Capitalism depends on moral capital from the very traditions it displaced

Evidence

But Kristol coupled his concerns about the excesses of contemporary social policy with a warning, as he wrote in a collection of essays that year, that capitalism was living off the “accumulated moral capital” of social philosophies that it had since supplanted. He worried that the relentless materialism of market advocates rendered them incapable of combating the forces behind the nation’s cultural decline. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 529

Categorization

• XREF: This is the chapter’s titled concept of moral capital — links directly to the broader literature on market society’s cultural and moral foundations (e.g., Hirsch’s ‘Social Limits to Growth,’ Hirschman, and later cultural-critique of neoliberalism). — connects to: Postindustrial capitalism severs the continuity with the past that genetic criticism relied on — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 24; Culture is not superstructural but is where financialized capitalism subjugates social values — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 563; Socialism’s roots trace to ancient moral and ethical traditions (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Culture is not superstructural but is where financialized capitalism subjugates social values #complicates (0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 563
• Capitalism’s material system is interwoven with cultural reproduction #corroborates (0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 122
• Capitalism reproduces itself by drawing civil and cultural life into conformity with its needs #expands (0.82)
• Morality precedes society and society merely manipulates an already-existing moral structure #corroborates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 514
• Subordinating social values to economic value is capitalism’s fundamental logic #qualifies (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 346
• Individualism intensifies the moral idealization of wealth as society fragments #complicates (0.72)
• Socialism’s roots trace to ancient moral and ethical traditions #complicates (0.70)