May 1, 2025

Capitalism, as an institutional arrangement, has been singularly devoid of plausible myths. By contrast, socialism, its major alternative under modern conditions, has been singularly blessed with myth-generation potency.

Peter Berger (1929-2017), Austrian-American sociologist, Protestant theologian, in 1986, quoted in Anthony Sampson, The Company Man, 1995, Jay p.38

Is not the myth-generation potency of leftist movements most obvious in their anthems? Can you recall the singing of “La Marseillaise” [the anthem of the French Revolution] in the film Casablanca? Have you never heard a massed chorus singing the “Internationale”—the Communist anthem? Or the Italian anthem “Avanti Popolo!”

It is a sad comment on what Kenneth Clark called “heroic materialism” that corporate capitalism is so focused on creating shareholder value that it has no time to commission a paean of praise to itself, wedded to grand music, or maybe even just a tuneful ditty.