotherapy, Liberation Psychology aims to move the field away from methods that simply help people adapt to current injustices and instead refuse complicity with socially and morally unjust practices.

    Report comment

  5. To put this directly as a source of mental health issues, lets take a look at psychiatry. You go in because you spouse has cancer and is dying and you are sad. The doctor gives you anti depressants. Now we all know or should know that a pill is not the answer, even the Dr. should know that. So what motivates him to prescribe these potentially dangerous drugs. Well it is just for the money, certainly not to heal a broken heart.
    Why do they prescribe pills that don’t work or don’t help in the long run. They simply are deceiving themselves at best and imagining they are helping, at least that is what the pharmaceutical sales woman ( who is very attractive ) said they do and who would argue with her? She is just doing what her supervisor told her to do, her supervisor is trying to keep his job and his boss is working to bring in profit for his devision of the company and hopefully get a bonus at Christmas time.
    This is one way capitalism creates mental health issues. There are many others as well outside the drug companies.

    If we don’t understand this then we will be led to the slaughter. As Hanna Arendt would call this “ the banality of evil”.

    Report comment

LEAVE A REPLY