Point of information

The guillotine blade used to execute
Marie Antoinette

The #OWS has provoked a string of sputtering idiots who claim the protestors are trying to destroy capitalism.  I suppose some of them are—lots of different kinds of protestors have come and gone in a month of activity.  And there are some on the left who still believe, in spite of all the evidence, that old Karl actually did describe modern society well enough to formulate a philosophy around—no matter the actual history of the Marxists.

Regular readers understand why I capitalize Producer and Predator—it's a theme of this blog.  And for a good reason.  Unlike most descriptions about society, I believe this one describes and predicts more about human behavior than any other.  In fact, I have spent a considerable fraction of my adult life attempting to describe the difference between these approaches to life.  In Elegant Technology, I devote chapters to the history of the conflict between the Producers and Predators, a cultural inventory of distinguishing characteristics, and a class theory.

The reason I bring this up is because we have recently had a striking demonstration of how folks react to the differences between Producer and Predator capitalism.  Briefly, Producer Capitalism is a strategy where the goal is to become prosperous by creating something very difficult, very well.  Predator Capitalism is the strategy of seizing through force and fraud the prosperity created by Producers.  Steve Jobs was an almost perfect example of Producer Capitalism.  When he died recently, people spontaneously erected little shrines to him around the world.  Wall Street, on the other hand, is the perfect representation of Predator Capitalism and the rest of us are so angry at them, some are actually mentioning the guillotine.  Turns out folks don't hate capitalism so much as they hate liars, thieves, cheats, and vandals—you know, Predators.