Capital as Demiurge

Capitalism as demiurge

 Capitalism as a force exists solely to accumulate capital. The drive of capital is to accumulate further capital, by the commodification of reality. Every aspect of  ideological and physical reality is commodified and packaged and sold to be consumed, no idea or object of the last century has not been immune commodification. 

 The demiurge in gnostic teachings is the amoral/neutral/indifferent craftsman/creator of physical reality. The purpose of the demiurge can not be defined as "good" or "evil" as it is beyond such descriptions, rather containing the “possibility” of both. We see this with the garden of eden as a meta narrative explaining the development of binary thought/ the fall of Adam (who is in interpretation the fallen messiah). Akin to prometheus they bring fire to the world through sin (the stones of dimness and darkness). Fire is a symbolic representation of wisdom, which is brought from heaven to man. 

 We see the association between Adam and capitalism immediately upon their exile. The curse placed by God upon man is to work through the sweat of his brow for his bread. This curse only arrives through Adam's consumption of the fruit of knowledge. Here then is seen a connection between capital and knowledge. The development of various stages of capital can be seen as man's attempts to overcome the curse of labour, while being dragged along to capitals development, usually coinciding with a period of technological and ideological hyper-development. Therefore we do see within from the very seeds of its conception the revolutionary potential of capital, to not only further capitals commodification of reality, but to use said commodification as a source of liberation, to progress man's knowledge and reason even if this is for no other "objective" than the further accumulation of capital.

 Knowledge contains within it the seed of social progress, more specifically the ability to liberate minorities from social traditions and forces, even if for no purpose other than the oppression of the minority by capital. We can therefore compare capitalism to the demiurge, in that it brings knowledge through sin, light through darkness, revolution through commodification. What was a taboo in 1820 is now a market in 2020 (LGBT”rights”, women's “rights”, etc). Capitalism sees past the bindings of traditional order, instead hyper-fixating solely on developing new markets and producing capital. 

  The accumulation of capital is a metaphoric double edged sword, it develops social progress, technology and knowledge, at the exchange of commodification and labour.  The revolutionary potential of capital is itself capitals unflinching otherworldly vision, that sees past human concerns or conceptions, in its focus on the development of new markets and commodities. Like the demiurge of Gnosticism capitalism is neither good or evil, as it transcends human conceptions. We see therefore through this transcendence the potential of liberation.