Capitalist propaganda

Of all the American myths, perhaps the one most deeply embedded in our American psyche is the notion of capitalism’s infallible virtues. \nStay with me, here. Don’t worry, I’m not going to dismiss capitalism in a 500-word column.\nI’m just going to account for why young folks so whole-heartedly embrace free market economics without noting the drawbacks of unregulated free trade and globalization. As young people coming to our political awareness in the post-Cold War era, history and American bias would lead many to believe in a simple binary concerning the nature of economic systems: Communism fails and capitalism works. What people often don’t know is that the incarnation of communism in the U.S.S.R. and its satellites was only one version of this type of government; that Karl Marx didn’t write somewhere that communist governments should always be led by dictators and repress free speech; and that controlled markets don’t automatically restrict civil rights. The repression and injustice of communism was incidental with the economic system, not integral to it.\nCertainly, today’s world order has been shaped by the hegemony of capitalism. As Misha in Gary Shteyngart’s novel “Absurdistan” quips, “Let us be certain: the Cold War was won by one side and lost by another.” \nDespite Misha’s comedic oversimplification of history, many believe in his “hard truth.”\nHere is a picture of winners and losers according to Misha’s (and our) world view:\nThe losers are Russia, the former SSRs in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. This mysterious fringe region unknown before “Borat” seems to Americans to be economically and politically backward after communism. Russia and Eastern Europe don’t quite fit the European picture, and the word “eastern” functions like an asterisk to the great cultural and economic achievements of countries like France and England. \nOn the winning side, America has come out as a sort of righteous master of the earth, as American companies bring prosperity to textile workers throughout the southern hemisphere, our government liberates the citizens from tyranny somewhere in Arabia using billions of the strong American dollars while our people live in economic stability and comfort.\nMany college students are middle- and upper-class citizens; we reap the benefits of cheap foreign labor and outsourcing more than the lower class does. We believe in the myth about the inherent failure of communism, and the flip, that capitalism is the best because it makes America rich, brings jobs and money to those who had none before, and, most absurdly, gives us rights and freedom.\nWe’re skeptical about governmental power, which is a good thing. But we are so skeptical that we trust the invisible hand more than we trust our elected representatives, lest they turn into communists and ruin our livelihoods. These beliefs culminate with the evolution of libertarian leanings among college students, as witnessed in the dazzling rise of Ron Paul. \nThus, the potent combination of America’s powerful political position and many students’ privileged class status makes for a rising tide of capitalist propagandists. \nBut embracing unregulated markets is as dogmatic and based on as little fact as it was to embrace communism in Stalin’s Russia. Chew on that.