How can human freedom and happiness be realized in capitalism, and can we escape its bondage?

This article uses The Metamorphosis to address the issue of capitalism’s bondage and human alienation. Capitalism promises us freedom, but in reality, it keeps us enslaved to its logic and pace, preventing us from experiencing true freedom and happiness.

 

As I read The Metamorphosis, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the bondage of freedom and the organic nature of human marginalization. We live in a liberal democratic society where all opportunities are given to individuals equally, but we are always deceived by the sweet face of ‘capitalism’ and are in bondage to it. Capitalism, rooted in liberal democracy, prevents us from enjoying true freedom because it whispers to us that if we don’t keep up with the pace of capital, we’ll be eliminated. We are comfortable with the speed and convenience of capital, but it’s hard to find the source of our momentary anxiety. We are so deeply imbued with the logic, speed, and convenience of capital that we have forgotten the will to subvert it.
In capitalist societies, the relationship between money and human beings is a close one that arises from the human pursuit of happiness, but the nature of the relationship in the pursuit of true happiness is contradictory. The power necessary to maintain happiness is generated by rigorous calculation. The Metamorphosis is about such a force. We call this power “capital,” and money has been a natural part of human relationships since the word was coined. The process of producing capital is called labor, and the active attitude of having to work to obtain it takes the form of bondage. In the modern world, money is no longer a temptation, but a necessity in order to maintain a minimum standard of living. Even water and air are no longer free to use. We live in a society that binds itself to a small amount of happiness. However, the nature of the return on labor is no longer the same.
In the past, in industrial societies, if a person produced one product, a person with a machine could produce ten. In the modern world, it’s even more dramatic: if the person who built the machine earns 10, the person who designed the machine earns 1,000. In this changed society, the existence of the individual has become more precarious, and people are being homogenized by the logic of capital amidst the abundance of information.
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, which depicts the figure of Gregor Samsa, who is reduced to non-economic value in this logic of capital, makes us reflect on capitalism. One morning, Gregor wakes up to find himself transformed into a bug, as he struggles to fulfill his obligations to his family. He thinks it’s a hallucination caused by exhaustion, but it’s not a dream, it’s reality. Outside his door, his family and the boss are urging him to go to work. Gregor struggles with their demands, but when he finally opens the locked door, everyone is surprised to see him as a bug. Over time, Gregor becomes a burden to his family and a loathsome monster.
Gregor tries to give up being human and embrace his life as a bug, but he still has affection for his family and tries to maintain that relationship. When he is unable to work, his father becomes a bank security guard, his mother sews for a living, and his sister works as a clerk. As Gregor sees his roles being replaced, he reflects on his past role as head of the family. As the family scrambles to make ends meet, Gregor tries to adapt to life as a bug, but his family’s disapproval grows.
Gregor’s sister removes the furniture from his room and moves the miscellaneous items into his room to accommodate the boarders. In the process, Gregor is hung in a picture frame, and his mother faints at the sight of him. His father, enraged, throws an apple at him, leaving a gash on Gregor’s back. Afterward, Gregor loses his appetite and becomes increasingly weak. In his anxiety and loneliness, he eventually dies. After his death, the family goes for a walk in the countryside, saying, “Now we can thank God.
Like Gregor before he became a bug, we are all struggling to live up to our parents’ expectations and become good citizens of society. This is how my life has been lately. Ironically, it is our behavior and way of thinking that thoroughly supports the logic. Gregor is also transformed into a bug without being able to transcend reality. Because we are unable to offer ideas or logic to counter capitalism, we are completely marginalized by society and deemed worthless. Gregor’s tragedy is so close to my own situation that it breaks my heart.
We are trapped in a situation where we have no choice but to conform in a reality where individuals have no voice, even if they have different values and shapes. The victory of capitalism has eliminated socialism, but it shows that utopia as a theory is unrealizable. Capitalism, as violent as it is, is an irreplaceable and fascinating system. Through Gregor’s inability to transcend reality, Franz Kafka acknowledges the fact that he feels the violence of capitalism in his bones and has no logic to replace it. Of course, I don’t have a logic to replace capitalism either. But the logic of capital has many problems.
The logic of material abundance, which began as a way for humans to be human, is causing human suffering. In this violent logic, helpless humans simply conform, compete for capital, and demand ever faster speeds. But behind the scenes, material abundance is based on the logic of maximizing capital’s efficiency. In this dangerous but fascinating logic, do we have the will to change it, and is there another logic that can replace it?
It is difficult to realize a social system that can reduce the gap between individual existence and the rich and poor. If the value of equality is emphasized, the existence of the individual becomes opaque, as in socialism, and if the value of individual existence is emphasized, the existing political and economic system needs to be overthrown. It is very difficult to realize both values at the same time. Moreover, we are deeply immersed in the glamorous media and material comforts while criticizing the logic of capital. What should we do in the face of capital’s violence?