I've been reprising my summer job at a retail store over the holiday break, and naturally I've been just astounded by the ridiculous sorts and quantities of things that people buy. While I will admit that the store's prices are a lot lower for various reasons, I still don't see the reason why anyone other than a millionaire or newlyweds would buy so many lamps, vases, or plates, not to mention the endless stream of trinkets and doo-daas.
The work doesn't nearly approach occupying my mental capacity at all times, so in my mental meandering I realized something interesting. Hating commercialism is often an alternative to hating people, or more precisely, hating people's vapidity. All too many people think that commercialism causes the vapidity, when in reality, vapidity is what made commercialism possible in the first place!
Following this line of thought, we see that anti-capitalism on both the left and right (colloquially known as socialism and fascism, respectively) is a misanthropically-motivated desire to control people because they're obviously too stupid to run their own lives. Whether or not you believe that's true (I think in a lot of cases it is), that's no proof that you would be any better at the job. It certainly doesn't justify totalitarianism. That's of no consequence to the totalitarian, who believes himself—through the state—perfectly worthy of controlling other people.
The socialist anti-capitalist believes that if we can end capitalism, we can free people of their vapidity. The fascist anti-capitalist is more honest, believing that since people are vapid, we must control them through the state to subdue their vapidity. Europe's history of socialism and fascism in the 20th century should be sufficient evidence that neither approach will work.
Looking at my own political history, I see elements of both viewpoints. I hated industry like a good little ecosocialist, but in other ways could have been described at proto-fascist in my views. Fortunately I came around to see the folly of authoritarianism many years before I could vote, and learned some valuable lessons from it.
