Translator's Afterword to The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality: Scrutinizing the Chronic Malady of Civilization

Upon closing the manuscript, we are not merely scrutinizing a book, but examining a stubborn pathology that has permeated the history of human civilization. This mentality did not originate with the Industrial Revolution, nor is it merely a byproduct of modern society. It is an ancient, deep-seated psychological malady—an eternal rebellion against reason, against excellence, and against the cruel yet just reality of the world.

Let us cast our gaze back to the Middle Ages, so often whitewashed by countless romantics. In that era where status determined everything, the world was static. The guild system acted as heavy shackles, locking away all innovation and mobility. The "anti-capitalists" of that time were not mobs in the streets, but the dignitaries and guild masters who crafted the rules. Under the guise of "just prices" and "brotherhood," they brutally persecuted any intruder attempting to improve craftsmanship or lower costs. Their logic was laid bare even then: to protect the vested interests of the mediocre, the welfare of consumers had to be sacrificed; to maintain a facade of stability, every possibility of progress had to be strangled. It was a "security" purchased at the cost of stagnation, a "harmony" built upon universal scarcity.

When the dawn of capitalism finally pierced the feudal gloom, liberating humanity from millennia of famine and servitude, this mentality did not vanish; instead, it became more insidious and hypocritical. The lords of old lost their privileges, so they allied with the nascent socialists to collectively curse the market mechanism that stripped them of their superiority. It was a grotesquely absurd historical moment: the old aristocracy, who once viewed the common people as grass to be trampled, suddenly transformed into moralists denouncing factory owners for "exploiting" workers. Their fury stemmed not from sympathy for the poor, but from jealousy towards the nouveaux riches—from the loss of their ability to plunder wealth through lineage and violence.

As the wheels of history rolled forward, this mentality found its most fertile soil within the so-called "intellectual class." As the book profoundly dissects, these literati, artists, and theorists committed the most unpardonable error in the history of human reason: the arrogant presumption that, through armchair speculation, they could design a social machine more perfect than the spontaneous cooperation of billions of people.

The utter detestability of these individuals lies in their supreme hypocrisy. Sitting in bright studies created by capitalism, enjoying the cheap paper and printing technologies provided by modern industry, and relying on a cultural market that only an affluent society can support, they use the most vicious language to curse the doers who triumph in this market. They enjoy the material abundance brought by the free enterprise system, yet fantasize about using the whip of regulation to lash those who provide that abundance. They not only ignore the fundamental tenet of economics—that wealth is not given by nature, but created through capital accumulation and human ingenuity—but also attempt to sever the very roots of human prosperity.

This erroneous mentality replicates and mutates like a virus, spreading to this day. We still see this historical specter haunting us. The "cousins" living off family trust funds, seeking to wash away their guilt of "unearned wealth," fund radical movements aimed at destroying property rights; the stars in Hollywood and on Broadway, raking in fortunes, pontificate on the gospel of wealth redistribution from their mansions; the scholars in ivory towers continue to administer the poison of "capital is sin" to the younger generation, teaching them to hate success, worship mediocrity, and yearn for that "visible hand" that promises to manage everything.

They blame failure on the system, package mediocrity as victimhood, and sublimate envy into "social justice." They refuse to acknowledge that in a free society, differences in status are differences in ability and contribution. They attempt to level everything through coercion, unaware that the destination of such leveling can only be universal poverty and servitude.

Whenever I look at the younger generation of Chinese overseas—those international students born in the 90s or even the 00s—a deep anxiety arises. Many of them are, in fact, the offspring of China's "Red Families," bureaucratic capitalists, and state-owned enterprise cadres. It is profoundly ironic that precisely because China was forced to introduce partial capitalist market mechanisms over the past few decades, their fathers were able to acquire immense wealth, affording the exorbitant funds to support their study and settlement in the West.

However, these beneficiaries of vested interests now suffer from severe "Historical Amnesia." They have not only forgotten that it was the logic of capitalism that granted them the privilege to go abroad, but they have also turned around to fanatically hate capitalism and curse entrepreneurs. When they see supermarkets discarding expired milk and chicken, they mechanically chant that this is the "corruption of capitalism," failing to understand the operation of the price mechanism—nor do they see that when governments set minimum wages, the low-skilled are left without jobs to feed themselves. When they fail to succeed in business startups in a fair market competition, lacking the bureaucratic shelter they enjoyed back home, they transform the frustration caused by their own incompetence into conspiracy theories, beginning to slander so-called "Jewish capital monopolies."

This cognitive dissonance is displayed vividly in them. Have they ever considered how few of their compatriots enjoy equal freedom of movement when leaving that nominally socialist homeland? How can these pampered "daughters of fortune" and "sons of dignitaries" understand the struggles of the youth in China's deep mountains and rural underclass? On the contrary, they exhibit a staggering arrogance, issuing questions akin to "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" (Let them eat cake): "Why didn't you learn English well and attend international schools when you were young? Why didn't you avoid the brutal Gaokao like me, and have your parents send you to a top North American university with just mediocre scores?"

These young elites place themselves in the top 10% of global economic privilege, mistaking it for the favor of fate. While enjoying the peace, rule of law, and prosperity of the West, they pathologically yearn for a "socialism" they do not understand at all. The socialism they romanticize is, in reality, the brutal campaigns like the Great Leap Forward and the Soviet-style scarcity experiments that their fathers or grandfathers lived through. Regrettably, emerging from the assembly line of Western leftist university education, they know nothing of this and are fundamentally incapable of understanding it. To expect this group of vested interests, brainwashed by fallacies, to reflect upon or defend freedom is, I fear, a luxury beyond hope.

Looking ahead, this war is far from over. With further technological development, humanity will face more complex challenges. If that ancient anti-capitalistic mentality gains the upper hand, if we place security above freedom and envy above efficiency, then civilizational retrogression is not merely alarmist talk. The fate of that stagnant Eastern empire, the lesson of the fall of ancient Rome, all demonstrate to us: a society that penalizes success, plunders wealth, and suffocates innovation is destined to descend into barbarism.

Yet, we still have reason for cautious optimism. For truth, though sometimes silent, is never absent. As long as there are those willing to face reality, willing to acknowledge the iron law of scarcity, and willing to believe in the dignity of individual struggle, that countercurrent attempting to drag humanity back to the tribal age will eventually be stemmed. Freedom is not free; it requires our constant intellectual vigilance to puncture those lies cloaked in morality and to defend the only system that allows humanity to survive standing up.

I dedicate this translation to all those who refuse to slumber in the dream of collectivism and have the courage to bear the weight of freedom.

Frank Xiang
November 27, 2025
Vancouver