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Crypto Collapse and the End of the Magical Thinking That Infected Capitalism
- eternalban 4y agoInteresting setup of the argument: I have come to view cryptocurrencies not simply as exotic assets but as a manifestation of a magical thinking that had come to infect part of the generation who grew up in the aftermath of the Great Recession — and American capitalism, more broadly. For these purposes, magical thinking is the assumption that favored conditions will continue on forever without regard for history. It is the minimizing of constraints and trade-offs in favor of techno-utopianism and the exclusive emphasis on positive outcomes and novelty. It is the conflation of virtue with commerce. Where did this ideology come from? It's a subtle construct that actually implicitly communicates a great deal. The thought that "favored conditions will continue on forever without regard for history" is not a mere thought for the 0.1% (sic), is it? Neither world wars, nor depressions, nor 'global pandemics' has stopped the gravy train for that subset of humanity. So more precisely, what professor seems to be saying is an economic variant of "All [economic] animals are equal, but some [economic] animals are more equal than others". And yes, it is "magical thinking" to think you are part of the 0.1% or that we're playing in the same economic playground. He's right about that.
- xiaolingxiao 4y agoDoes anyone have a non paywall version of this?
- nobody9999 4y agohttps://archive.ph/nYC3M https://archive.ph/nYC3M