The moderation of capitalism and secure elections

Our esteemed Gary McVey recently wrote an outstanding piece about Hugh Hefner and his multi-billion dollar enterprise of Playboy Magazine. Mr. Hefner famously intermingled his, um... smut with pop philosophy, interviews of respected celebrities, and other high-brow content. He sought to convince his readers that his powerful intellect, understanding of cultural trends like jazz and fashion, reading of great literature, and insight into the human condition led him to believe that men are likely to enjoy looking at pictures of naked women. Mr. Hefner is, if nothing else, a visionary.

You might wonder, “Why bother? Why must I page through 140 pages of pseudo-intellectual sludge to get to Miss September?” Our esteemed James Lileks suspects that it’s because Mr. Hefner was born of a 1950s sensibility, was naturally drawn away from mere smut, and found more existential fulfillment in mere smut surrounded by 140 pages of pseudo-intellectual sludge. Feel free to correct my admittedly ham-fisted summary of your comments, Mr. Lileks.

Anyway, as you might imagine, my thoughts on Mr. McVey’s column became even more engrossed by the recent elections in Europe. Many “far-right” political parties in Europe did better than expected in their recent elections. Some of these parties had ties — some recent ties, and some distant ties — to unsavory reactionaries. But these parties have become more mainstream and more broadly acceptable over time. You might wonder, “Why bother?”

These political parties had gained some degree of power for simply opposing uncontrolled immigration, for opposing the destruction of their economy for green fantasies, and for opposing willful cultural suicide. So why bother to temper their reactionary fervor with policies that are likely to appeal to a wider voter base?

Elections. That’s why.

Mr. Hefner understood that mere smut would sell much better if he could broaden its appeal to the masses with 140 extraneous pages of pseudo-intellectual sludge. And the European right-wing parties understand that they’ll gain more power if they can distance themselves from unsavory reactionaries and become more widely acceptable via more moderate policies.

Mr. Hefner understood capitalism, and European right-wing parties understand democratic political systems.

And it’s good for everyone.

I may not care for hard-core pornography, but I might find Playboy more palatable. Not desirable, necessarily, but acceptable. Pretty much.

And the stereotypical European leftist may not care for anything labeled as right-wing, but they might find the more moderate versions of political parties who share their concern about cultural issues to be more palatable. Not desirable, necessarily, but acceptable. Pretty much.

We all come out ahead.

In the comments of Gary’s outstanding post, Scarecrow pointed out that politicians tend to be followers rather than leaders. And it’s certainly true that democracies tend to elect weak leaders. Because those “leaders” must follow the will of the voters. Or else they will not be in power for long. So our “leaders” are constantly reminded who exactly they work for.

Without capitalism, of course, we get Soviet grocery stores, with reasonable prices but nothing on the shelves. And without elections, of course, we get Soviet politics, with the right to vote but nothing to choose from.

Once businessmen are freed from pleasing customers, and once politicians are freed from running for election, then they are free to lead. They no longer need to follow the will of the voters. They are now free to lead as they see fit. To lead their ‘citizens’ even to places they don’t want to go. What options do those ‘citizens’ have? I guess an electric car is good enough. And I guess open borders are a good idea – after all, President Biden says so.

Our only protection from oppression and tyranny is capitalism and secure elections.

Without those safety systems, we lose. We lose everything. We’ll try to make the best of it. But we’ll lose everything. Including our self-respect and our desire to improve our situation.

If one of our political parties has gained control of our election systems, then we’ve lost. We’ve lost everything.

We’ll try to make the best of it. But we’ve lost everything.

You may not like Donald Trump. I may not like Playboy. But surely we can agree on our shared needs, if we have capitalism and secure elections to allow us to cooperate in achieving our shared goals.

Surely. There is hope. If we have capitalism and secure elections.

Which we do. Surely.

Right?