great post, Brad! I'm reading this on a bus from New York to Baltimore heading home to see my family for thanksgiving, catching up on your last two writings. I thought your words towards the latter of your analysis was very striking.
"A financial analyst optimizing returns, a policy maker promoting market efficiency, an entrepreneur celebrating "self-made" innovation - these aren't necessarily cynical actors. They're often people whose very sense of self has been shaped by a system they feel compelled to reproduce.
After all, the system rewards individualism - even when it's toxins poison the collective web - including the web of life.
Besides, if capitalism persists only through the conscious choices of so-called evil people, then exposing their villainy should be sufficient.
Right? The law is there to protect innocent people from evil-doers.
Right? Not if it persists through feedback loops that shape the identities, perceptions, and moral frameworks of everyone within it — including or especially those who benefit most or have the most to lose.
It seems change requires not just moral condemnation but transformation of the relationships and systems that constitute our very selves. After all, anyone participating is complicit at some level.
And what choice is there? For a socio-economic political system that celebrates freedom of choice, it offers little."
This struck me right in the gut. I was recently, a couple weeks back, on my way to a small gathering with a group full of older aged Brooklyn Heights buddhists whom I've befriended and they invite me to their meetings once in a blue moon, and I was running to late to it, so I at the last moment called an uber and a car whipped me away across the east river. The driver and I got to talking, and we began speaking to each other about the roads that have brought us to our lives right now regarding our loved ones, partners, and the relationships and choices we've made. I told him about how I'd never been in a relationship, that sometimes these parties provide often useful excuses to meet somebody and dance with them, and maybe share a kiss if the song and the movements are just right (not here though!) and he told me how he was married twice before he met his wife, now, at one of these social events like I was heading to, and that she'd been in his life long before he even married and divorced his others. I think he told me his other buddy was pining for her, too, but he was the sane one, and they ended up together...anyway, the driver said to me, "don't worry, the less choices in life you have the better", and I think the same could've been said for love as well. I was speaking with my therapist this morning, and she remarked at how many choices there seem to be. I thought about this uber driver, and now your post, and I wonder why at the same time we seek an abundance of choice in life we also yearn for the smallest number amount of it.
Choice becomes a lot smaller when money comes into the decision making of it, and I wonder at which points do some-we-I- allow capitalism to affect the trajectory of our livelihood and ways of snaking through life, or not, especially through art making.-- "After all, the system rewards individualism - even when it's toxins poison the collective web".
That's a risk worth taking, I believe.
I want to also comment on the music in this. Wow. Super nice stuff!!
Thanks for this thoughtful comment, Edward! Capitalism can sometimes make our choices feel smaller because money limits what’s truly possible. The “tyranny of choice” isn’t just about having too many options, it can also be about how the pressure to make the “right” choice. This can then lead to stress and loneliness, especially when the system rewards individualism over community. But even with those risks, questioning how capitalism shapes our lives (and art) is a brave and necessary step. Maybe accepting that we can’t control everything allows us to focus on what feels right. It might even free us from feeling trapped by seemingly endless options!
great post, Brad! I'm reading this on a bus from New York to Baltimore heading home to see my family for thanksgiving, catching up on your last two writings. I thought your words towards the latter of your analysis was very striking.
"A financial analyst optimizing returns, a policy maker promoting market efficiency, an entrepreneur celebrating "self-made" innovation - these aren't necessarily cynical actors. They're often people whose very sense of self has been shaped by a system they feel compelled to reproduce.
After all, the system rewards individualism - even when it's toxins poison the collective web - including the web of life.
Besides, if capitalism persists only through the conscious choices of so-called evil people, then exposing their villainy should be sufficient.
Right? The law is there to protect innocent people from evil-doers.
Right? Not if it persists through feedback loops that shape the identities, perceptions, and moral frameworks of everyone within it — including or especially those who benefit most or have the most to lose.
It seems change requires not just moral condemnation but transformation of the relationships and systems that constitute our very selves. After all, anyone participating is complicit at some level.
And what choice is there? For a socio-economic political system that celebrates freedom of choice, it offers little."
This struck me right in the gut. I was recently, a couple weeks back, on my way to a small gathering with a group full of older aged Brooklyn Heights buddhists whom I've befriended and they invite me to their meetings once in a blue moon, and I was running to late to it, so I at the last moment called an uber and a car whipped me away across the east river. The driver and I got to talking, and we began speaking to each other about the roads that have brought us to our lives right now regarding our loved ones, partners, and the relationships and choices we've made. I told him about how I'd never been in a relationship, that sometimes these parties provide often useful excuses to meet somebody and dance with them, and maybe share a kiss if the song and the movements are just right (not here though!) and he told me how he was married twice before he met his wife, now, at one of these social events like I was heading to, and that she'd been in his life long before he even married and divorced his others. I think he told me his other buddy was pining for her, too, but he was the sane one, and they ended up together...anyway, the driver said to me, "don't worry, the less choices in life you have the better", and I think the same could've been said for love as well. I was speaking with my therapist this morning, and she remarked at how many choices there seem to be. I thought about this uber driver, and now your post, and I wonder why at the same time we seek an abundance of choice in life we also yearn for the smallest number amount of it.
Choice becomes a lot smaller when money comes into the decision making of it, and I wonder at which points do some-we-I- allow capitalism to affect the trajectory of our livelihood and ways of snaking through life, or not, especially through art making.-- "After all, the system rewards individualism - even when it's toxins poison the collective web".
That's a risk worth taking, I believe.
I want to also comment on the music in this. Wow. Super nice stuff!!
Thanks for this thoughtful comment, Edward! Capitalism can sometimes make our choices feel smaller because money limits what’s truly possible. The “tyranny of choice” isn’t just about having too many options, it can also be about how the pressure to make the “right” choice. This can then lead to stress and loneliness, especially when the system rewards individualism over community. But even with those risks, questioning how capitalism shapes our lives (and art) is a brave and necessary step. Maybe accepting that we can’t control everything allows us to focus on what feels right. It might even free us from feeling trapped by seemingly endless options!