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Alastair Macintyre, the great moral philosopher, on Marxism and…

- - - - Aristotle through his concept of Eudaimonia described happiness as the final end of humans - that happiness exclusively stands as the furthest end of all human action.
        
        elaboration (leads to)...
        
        The true final end can be pursued only by human beings acting together in a community - yet given capitalism rewards greed and self advancement - it makes acting together in this way impossible. We are thus entrenched in a Sisyphean task - unable to overcome our increasing desire and longing for more, repressing our happiness.
    - - Central to capitalism is the notion of self-interest, within its paradigm, we are allowed to discover ourselves or a version of ourselves influenced by a series of intersubjective encounters in which we pursue our own interests (no one else is in charge of).
    - - Fautasian Bargain - details the potential for greatness to be achieved at the expense of one’s self/soul - ‘a deal with the devil’** as many may say.
        
        The western world is reflective of this notion, seen in the manner in which we compromise and trade traditional values of selflessness for the vices of greed and selfish ambition.
- - - - Aldous Huxley, in his revolutionary novel, A Brave New World (1932), feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
        
        in regard to knowledge/ information media
        
        Thus, the great threat that we would be facing together was not going to be the suppression of knowledge, which is what George Orwell thought primarily - expressed in his famed novel, 1984 (1949). Yet instead, rather than inundation of knowledge with triviality - so that we would be so saturated with the true, the trivial and the manufactured so that we would either be uninclined or incapable of being able to tell the difference.
        
        in line with concept of bigness/ those in power/ruling class influencing the rest of societies behaviour
        
        Possibly, the contemporary capitalist system is gradually transforming individuals into instinct-driven, algorithmic, and passive entities, by providing us with precisely the content that aligns with our preferences, thereby inhibiting free thinking and critical analysis. Take social media feeds, there is the truth, the trivial, the manufactured, the banal and the gossip. When you consume them all together you get a situation where you cannot give heart to that which is so rightly deserving of your attention. Trending towards more of a reality Huxley foresaw.
        
        leads to concept of "too muchness"
        
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        in regards to capitalism/wealth
        
        Such inundation leads to triviality - such that we are so oversaturated material goods and superficial desires that we are never truly content, always longing for more. The capitalist machine knows us so well. It commodifies what we desire. Suddenly our iphone 12 is no longer the apple of our eye… we now desire the ‘new’ iphone 14pro. Such longing and discontent is only further exemplified through our social media platforms - our virtual selves and those accounts of others on such platforms.
- - - - They unassailably control our lives, dangering the very foundation of social cohesion. As their beliefs are rooted in conformity, obedience and mob behaviour, they prevent us from exerting agency over our lives – suppressing the very heart of democracy, our freedom of speech. As they control our knowledge ecosystems and media outlets, they can puppeteer our lives. They are unelected and therefore, unimpeachable. In essence they are too big to fail. Too big to control. Too big to resist. The rise of these 'megolopies' mirrors and models the spread of intolerant, authoritarian, aggressive tendencies evident in other forms of political governance (authoritarianism or in a broader sense totalitarianism ).
- - - - They unassailably control our lives, dangering the very foundation of social cohesion. As their beliefs are rooted in conformity, obedience and mob behaviour, they prevent us from exerting agency over our lives – suppressing the very heart of democracy, our freedom of speech. As they control our knowledge ecosystems, they can puppeteer our lives. They are unelected and therefore, unimpeachable. In essence they are a group of people who cannot be argued with, reasoned with or compromised with. What they say is perceived 'common sense' of society Mirrors and models the spread of intolerant, authoritarian, aggressive tendencies evident in other forms of political governance (authoritarianism or in a broader sense totalitarianism).
        
        results in
        
        An Idealogical/cultural orthodoxy/doctrine is detrimental to social cohesion
        
        REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
        
        If we consider the 2021 Melbourne Covid lockdowns. The city was divided in two fractions: “pro vaxxers” vs “anti-vaxxers”. ORR Consider the 2023 Voice referendum, a law proposed to recognise the voice of the ATSI community in parliament. The country was divided in two fractions:
        
        KEY ELABORATION
        
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        Cultural hegemony is a threat to democracy- its a concept that refers to the dominance or control that a particular social group exercises over the values, beliefs, norms and cultural practise of society.