Capitalism

• Strive Asset Management (“Strive”), whose mission is to maximize shareholder value by leading companies to focus on excellence, crossed one billion dollars in assets under management (AUM) one year after the launch of its first fund.
• This comes on the heels of Strive ranking as the fastest growing asset manager in the country out of over 500 firms with less than $1 billion in assets in June.
• "Strive was founded to restore an option that has been stripped from investors in recent years: an asset manager unwaveringly prioritizes the financial interests of its clients,” said Matt Cole, Strive CEO.
• “Our rapid growth demonstrates investors want corporations that focus on maximizing value and prefer a shareholder capitalism approach over ESG and stakeholder capitalism.

• On 3 August 2023 the South African National Taxi Council announced strike action in the city as well the rest of the Western Cape province.
• During the strike many people who were unable to get other transport out of the city centre faced long walks home on highways and roadways in the dark.

Legacy of apartheid

• Yet the legacy of apartheid remains a spatial, economic and social reality.
• Arriving in Cape Town, many travellers will take the N2 highway to the city centre.
• Apartheid was a system of racialisation and segregation by the white minority government.

Violence of space

• I frame the ongoing inequality as the violence of space.
• Physical distance, poor infrastructure, and economic inequality cement divisions in the city and limit movement.
• At the same time people living in townships are also more likely to experience physical violence.
• This often means travelling in the dark and at greater risk of crime, a situation made worse by ongoing national electricity blackouts.

Taxi strike impact

• Over the days of the strike five people died during sporadic violence.
• As the strike and instability continued, dozens of women in the Philippi township marched for an end to the looting and violence.
• The taxi strike was called off on 11 August after an agreement was reached between the taxi council and the Western Cape government, with tensions continuing.

The ‘best’ city for who?

• The categories for deciding “best” city are typically based on food, nature and cultural spaces.
• Who the taxi strike affected, where and how shows the violent reality of spatial injustice in the city.

• In Moral Progress in Dark Times, German philosopher Markus Gabriel makes a case for a new enlightenment based on universal values, arguing that the democratic law-based state is a valuable vehicle for encouraging this “moral progress”.
• Review: Moral Progress in Dark Times: Universal Values for the 21st Century – Marcus Gabriel (Wiley)

Moral realism

• He asserts the objectivity of moral facts, their universality, and their essential knowability by human beings – although he concedes that in “dark times” they can be obscured by ideology, propaganda, psychology and manipulation.
• According to Gabriel, moral facts are not justified by God, human reason or evolution, but “by themselves”.
• Moral realism is conventionally opposed to ethical relativism, which proposes that morality depends on the standards, norms and practices of particular times and places.
• He links evolutionary psychology to our capacity to discern moral truths, without supposing an evolutionary explanation for those truths.

Day of Judgement

• The new moral enlightenment he proposes is overly optimistic and, in any attempt to implement, potentially problematic.
• He asks us to consider what our reaction would be if we were facing God’s judgement and God commended us for all the bad things we have done and condemned us for the good.
• We would find this judgement incomprehensible.

Populism and identity politics

• Of particular interest is his rejection of identity politics.
• Identity politics, argues Gabriel, establishes patterns between “identities” and the distribution of material and symbolic resources.
• Identity politics stands on the “propagation of stereotypes”.
• The near-religious fervour of identity politics, Gabriel suggests, arises from stereotypical social identities becoming metaphysically “charged”.
• Identity politics must be overcome in the light of universal moral values.

Difference politics

• Against identity politics, Gabriel advocates “difference politics”.
• Difference politics is not simply a matter of tolerating diverse identities; it requires us to understand difference as a feature of our common humanity.
• But recognising difference is only a necessary first step towards tolerance and leniency.
• Gabriel argues that if race has no biological basis, which it doesn’t, then it cannot be grounds for assigning special rights.

Spirit

• Biology and evolutionary psychology show humans are adaptable animals sharing a “survival form”.
• A baby of one ethnicity raised in a culture of another ethnicity will automatically learn the language and culture of their social context.
• But humans are not only animals, according to Gabriel.
• Read more:
  What Socrates' 'know nothing' wisdom can teach a polarized America

Darkening of spirit

• Moral progress is threatened by “digital distortions”, which undermine our knowledge of truth, facts, knowledge and ethics.
• Internet dependence can lead us to treat self-evident moral truths, such as respect for others, as null and void.
• The vast majority of people accepted lockdowns for moral reasons: they believed lockdowns would protect the vulnerable and support hospital systems.
• He criticises neoliberalism for assuming that progress can be achieved by leaving as many decisions as possible to the market.

• It has been revered by its Indigenous peoples as a sacred place for generations.
• In the 19th century, it served as the home and burial place of the Hawaiian royal family and became the first capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
• Efforts have been underway to restore Mokuʻula in Lahaina and revitalize its history as a Native Hawaiian sacred place.
• According to scientists, destructive wildfires like the one in Lahaina are becoming more common and more intense due to climate change.