Capitalism - the Ultimate Religion

[Existentialist]

I still don't think you've made a case for Capitalism being religion. Communism bears much more resemblance.

Thanks for this earlier comment, sorry, too busy with other comments to reply at the time. I totally agree that communism also bears more than a striking resemblance to a religion. Communism was dependent on a pre-existing stage of capitalism for its existence. So what could we possibly call an ideology that is dependent on the overthrow of another religion for its existence? It's obviously another religion.

I don't count the USSR / China / North Korea model as communism. These models look more like the famous description of "State capitalism", a critical analysis favoured by the SWP. It's the sort of capitalism where the State, in effect, acts on the world stage as well as on its own territory as one big capitalist company. It's a pretty nasty model, even if their discipline is so good they can set their soldiers up in extremely colourful, perfect straight lines. Onward Christian soldiers, you might say.

But the point is, I'm an atheist. No religion with a God, like Capitalism with Capital, or Communism with Lenin, nor sects like State Capitalism with Stalin, is going to satisfy my atheistic needs. Hence my rejection of both communism and capitalism as systems suitable for me as an atheist (although I think some communists are particularly good at analysing the motivations of capitalism)

I've been asked, if I'm so anti-capitalist that I'm prepared describe it as a religion, what does describing myself as an atheist in relation to it mean?

As far as the economic aspects of the system are concerned - I don't really know, to be honest. One economic system is much like another - you only need to change the rules. But I also see the social and political drawbacks of capitalism, so I tend to argue for a different kind of democracy (a genuine one) and different assumptions about what society expects of people.

If Capital is the God of capitalism, does that mean that I don't believe in capital? Well, obviously it doesn't mean that, since i'm the one arguing that Capital is being treated as a God. I do believe that Capital is being treated as a God, and in an insidious way, a way that is characterised by denial and dismissiveness but immediately followed up by actions which imply the opposite. So for me as an anti-capitalistic atheist my atheism comes in at the point where I observe pro-capitalists treating Capital as God, and where they deny that they are treating it as a God. It makes for a slightly complicated position where both I and pro-capitalists deny that Capital is a God, and yet I'm in a theological argument with them about it. I don't expect to win this one easily, but I'm not abandoning the attempt.