I was going to write about business models tonight, but then I realized I really had nothing new to add to what I have said before about how I think business models change the world, not technology, and so forth and so on.

So I am going to rant about anti-business liberals instead.

Now you know that I am not using anti-business liberals in the sense a whiny American pseudo-libertarian would use it to mean “anyone who dares to tell money what it can and cannot do”. You know I am not that kind of dog.

No, what I mean when I say anti-business liberals is that special kind of toxic purist who refuses to have anything to do with the dirty, grubby world of capitalism, what with all its greed and evil and…. math.

This sort of liberal is more concerned with maintaining their own moral purity as “not part of the problem” both in their own eyes and mostly importantly in the eyes of their fellow wimpy liberals than actually seeing the change they claim to want in the world come to pass. They want nothing to do with the harsh realities of life and would much prefer to spend all their time performing the same kind of “I am one of the right kind of people” rituals that everyone else does too.

Because they don’t really want change. Real change is scary and might actually affect their own lives and their own status in society. What they like is appearing to be for the sorts of changes that say to other liberals “I’m very very nice too!” and getting that feel-good niceness vibe without having to really do anything they don’t like to do or sacrifice anything or risk losing precious status by seeming less nice than the other liberals.

It’s a steal at twice the price.

Well guess what? The other side wants to change things too. Being “for change” does not make you special.  And being a nice person doesn’t help anyone by itself.

If change occurs, it won’t be because of the purists who do it. It will be the pragmatists who do. They will be the ones willing to see past the end of their own precious selves and get down to the business of change and do what it takes to make the world a better place.

And in my opinion,. if you think yourself a liberal but are unwilling to dirty your hands with capitalism, you are full of shit.

Your belief in your own liberalism is a bourgeois delusion and you are part of the goddamned problem. You’re the reason the business world can do all kinds of nefarious things and get away with it, and all they had to do to hide their crimes is to throw up a minefield of numbers that the know you are unwilling to cross. You’re why the dark forces of the world prosper because unlike you, they are realistic and pragmatic. You’re the ones who left the world in the hands of bastards rather that have to take responsibility and risk losing status by having to morally compromise and make tough decisions.

You are the good people doing nothing that lets evil succeed. 

If the world is to change, it will be changed by profit-driven capitalism. Because here’s a newsflash for you : if the first step of your big plan is “change the way everything is done in the world”, then I hate to break it to you but your plan sucks, and you need to be honest with yourself and admit that your plans are impractical for a reason : so that you never ever run the risk of actually having to implement them.

Thus, you remain uncompromised and you never ever have to deal with numbers or tough decisions or anything else that makes you feel uncomfortable or is otherwise not fun and easy with a high emotional profit ratio.

All I did was retweet something and now I feel good about myself! Let me bask in the glow of my own moral rectitude. I really AM the right kind of person!

Now I am not sayign that the only true liberal is an accountant or business major. You don’t have to master high finance or be able to read a ledger like it’s a novel to be a true liberal. You don’t even have to become more comfortable with algebra.

All I am saying is that a true liberal recognizes that if change is the goal then capitalism, and all it entails, is the method. Nothing else is going to work. Not your NGO, not your nonprofit, not your precious little jam-making collective, and especially not you sitting around sighing about capitalism.

You want to change the world? Invent and perfect a new business model. One that helps change the world and is profitable.

Because profit equals growth. That’s how it’s done. You want to put a carbon-capturing plant on the outskirts of every town? Make it profitable. Take the profits for the first one and use them to start the second one, and the profits from the first two to make two more, and so forth and so on.

Profitable businesses survive. Profitable businesses grow. Profitable businesses don’t have to go begging for cash. And the great thing is, once things really get moving, you don’t need to rely on your limited supply of hardnosed liberals any more.

All you need is people who want to make lots of money, and there’s never any shortage of those in the world.

Capitalism can be harnesses for change./ In fact, little else will do it.

So to all you ever so precious liberals out there who would refuse to end world hunger if it meant having to do something that seemed gross or mean, please, and I mean this sincerely, go fuck yourselves.

And whle you’re at it, get the fuck out of the way of people at the grown-up’s table.

We have a world to save.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.