"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for
the greatest good of everyone." ~John Maynard Keynes[1] Capitalism: A Love Story is a 2009 documentary film starring, written and directed by American filmmaker Michael Moore. Focusing primarily on the events following the 2000 sub-prime crisis, the behavior of the US Government and corporations in response to it, Wall Streets Casino Culture, even including a segment that explores the question as to whether Jesus would have been a capitalist (satiring US right-wing political culture), the film puts these events in the context of a critique of western capitalism. The film retains Moores typical style of satirical and over-the-top-funny documentation but delivering hard-hitting ad thought-provoking criticism. The films tone, set by the opening scene depicting a bank robbery, is that of exploring the plundering nature of modern day capitalism-driving the ecology, economy and living standards of the working class to the brink- and contrasting it with the optimistic view of capitalism that was prevalent in post-WW2 US during the Golden Age of Capitalism of the 50s to the late 60s. The film is unequivocal in its message and theme: Anti-Capitalism. Moores treatment of the theme involves- discussing various seemingly isolated and distinct cases of corporate malfeasance and linking them to the inherent nature of a business(functioning in a capitalist economy) through highlighting the uniformity of the corporations responses to and their initial intentions in perpetrating these events; highlighting the profoundly convoluted practices on which the financial industry((backbone of modern capitalism)) runs, made so precisely to keep them inexplicable to the public on whose taxes the industry was bailed out and most importantly the inherent unreliability of the capitalist incentive- unlimited pursuit of personal profit as a means to achieve societal well-being. Although this idea((anti-capitalism)) had regressed from the mainstream in the West since WW2, where a general consensus was assumed in accepting capitalism as not only the only working option but also a natural inevitability; economic crises of the last few decades, realization of ecological devastation, declining living standards among the Western working class characterized by perennial debt-pressure and uncertainty regarding employment has led to this idea again becoming popular among a marginal but dedicated section of activists and the public. An important reflection of this is the eruption of the anti-austerity indignations movements in Spain and Greece and Occupy protests in North America in 2010 and 2011 respectively- the latter put income inequality, in US in particular and the West in general, among leading public concerns with its slogan We Are the 99%[2] . An important aspect of Anti-Capitalism has been that it has no theoretical classification, it is not an ideology as it doesnt advocate or favor any form of social design, neither does it propose any model to explain the state of present politics and economy. Fundamentally it is but a simple rejection of a socioeconomic order (capitalism), seeking to replace it with something else, deriving not from any theoretical model but from empirical observation of the unsuitability of Capitalism. As such a spectrum of ideas and
movements may be labeled anti-capitalist. In Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore does not go as far as to suggest any alternative to capitalism but concludes that any such alternative can only be legitimately achieved through real democracy, where people and communities are genuinely free to participate and arrive at solutions.
References: 1. Quoted in The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics, by Eric D. Beinhocker (Harvard Business Press, 2006) 2. [Link]
