Review: The Capitalism Delusion by Bob Ellis
The Capitalism Delusion: How Global Economics Wrecked Everything and What To Do About It
Author: Bob Ellis
Published by: Penguin
Are we suffering righteousness fatigue? For the good part of a decade non-fiction and documentaries hinted at a new age of rational thought – Michael Moore, Eric Schlosser, Al Gore, Morgan Spurlock, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins brought the wrath previously under the dominion of conservatives to bear on liberal concerns.
We shook our fists at George Dubya, capitalism, and McEverything to a point where we even got up in God’s face and gave Him what for. Then what happened? Bush got re-elected, nations got fatter, more self-involved and deeper in debt, the Global Financial Crisis caused markets to spectacularly collapse the world over and some sectors of the community still believe that God tells them to hate gays. What hath our self-righteous lefty indignation wrought, if anything at all?
I’m as dismayed as anyone else that Rudd and Obama aren’t the shining beacons of hope that they promised. Cynicism sets in and we scoff at ourselves for being so foolish to think that any kind of change can occur in a world so carefully arranged by the rich and powerful to prey on the ignorant and fearful. Then the giant, irascible brain of Bob Ellis comes to rally the troops.
Even if strident liberalism now seems like a waning trend, Bob Ellis’s invigorating broadside is the best kind of nostalgia for a time when regular people fought injustice at the S11 protests and massed across Sydney Harbour Bridge for reconciliation. In fact, come to think of it, this horrible shit is still happening! Thanks for the reminder, Bob.
In 345 arguments (some running for pages, some just pipping a paragraph, some a mere handful of considered words), Ellis reminds us that the Rulers of the World are still taking the time to fuck us even while they’re being damned for their crimes and occasionally getting private-planed to the country club hoosegow. He’s angry but it’s a tightly focused rage.
His main argument is for common sense, for humanity, but Ellis delights in prodding his readers. Absurd workings of the modern world are calmly presented, dissected, and revealed for their dehumanising and deadly socioeconomic repercussions. He then insouciantly suggests we “Discuss”, or even more pointedly provokes the reader to “Prove that I lie”.
Thing is, you can’t. Even with the trepidation that comes from a subtitle that ends with “…And What To Do About It”, Ellis is old and cranky enough to avoid being an appeaser. His concluding solutions are just crazy enough to work: ban all television advertising, rebuild the Hindenburg, cap prison sentences, drastically restrict the size of corporations, socialise the entertainment industry, slash security and war spending, restrict ‘free’ trade and reintroduce tariffs, tax religion, increase the GST, mandate ceiling heights, and so much more in a 20-page sentence-by-sentence onslaught of good (but sometimes very odd) sense.
Many subjects explored in The Capitalism Delusion will be as familiar as the doubly cribbed title suggests. Not many other authors of agitprop tracts are as convinced and convincing as this perennial provocateur and our nation’s most bulbous intellect. His madness is contagious and it would be a great cosmic justice if Ellis’s beliefs could seep into the public consciousness as much as so many advertisements have.
If everything is fucked and we have the choice to cower in our bunker or go over the top, I’m siding with Bob.
Nice work Bob. I’ve shared your views for the last 45 years. How about a new political party based on the death of capitalism? I’m your aspiring member for Ford in Qld when it kicks off.
ps. the hindenburg burned because of hydrogen, not helium and milk powder would make a terrible (and relatively expensive) diluant for heroin.
All the best,
chris
Bob Ellis is a Fabian, which I did not know or care about before reading his book. However, his book reeked of Fabianism. I then looked him up and found that he is right in with that crowd.
Thus, it is not surprising that “Capitalism Delusion” tries to write out of history the central role of arch-Fabian Tony Blair role in instigating the Iraq War. Bob Ellis claims that Blair opposed the war. Has Ellis not heard of The Downing Street memo?
Ellis whitewashes what the Fabians are, calling them “a group of intellectuals” formed in Britain in the 19th Century concerned with the adverse effects of the industrial revolution. In fact, they were formed as the political arm of the Fellowship of the New Life, a grouping of leading *oligarchical* intellectuals bent on maintaining the British Empire.
Ellis pushes the global warming hoax like it’s a real problem. He even proposes to double the number of trains on the tracks (a good idea) and power them with solar (an absurdity).
He wants to give clean water to Africa (a good idea) but using solar power (an impossibility).
He does not promote heavy industry or nuclear energy. He does not mention science. He is against space travel and space exploration.
A lot of the book pushes populist wheelbarrows, like traffic lights not changing at the right time and deterioration in public transport (especially NSW country trains) since the neoliberals started to take over. Fair comment.
He promotes the British and Canadian health systems as models for the world. When in fact Britain’s NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellent) - set up under Tony Blair - is positively pushing healthcare rationing and involuntary euthenasia worldwide.
He claims that America is the evil empire, and attempts to paper over the nefarious hand of London. He claims that the Boston Tea Party was essentially a result of a commercial difference relating to trade.
He says that economics is about getting money to people, and that Keynes is the man to follow when it comes to economics. It is true that Friedman and Greenspan should be ignored, but Keynes and Keynesian monetarism are not much better.
Thus, he knows nothing about the science of physical economy or dirigism and does not seems to want to know anything about it.
He rails against the Nazis but loves Britain and Keynesianism. Therefore, he is attempting to deflect attention from the role of the British in putting Hitler in place. True, the Angophile grand daddy of George W. Bush gave money to the Nazi Party, but the British were even more active in helping Hitler in his career.
Montague Norman the Keynesian governor of the Bank of England played an importantly role in installing Hjalmar Schacht as WWII (and post-WWI) finance minister of Germany. Schacht was kept on by Hitler as Hitler enforced Schacht’s fascist austerity.
Ellis takes pains to attack the SDI missile defence shield initiative of Lyndon LaRouche, that was supported by President Reagan. This would have provided accelerated scientific and technological development (civilian as well as military) for the USA and the USSR and, more importantly, freed the world from the threat of nuclear holocaust.
Of course, Ellis does not care to mention the role of arch British oligarch Bertrand Russell in architecting the nuclear weapon-backed Cold War between the USSR and the USA.
On the USSR (now Russia), true to form, Ellis supports Mikhail Gorbachov who was little more than a puppet of Margaret Thatcher. At the same time, Ellis attacks the promoter of national sovereignty, development, nuclear power, advanced railway infrastructure and industry for Russia - who is also an outspoken enemy of the British Empire and its methods - Vladimir Putin.
Ellis, like Fabian socialism itself, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.