Onward to Libertarianism, Authoritarianism, Social Darwinism…!?
In October, the German chancellor proclaimed an “autumn of reforms.” Now that a solution has been found for migration – except for the problems that still exist “in the cityscape” – it is time to focus on the “native” citizens: citizen’s income, health care, pensions… in short, the welfare state. The situation is reminiscent of what began in the 1990s. First, after a wave of discrimination against refugees, the right to seek asylum was dismantled. Then the focus turned to the German “losers.” Hartz IV was implemented – supported by a consensus among democrats: those who do not work should not eat. Even back then, foreign skilled workers were sought for the domestic labor market. However, xenophobic German mobs had to be appeased because they didn’t like the influx of foreign human capital. Promises were made to consistently deport migrants who did not work. This was stated in a leaflet published by the red-green federal government in August 2002.
In the meantime, the world has moved on. The competitive advantage that Germany had gained by being one of the pioneers of social cuts with Hartz IV has been exhausted. As the “export world champion,” Germany had also exported debt along with its goods. The government insisted that indebted countries, especially in southern Europe, pay their debts and exercise budgetary discipline, i.e., cut social services. In addition, since the late 1990s, there have been increasing and worsening crashes on the financial markets, along with the costs of rescuing “systemically important” banks. Germany’s advantage in global competition has been exhausted. The “world export champion” has become a candidate for relegation, and Germany is also increasingly involved in the global crisis of capitalism. This became apparent with stagflation in the 1970s. Neoliberalism and its reforms were supposed to combat it, but now we are back to stagflation tendencies – albeit at a much higher level of the crisis with a correspondingly larger fall. Nevertheless, the response points in the direction of more of the same, “only” more libertarian, authoritarian, social Darwinist and nihilistic.
Libertarianism
Tendencies toward libertarianism are spreading as a radicalized continuation of neoliberalism. This is reflected in the world’s best-selling novel, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The novel tells of the superiority of an individual who consistently asserts his interests and celebrates himself as a “prime mover” against the impositions of bureaucratic administration. Libertarian ideas carry on the neoliberal idea that only capitalist society, with the unhindered unfolding of market forces, corresponds to human nature. A new emphasis is evident in the aggressiveness of the attacks on social equality and the supposedly socialist/totalitarian welfare state. These attacks are accompanied by discrimination and contempt for those who cannot assert themselves. States prove their leadership when they succeed in enforcing low taxes and wages and reducing regulatory bureaucracy. Inequality becomes a hallmark of “positive freedom.” US Vice President Vance and German-born tech billionaire Peter Thiel are considered part of the libertarian camp. They see the world threatened by the Antichrist, who lures people with liberal freedoms, suppresses necessary hierarchies, and sacrifices excellence to the principle of equality. The world is threatened by communism and a dictatorship of equality. The tendencies toward libertarianism are not directly reflected in the “German welfare state.” Nevertheless, these tendencies are reflected in the aggressive tone used against non-workers and in the broad social and party-political consensus on reducing bureaucracy. Merz’s 2009 book Mehr Kapitalismus wagen (Dare For More Capitalism) contains programmatic “groundbreaking” ideas. It contains attacks on the redistributive (welfare) state and praise for natural inequality in a market economy based on competition and property. Both go hand in hand with the relativization of material inequality, the reduction of which is not a political end in itself.
Authoritarianism
Libertarian tendencies are enforced with repressive state measures against enemies both outside and inside of the country. Trump’s erratic behavior, oscillating between libertarian contempt for the state and protectionism, extortionate deals, and militaristic threats, does not reflect the delusions of an individual, but is an expression of the fact that capitalist conditions are increasingly spiraling out of control and amalgamating with irrational delusions. In Europe, too, contradictions are intensifying between liberal economic policy orientation, complete with democratic incantations, and authoritarian repression, first against refugees and/or migrants and then against the poor in their own country. These are accompanied by a mixture of indifference, social coldness, and hostile aggression found in large sections of the population. Above all, the middle class, which is collapsing in the crisis and suffering from precarious employment and inflationary increases in the cost of living, wants to see the normality of “prosperity” secured, and it feels threatened by social losers. With their repression of refugees and the poor, the centrist parties are seeking to connect with the concerns of “the” people. Right-wing parties and movements are falling on “fertile” ground. They are able to score points with populist-identitarian ideas. In view of the longing for “homogeneous normality,” everything that is diverse appears threatening.
Social Darwinism and Nihilism
Libertarianism and authoritarianism charged with identitarian politics boil down to social Darwinism. The strong, who are capable of achieving wealth and prestige, ultimately becoming excellent “superhumans,” should survive. According to Nietzsche, a nihilistic Judeo-Christian slave morality stands in their way. It promotes compassion and solidarity with the weak and, at the same time, resentment against the successful.
Capitalism is nihilistic at its core, its sole purpose being to turn money into more money. It knows only empty quantifications, but no content, i.e., qualities that make up life – neither the purpose of production for the satisfaction of human needs nor the purpose of sensitive and loving care for the reproduction of life. At best, these are waste products of its abstract self-purpose. If the “dynamic contradiction” (Marx) associated with the accumulation of capital encounters not only logically but also historically – as we are experiencing in the escalating crises – the immanent barrier to the valorization of capital, everything runs into emptiness, into nothingness, into annihilation. It stands to reason that self-destructive capitalism charges itself with irrational delusion, with the delusion that it can secure a capitalist normality through the destruction of non-exploitable human life and ignore the destruction of the foundations of life in creation.
The Cityscape as Capitalist Self-Revelation
The chancellor’s speech on the cityscape reveals what the autumn of reforms is all about. Under the guise of paternalistic concern for daughters, non-workers – especially those who look foreign – are stigmatized. Fears are not only exploited rhetorically, but at the same time an authoritarian repressive policy is enforced against migrants in a policy of isolation and deportation that stops at nothing, and against locals who are denigrated as supposed freeloaders and work-shy and forced into the yoke of work under the threat of having their means of subsistence withdrawn. Those who do not work should not eat. This applies to locals and even more so to foreigners. However, those whose human capital is exploitable are welcome to come and are well received.
From refugees to addicts to the poor and homeless, we encounter global and social problems in the “cityscape” and everything that politics “gets up to.” We can no longer “afford” capitalism, which causes people whose human capital is not exploitable to fall, drives them away, delivers them to death, and, on top of that, destroys the foundations of life.
Originally published in micha links 3 (2025)
EXIT! in English 