I really appreciate that you continue to strip the moral halo off “free markets” by staying with the dynamics over time: competition as survival pressure, advantage compounding into leverage, and leverage evolving into rule-writing power. That framing helps people see consolidation and capture as rational outcomes, not unfortunate “exceptions.”
From my perspective, the deeper sleight of hand sits in moral accounting. Externalities are underpriced and treated as unowned. When harms can be de-owned - shifted onto workers, communities, ecosystems, or the future - then the rhetoric of “freedom” stays intact, because the damage is conceptually outside the transaction. “Voluntary exchange” remains the headline while dependence, coercion-by-necessity, and asymmetric pressure become background conditions.
This also why a legitimating story (propaganda) matters so much. It doesn’t need to be a conspiracy, it can indeed be everyday narrative gravity: the language that converts dependence into choice, and power into neutrality (“efficiency,” “flexibility,” “discipline,” “competitiveness,” “what the market demands”). The public ends up defending the moral ideal while living inside the survival system.
What I might add is the premise beneath the premise: separateness as default - dualism operating as the background philosophy. If “my gain” and “our cost” can be kept psychologically and institutionally apart, externalization becomes normal. A relational (non-dual) premise won’t erase politics or conflict, but it makes externalization illegitimate by design and forces the rules and incentives to internalize costs, limiting the ability of advantage to compound into control. In that sense, your cybernetic lens gets even more potent for sustainability when the goal-state is grounded in relational ownership rather than separative moral accounting.
Why do you think it has taken society so long to truly understand how the SYSTEM is the structural problem not the many symptoms? And why haven't many in the activist community realized that their actions and education should be focused primarily on structural change, decentralizing power, building in robust solidarity networks that are not controlled by the corporate-state actors? Is it because, at a community level, we have friends or acquaintances who work with finance, politics, corporations and maybe even some very well-off millionaires and billionaires - so we feel like we can't critique the system EVEN IF we are talking about building a better, more inclusive, healthier system to replace the structural insanity of market capitalism?
And what I've noticed is there is a SHOCKING lack of books about a better future beyond capitalism. Very, very few for children (which I find odd, because children, in cases where they have a family who can meet their needs, live in a post-scarcity moneyless society already, they get free food, shelter, care, warmth and opportunity for fun activities until about 18 years old - they could really understand a library-based economy or a circular solidarity economy or whatever might be presented to them in a book in contrast to the very inhumane and nonsensical system of capitalism).
But very few post-scarcity books for adults, as well. I know they would never be publicized very well, but still, I can barely find any that exist. Of course, Peter's "The New Human Rights Movement" is one of the best out there, but it is very technical and not for everybody. There are more story-based ones, I understand, like "The Dispossessed' and "Braiding Sweetgrass" but as far as I know there isn't a single book, for children or adults, about prefiguring a library-based economy out of the shell of collapsing late stage capitalism.
That's why I think so many activists and young people are so bummed out. They literally see everything going to shit and they aren't exposed to any literature or strategies that seem viable to counter-act the system they were born into.
Thanks again for these illuminating articles. Almost ironic that our whole war-like, power concentrated global market capitalist system that we were born into, could be described by a combination of the games Risk and Monopoly.
And the game we should be playing more like (after we flip the board on the terrible game of RiskOpoly) is the Landlord's Game with the Cooperative (not competitive) Rules in place, created by Elizabeth Magie.
This is an incredible understanding and analysis of free-market capitalism and an invaluable blueprint for reversing course which I fear may never come to fruition in our lifetime.
The head of the snake is presently in the process of eating itself. AI has eliminated tens of thousands of jobs, something that is seen and promoted as a marvel in innovation and progress with little concern for the wellbeing of dedicated workers who have spent years developing technical and other skills, and now find themselves delivering food for Uber Eats—if their LUCKY!
We are in the hands of globalist lunatics who will stop at nothing to maintain economic power and control.
Late stage capitalism is ugly. What did you expect? Power has consolidated so extremely to the top that the only thing left to save us is working class solidarity and class consciousness rising rapidly to both build out a new parallel economic system based on post-scarcity (or library-based) and prepare a long-lasting (as long as it takes) general strike to withdraw our labor, consent and money (as much as we can) from the pillars of power the corporate-elite state relies on.
“Late stage capitalism is ugly. What did you expect?”
What did I expect?? Do you think I don’t understand the ugliness of late-stage capitalism and class consciousness? You’re preaching to the choir.
As a member of the working-class, I have been involved in class struggles for decades. Here is some 411 that many white progressive activists are hard-pressed to acknowledge:
Underneath the raised fists, vociferous outcries, and street protests (many of which I have attended) a good portion of working-class people ultimately want high on the hog and a two-car garage. Given the opportunity, and a handsome chunk of cash, they would break ranks with their working-class brothers and sisters and quickly join ranks with the bourgeoisie. I’ve seen this happen in various working-class circles.
Unfortunately, and sadly, a big part of the problem is that many working-class folks don’t see themselves as poor people struggling to make ends meet. They see themselves as aspiring entrepreneurs, future CEOs, and millionaires. These are people who have bad teeth who can’t afford health insurance but are walking around with $2,500 Louis Vuittion bags over their shoulder and a fifty-pound gold chain around their neck.
If you notice, nationwide shoplifting gangs are not crashing Trader Joe’s or Walmart to scoop up food and household supplies to bring back to hungry and impoverished people in their neighborhoods. They are ransacking high-end shops on a desperate hunt for symbols of wealth and status that they can then turnaround and sell to other people stuck on the same capitalist treadmill.
That said, this is all about to change. We are months if not weeks away from a global economic collapse. How this plays out in the realm of class struggle is anyone’s guess, especially when the vail of celebrity, prestige, and status is rendered meaningless and all the store shelves are empty, and people are seen out on the streets willing to kill for a roll of toilet paper.
Stay safe, dog. It’s about to get 2026 ugly on a scale hat even Marx an Lenin could have never imagined.
US income inequality is higher now than it was at the fall of the Roman Empire, so yeah, something has got to give. No question about that.
The US billionaire parasite class is being revealed as absolute scum, pieces of human garbage with the Epstein Files release. They are gonna be in damage control and trying to distract the public with cold wars and, possibly, real wars.
But the people in America (and the world) that have hearts and brains are well aware of the Trump disaster and those in Minnesota are sparking something fierce in other American people all over the US that I don't think they will soon let go.
I don't see the same sort of lack of solidarity with the working class you seem to see. I don't see anybody who is working poor but wears an expensive handbag and gold chain. I see people desperate to survive and willing to steal, if that is what it takes, but I don't see the average person as oblivious to what really matters in life.
But I DO SEE a serious lack of understanding of the structural instability of capitalism by most activists, which Peter mentioned in this very article. I see that most so-called progressive activists can't clearly articulate the root problems of our system and viable solutions. So what is the average person to do?
The solutions need to be accessible to most people. But are they?
“But the people in America (and the world) that have hearts and brains are well aware of the Trump disaster and those in Minnesota are sparking something fierce in other American people all over the US that I don't think they will soon let go.”
This is true. And what the concerned and well-meaning people of Minnesota will do is flock to the polls and vote (a delusional and meaningless American charade) to elect another warmongering Democrat into office only to ensure Continuity of Agenda—the same Democrats (along with their Republican counterparts) who are heavily funded by AIPAC, and who gave convicted war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, 23 standing ovations during his address to congress 2024. This should tell anyone with 6 brain cells just how much fucking trouble we’re in.
To underscore what little impact voting has on the outcome of a presidential election, one would only have to listen carefully to the words of Larry Fink, the billionaire CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment management firm handling $11.5 trillion in assets. Prior to the 2024 election, Fink spoke to an audience of his financial associates:
“I’m tired of hearing this is the biggest election in your lifetime. It really doesn’t matter. We work with both administrations and are having conversations with both candidates.”
The serious lack of understanding of the structural instability of capitalism that you see in most activists and their inability to articulate root system problems and viable solutions is at the heart of everything. While Joseph's article provides a solid framework for understanding and reversing course, even he must know that we are a long way from that sort of monumental change.
Another huge part of the problem is that we have devolved from the relative social cohesion and solidarity of the 60s to a more depraved and violent culture riddled with mass shootings, home invasions, and teen suicides.
“So, what is the average person to do?”
This is a good question. I wish I had an answer.
From my perspective, the best one can do is spread as much information and awareness as possible. On that note, I invite you to check out my post (The Mechanisms of Mass Manipulation) my attempt to do just that.
Yeah, I agree with your analysis of the situation. Most human, for whatever reason, do not think systemically, for if we did, we wouldn't be fooled by political theatre, by corporate manipulation and so many other things that distract us from the roots of a healthy, just, sustainable system.
We were born into a depraved market system. It wasn't our choice or our fault the time we were born into. Technically, previous generations could have overthrown capitalism and introduced a new system based on solidarity and anti-capitalist understanding.
I guess the 60s and 70s peace, love and civil rights movements were an attempt at that - but not very systemically thought out. Obviously, not effective enough. Even though we had people like R. Buckminster Fuller, Jacque Fresco, Stafford Beer, Carl Sagan and Murray Bookchin around at those times that could provide insight IF most people knew where to look - In a library! In a well-stocked library.
But we can't go back. We have to try and go forward, learning from the past.
I used to spend nights thinking why most working class people don't understand how toxic capitalism is and the need to change, but now I just think of the Bucky Fuller quote: "People never leave a sinking ship until they see the lights of another ship approaching.” - I think the ship needs to be gardens and libraries. Expanded! Cooperative. Like a Proto-Node, on purpose.
Thank you for this elegant description of this system and how it's goals incentivize behaviours that contradict its stated intentions. My takeaway is that activism should focus on changing the system's goals. Then the structures and behaviours would follow.
Such a profoundly important and very perceptive piece!! Really gets down to the heart of the matter.
Thank you for saying it so clearly and eloquently!!
I really appreciate that you continue to strip the moral halo off “free markets” by staying with the dynamics over time: competition as survival pressure, advantage compounding into leverage, and leverage evolving into rule-writing power. That framing helps people see consolidation and capture as rational outcomes, not unfortunate “exceptions.”
From my perspective, the deeper sleight of hand sits in moral accounting. Externalities are underpriced and treated as unowned. When harms can be de-owned - shifted onto workers, communities, ecosystems, or the future - then the rhetoric of “freedom” stays intact, because the damage is conceptually outside the transaction. “Voluntary exchange” remains the headline while dependence, coercion-by-necessity, and asymmetric pressure become background conditions.
This also why a legitimating story (propaganda) matters so much. It doesn’t need to be a conspiracy, it can indeed be everyday narrative gravity: the language that converts dependence into choice, and power into neutrality (“efficiency,” “flexibility,” “discipline,” “competitiveness,” “what the market demands”). The public ends up defending the moral ideal while living inside the survival system.
What I might add is the premise beneath the premise: separateness as default - dualism operating as the background philosophy. If “my gain” and “our cost” can be kept psychologically and institutionally apart, externalization becomes normal. A relational (non-dual) premise won’t erase politics or conflict, but it makes externalization illegitimate by design and forces the rules and incentives to internalize costs, limiting the ability of advantage to compound into control. In that sense, your cybernetic lens gets even more potent for sustainability when the goal-state is grounded in relational ownership rather than separative moral accounting.
Why do you think it has taken society so long to truly understand how the SYSTEM is the structural problem not the many symptoms? And why haven't many in the activist community realized that their actions and education should be focused primarily on structural change, decentralizing power, building in robust solidarity networks that are not controlled by the corporate-state actors? Is it because, at a community level, we have friends or acquaintances who work with finance, politics, corporations and maybe even some very well-off millionaires and billionaires - so we feel like we can't critique the system EVEN IF we are talking about building a better, more inclusive, healthier system to replace the structural insanity of market capitalism?
And what I've noticed is there is a SHOCKING lack of books about a better future beyond capitalism. Very, very few for children (which I find odd, because children, in cases where they have a family who can meet their needs, live in a post-scarcity moneyless society already, they get free food, shelter, care, warmth and opportunity for fun activities until about 18 years old - they could really understand a library-based economy or a circular solidarity economy or whatever might be presented to them in a book in contrast to the very inhumane and nonsensical system of capitalism).
But very few post-scarcity books for adults, as well. I know they would never be publicized very well, but still, I can barely find any that exist. Of course, Peter's "The New Human Rights Movement" is one of the best out there, but it is very technical and not for everybody. There are more story-based ones, I understand, like "The Dispossessed' and "Braiding Sweetgrass" but as far as I know there isn't a single book, for children or adults, about prefiguring a library-based economy out of the shell of collapsing late stage capitalism.
That's why I think so many activists and young people are so bummed out. They literally see everything going to shit and they aren't exposed to any literature or strategies that seem viable to counter-act the system they were born into.
Thanks again for these illuminating articles. Almost ironic that our whole war-like, power concentrated global market capitalist system that we were born into, could be described by a combination of the games Risk and Monopoly.
And the game we should be playing more like (after we flip the board on the terrible game of RiskOpoly) is the Landlord's Game with the Cooperative (not competitive) Rules in place, created by Elizabeth Magie.
great article. im pending on the late revolution now, asap. i recommend you guys to check on michael parentis -to kill a Nation.
salut, thank you again for all your effort.
Peter, many thanks!
This is an incredible understanding and analysis of free-market capitalism and an invaluable blueprint for reversing course which I fear may never come to fruition in our lifetime.
The head of the snake is presently in the process of eating itself. AI has eliminated tens of thousands of jobs, something that is seen and promoted as a marvel in innovation and progress with little concern for the wellbeing of dedicated workers who have spent years developing technical and other skills, and now find themselves delivering food for Uber Eats—if their LUCKY!
We are in the hands of globalist lunatics who will stop at nothing to maintain economic power and control.
🙏
Late stage capitalism is ugly. What did you expect? Power has consolidated so extremely to the top that the only thing left to save us is working class solidarity and class consciousness rising rapidly to both build out a new parallel economic system based on post-scarcity (or library-based) and prepare a long-lasting (as long as it takes) general strike to withdraw our labor, consent and money (as much as we can) from the pillars of power the corporate-elite state relies on.
“Late stage capitalism is ugly. What did you expect?”
What did I expect?? Do you think I don’t understand the ugliness of late-stage capitalism and class consciousness? You’re preaching to the choir.
As a member of the working-class, I have been involved in class struggles for decades. Here is some 411 that many white progressive activists are hard-pressed to acknowledge:
Underneath the raised fists, vociferous outcries, and street protests (many of which I have attended) a good portion of working-class people ultimately want high on the hog and a two-car garage. Given the opportunity, and a handsome chunk of cash, they would break ranks with their working-class brothers and sisters and quickly join ranks with the bourgeoisie. I’ve seen this happen in various working-class circles.
Unfortunately, and sadly, a big part of the problem is that many working-class folks don’t see themselves as poor people struggling to make ends meet. They see themselves as aspiring entrepreneurs, future CEOs, and millionaires. These are people who have bad teeth who can’t afford health insurance but are walking around with $2,500 Louis Vuittion bags over their shoulder and a fifty-pound gold chain around their neck.
If you notice, nationwide shoplifting gangs are not crashing Trader Joe’s or Walmart to scoop up food and household supplies to bring back to hungry and impoverished people in their neighborhoods. They are ransacking high-end shops on a desperate hunt for symbols of wealth and status that they can then turnaround and sell to other people stuck on the same capitalist treadmill.
That said, this is all about to change. We are months if not weeks away from a global economic collapse. How this plays out in the realm of class struggle is anyone’s guess, especially when the vail of celebrity, prestige, and status is rendered meaningless and all the store shelves are empty, and people are seen out on the streets willing to kill for a roll of toilet paper.
Stay safe, dog. It’s about to get 2026 ugly on a scale hat even Marx an Lenin could have never imagined.
✌️
US income inequality is higher now than it was at the fall of the Roman Empire, so yeah, something has got to give. No question about that.
The US billionaire parasite class is being revealed as absolute scum, pieces of human garbage with the Epstein Files release. They are gonna be in damage control and trying to distract the public with cold wars and, possibly, real wars.
But the people in America (and the world) that have hearts and brains are well aware of the Trump disaster and those in Minnesota are sparking something fierce in other American people all over the US that I don't think they will soon let go.
I don't see the same sort of lack of solidarity with the working class you seem to see. I don't see anybody who is working poor but wears an expensive handbag and gold chain. I see people desperate to survive and willing to steal, if that is what it takes, but I don't see the average person as oblivious to what really matters in life.
But I DO SEE a serious lack of understanding of the structural instability of capitalism by most activists, which Peter mentioned in this very article. I see that most so-called progressive activists can't clearly articulate the root problems of our system and viable solutions. So what is the average person to do?
The solutions need to be accessible to most people. But are they?
“But the people in America (and the world) that have hearts and brains are well aware of the Trump disaster and those in Minnesota are sparking something fierce in other American people all over the US that I don't think they will soon let go.”
This is true. And what the concerned and well-meaning people of Minnesota will do is flock to the polls and vote (a delusional and meaningless American charade) to elect another warmongering Democrat into office only to ensure Continuity of Agenda—the same Democrats (along with their Republican counterparts) who are heavily funded by AIPAC, and who gave convicted war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, 23 standing ovations during his address to congress 2024. This should tell anyone with 6 brain cells just how much fucking trouble we’re in.
To underscore what little impact voting has on the outcome of a presidential election, one would only have to listen carefully to the words of Larry Fink, the billionaire CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment management firm handling $11.5 trillion in assets. Prior to the 2024 election, Fink spoke to an audience of his financial associates:
“I’m tired of hearing this is the biggest election in your lifetime. It really doesn’t matter. We work with both administrations and are having conversations with both candidates.”
👉 https://b17news.com/blackrocks-larry-fink-says-the-us-election-really-doesnt-matter-for-markets/
The serious lack of understanding of the structural instability of capitalism that you see in most activists and their inability to articulate root system problems and viable solutions is at the heart of everything. While Joseph's article provides a solid framework for understanding and reversing course, even he must know that we are a long way from that sort of monumental change.
Another huge part of the problem is that we have devolved from the relative social cohesion and solidarity of the 60s to a more depraved and violent culture riddled with mass shootings, home invasions, and teen suicides.
“So, what is the average person to do?”
This is a good question. I wish I had an answer.
From my perspective, the best one can do is spread as much information and awareness as possible. On that note, I invite you to check out my post (The Mechanisms of Mass Manipulation) my attempt to do just that.
Peace
🙏
https://followthesilence.substack.com/p/the-mechanisms-of-mass-manipulation
Yeah, I agree with your analysis of the situation. Most human, for whatever reason, do not think systemically, for if we did, we wouldn't be fooled by political theatre, by corporate manipulation and so many other things that distract us from the roots of a healthy, just, sustainable system.
We were born into a depraved market system. It wasn't our choice or our fault the time we were born into. Technically, previous generations could have overthrown capitalism and introduced a new system based on solidarity and anti-capitalist understanding.
I guess the 60s and 70s peace, love and civil rights movements were an attempt at that - but not very systemically thought out. Obviously, not effective enough. Even though we had people like R. Buckminster Fuller, Jacque Fresco, Stafford Beer, Carl Sagan and Murray Bookchin around at those times that could provide insight IF most people knew where to look - In a library! In a well-stocked library.
But we can't go back. We have to try and go forward, learning from the past.
I used to spend nights thinking why most working class people don't understand how toxic capitalism is and the need to change, but now I just think of the Bucky Fuller quote: "People never leave a sinking ship until they see the lights of another ship approaching.” - I think the ship needs to be gardens and libraries. Expanded! Cooperative. Like a Proto-Node, on purpose.
Define, “Voluntary Exchange” in the
Artificial Monopoly of an
Engineered ZioFascist WEALTH $$upremacy
(Mr. Joseph’s point, obviously)
Thank you for this elegant description of this system and how it's goals incentivize behaviours that contradict its stated intentions. My takeaway is that activism should focus on changing the system's goals. Then the structures and behaviours would follow.