this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
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What I'm pointing at is financial abstractions, for sure, but inclusive of things like currency (an abstraction for material goods), ending the gold standard (an abstraction for currency), fractional reserve lending (an abstraction for money supply), securities (an abstraction for property), derivatives (stacked abstractions for securities), etc. The logic of postmodernism is that symbols can represent symbols ad infinitum, which would indicate that the hegemon should have an additional layer of abstraction available that accounts for the contradictions emerging and obviates it, but it seems like there isn't one readily available at this time and the contradictions are punching through the layers of abstraction.
It all comes down to material reality in the end though. The standard of living in the west didn't result from all these financial abstractions. It was built on colonialism and exploitation of the Global South. What the financial abstractions did was mediate how these resources were distributed, ensuring that the oligarchs got the lion's share of the plunder. However, the plundering itself is what the whole system is ultimately built on. Now that the empire is starting to lose control over the colonies, and it's becoming challenged economically, and militarily, all of a sudden the house of cards is starting to crumble.