thesis drafts → imperatives of capital
The system speaks to us in hypothetical imperatives. It does not have to communicate with us directly — its representatives have permeated every aspect of our lives, taking on a role of whoever is closest to us at any particular moment when it needs to deliver its message. When a school teacher tells a student that they have to work harder for a good grade, it is hypothetically implied that the student has a desire to get a good grade, that is in turn driven by their desire to have a high GPA, that is in turn driven by their desire to go to a good college, and so on — the track is so beaten that it seems vulgar to even follow through. But if we were to follow it through all the way to the dead end, would we stumble upon a categorical imperative, a core moral principle that reflects our society’s most intrinsic values? And if so, whose imperative would it be — that of the student or that of the teacher, or are we to imply that their moral compasses are perfectly synchronised at that categorical level? The student might disagree with the teacher on every level and completely disregard this imperative, but what is important is that the student understands its hypothetical direction. Intuitively, we all know why we ought to study well, work hard, earn and save money — it is because all of it can be logically traced down to the categorical imperative that our society holds true. We don’t have to adopt this core morality but we absolutely have to understand or at least intuitively feel it, in order to even be considered members of the said society. A rebellious student can refuse to work harder and instead embrace a lower grade, while still being a perfectly functional member of society, but if they do not understand the hypothetical imperative behind working hard, if they do not seem to know why they need to work hard, they will likely be diagnosed and medicated as mentally deviant.
For something so foundational, this categorical imperative is surprisingly difficult to articulate, at least for a regular person. Its abstraction is present in the cultural canon, bearing different names but most famously captured in the concept of the American dream. The idea that anyone, regardless of background, can achieve success through hard work — is essentially the ideological engine of American capitalism. Being a unit of culture, American dream is closer to a meme than it is to an actual social dogma, like a painting of the real thing. If we were to define the real thing through the political or socioeconomic lens, we would probably end up at something similar to “continuous growth and accumulation of capital”. Going back to the student-teacher example, this has two implications: the first way to understand it is to think that the student needs to work hard because it is ultimately implied that the student wants to grow and accumulate capital. The second, more logical way is not to project growth and capital accumulation on the student and instead keep them where they belong: the student needs to work hard so that the capitalist society can grow and capital can be accumulated. It is neither the student’s nor the teacher’s business to accumulate capital — the actual implication goes //// beyond their personal aspirations and into the broader function they serve within the system. The student’s diligence is not just about securing a future for themselves but about sustaining the economic machine that necessitates continuous expansion. The teacher, in turn, does not merely evaluate academic performance but ensures the perpetuation of this cycle by reinforcing the implicit demand for productivity.
This is where the true nature of the categorical imperative reveals itself — not as an ethical principle rooted in individual autonomy, but as an operational necessity of the system. The moralising discourse around hard work and success masks its real function: to maintain the structural integrity of a society that depends on economic growth as its fundamental logic. This imperative does not ask whether individuals genuinely desire growth or wealth; it presupposes that they do, or that they must.