Quora – Why do socialists use the term “late-stage capitalism”? Are they claiming capitalism is in its final days and about to give way to a system with a better track record—like [stifled laugh] socialism?
Yes. It’s wishful thinking. Their justification is the widening “wealth gap.”
But it is not true, and here’s why:
Socialists, progressives, leftists, the woke, and, in general, Marxists, completely misunderstand humanity and its relationship to reality or creation. The widening wealth gap is not the problem; the growing collapse of cognition is. Marxists et al. are symptomatic of this collapse. This is why wealth production is out of their reach.
Alternatively, civilization is in “late-state“ civilization — or civilizational decline. Here, the late denotes the point at which civilization is no longer smart enough to evolve or even sustain itself. In other words, decline is imminent. This is why wealth dwindles or becomes more narrowly held.
The truth is, humanity and humans must perpetually evolve or die (die, in the case of civilization) or be left behind (in the case of Marxists et. al.).
This concept is the underlying, evolutionary engine of creation (i.e., life). It is inescapable, and an authentic civilization does this reflexively and without exhaustion. It evolves through problem-solving, while, coincidentally, producing new wealth. For problem-solvers, wealth is not the point. However, for Marxists et. al., as labor alone, wealth acquisition is the only point.
Humanity, in its evolved cleverness, created civilization. Unfortunately, by intentional design, this distances humanity from God’s direct evolutionary system, which originally developed our brains. Yet, if we fail to embrace the concept of evolution in civilization, the underlying evolutionary system will evolve us out. Evolution is a hard rule, like the speed of light. It is inescapable and unforgiving.
For unenlightened “sapiens,” this happens through cognitive devolution. Refer again to the above image. Soon, if Marxism becomes the rule, humanity may no longer maintain the capacity to sustain or improve itself. After all, they seek to tear life down. In the past, this pressure caused the rise and fall of civilizations, which have happened, on average, every 340 years since the Sumerians (circa 7,500 ya). Marxists can’t serve society today. This is why they want to tear our civilization down. Think of them as canaries in humanity’s cognitive coal mine. The question is, are we still smart enough to lock civilization in and then move it forward?
Marxists et. al., for their part, simply do not get it. They wish to use wealth to remain the same in their narcissistic enjoyment. This is nihilism. And, of course, there is never enough wealth. And because Marxists do not understand (see the big picture), they would steal the copper that would keep the lights on. See South Africa. In their ignorance, they insanely facilitate the destruction of the system that feeds them.
Therefore, the wealth gap widens because fewer and fewer people solve problems. There are, sadly, more Marxists and socialists (dependents, i.e., non-problem-solvers) today. Moreover, socialism, because it undermines problem-solving, is not the cure. It makes matters worse.
The phrase “late-stage capitalism” thus represents the capitalism train that Marxists cannot catch. It depicts their naive upside-down understanding of the actual problem. Crucially, however, civilization must continue to evolve with or without Marxists (socialists and communists), or it will perish. This is creation’s evolutionary mandate. Marxists merely foreshadow the late-stage civilization, though this state need not be terminal. It is, however, a problem that civilization must solve. And the growth of Marxism, as a canary in the coal mine, suggests there is an urgent need to confront the cognitive decline causing it.
Ignorance and dysrationality caused WWI, which led Yeats to write “The Second Coming.” It’s a cycle.
