The term is misused a lot, but I used it intentionally in the precise meaning you described, the sense that people attribute agency to commodities and The Market more broadly. Evangelicalism is a neoliberal religion that is highly adapted to contemporary capitalism. Whereas an “ordinary” politician speaks quasi-religiously about the so-called Founding Fathers and Liberty, Evangelicals attribute all these “virtues” of capitalism to God. In other words, capitalism is divinely inspired and to be capitalist is to be Christlike. It’s why evangelicals are among the most rabidly anticommunist: to be a Marxist is to oppose God, in fact to substitute humanity in his place.
I don’t understand how that explains your use of the term. I don’t think the vast majority of Evangelicals care one way or another about commodity fetishism and in fact tend to be crass examples of its effect in that the concept is basically invisible to them (like the social relations it describes), rather than them propounding its “virtue” somehow.
I think my wording just fell flat then. I’m not saying that they are self-aware of their own delusion, but that they are delusional due to commodity fetishism, and make the result of that delusion the center of their ideology. That is a step beyond garden-variety liberalism; it’s a religion constructed around commodity fetishistic ideology.
They don’t say “we are deluded about commodities and so should you,” they instead say “we believe the Free Market is a conduit for God’s providence” and use that to justify poverty of the masses and wealth for the ruling class. (After all, if the Free Market is divine, then wealth demonstrates God’s approval.)
link.
would be too kind.
The term is misused a lot, but I used it intentionally in the precise meaning you described, the sense that people attribute agency to commodities and The Market more broadly. Evangelicalism is a neoliberal religion that is highly adapted to contemporary capitalism. Whereas an “ordinary” politician speaks quasi-religiously about the so-called Founding Fathers and Liberty, Evangelicals attribute all these “virtues” of capitalism to God. In other words, capitalism is divinely inspired and to be capitalist is to be Christlike. It’s why evangelicals are among the most rabidly anticommunist: to be a Marxist is to oppose God, in fact to substitute humanity in his place.
I don’t understand how that explains your use of the term. I don’t think the vast majority of Evangelicals care one way or another about commodity fetishism and in fact tend to be crass examples of its effect in that the concept is basically invisible to them (like the social relations it describes), rather than them propounding its “virtue” somehow.
I think my wording just fell flat then. I’m not saying that they are self-aware of their own delusion, but that they are delusional due to commodity fetishism, and make the result of that delusion the center of their ideology. That is a step beyond garden-variety liberalism; it’s a religion constructed around commodity fetishistic ideology.
They don’t say “we are deluded about commodities and so should you,” they instead say “we believe the Free Market is a conduit for God’s providence” and use that to justify poverty of the masses and wealth for the ruling class. (After all, if the Free Market is divine, then wealth demonstrates God’s approval.)
Fair enough, thanks for explaining and sorry if I was being obtuse
Not at all, it’s a fair question and I think others will benefit from your explanation