Sublime

the modern economy needs constant and indefinite growth in order to survive. If growth ever stops, the economy won’t settle down to some cosy equilibrium; it will fall to pieces. That’s why capitalism encourages us to seek immortality, happiness and divinity. There’s a limit to how many shoes we can wear, how many cars we can drive and how many ski

Under capitalism, all questions of what we need, what we want, and what is durable, must be subordinated to the question of what is profitable.

Nos démocraties libérales ressemblent de plus en plus aux « sociétés civiles bourgeoises » décrites par Hegel, des sociétés dont les deux figures principales sont l’économiste et le juriste, pas le politique ou le citoyen.

The idea of taste became a series of ever more granular preferences, liking A instead of B, rather than a deeper-seated, holistic sense of self.

It’s the flattening of life into

The priority of modern politics is economic growth. But humanity’s struggle towards material security will only be worthwhile if we understand and find ways to attenuate the psychological afflictions that appear to continue into, and are sometimes directly fostered by, conditions of abundance. The problems of the thirty or so rich countries describ

The most important question in twenty-first-century economics may well be what to do with all the superfluous people.

and to make sure that people will always buy whatever new stuff industry produces, a new kind of ethic appeared: consumerism.

The public craves meaning and identity. From its perspective, late modern society, including government, exists to frustrate this desire.