Faustian Capitalism

After decades of faux displays of "corporate social responsibility," it's clear that big business and ultrawealthy individuals will happily sacrifice democracy for a little extra cash.

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Whose over-hasty impulse drave him / Past earthly joys he might secure. / Dragged through the wildest life, will I enslave him / Through flat and stale indifference / With struggling, chilling, checking, so deprave him.
—Faust, Scene 4, by Goethe

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In Goethe’s play Faust, the title character makes a pact with Mephistopheles, selling his soul. The bargain comes at a terrible price. During the negotiation, Mephistopheles reminds Faust that one can dress up as something they are not, but they will never escape their own failings: “In the end, you are exactly what you are. Put on a wig with a million curls, put the highest heeled boots on your feet, yet you remain in the end just what you are.”

This is a depressingly apt parable for corporate actors lining up before January 20th to engage in what

Alex Finley

calls “Faustian Capitalism”—willingly entering into a bargain with a terrible cost, sacrificing democracy for money.¹

For some of these players, it’s a cynical ploy, jettisoning the tattered remnants of their personal values simply to avoid the wrath of a government headed by a thin-skinned, vengeful narcissist who conducts governance by lizard brain.

For others—the billionaire blowhards making excited pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago—the return of authoritarian populism simply allows them to stop pretending. They can take off the “wigs with a million curls” of corporate social responsibility, ditch the “highest heeled boots” of social media press releases oozing with their predictable faux expressions of “deep concern,” and become nakedly self-serving plutocrats—just what they always were.

So grotesque is this enthusiasm that the Trump inauguration fund has already broken records, reportedly raising $170 million. Now, even those who are giving a million bucks are being turned down for VIP access since the events are so oversubscribed. When the incoming leader signals a politics of patronage, corruption, and retribution, the kings of capitalism take note.

Regardless of motivations, from Tim Cook to Mark Zuckerberg, America’s most privileged class is proactively engaging in Faustian Capitalism, selling America’s democratic soul to make a quick buck. The difference is that they didn’t have to wait for Mephistopheles to make an offer first; souls were sacrificed in advance.

But many will eventually regret this Faustian bargain—and we can help make sure that they do.