Sociocide and pleonexia are not just words. They describe what's happening in plain sight: the destruction of society by those who refuse responsibility for the common good. This video asks whether tax avoidance is sociocidal — and what we should do about it.
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
Sociocide. That's a word you've probably never heard of before, but it's real, it exists, and it has a valuable role to play in discussions on the wealthy because sociocide is about the deliberate and chosen destruction of society from within by the wealthy, who are tearing our social fabric apart.
This is greed or pleonexia, another word, which I'll get to in due course, in action.
So what is sociocide? It's a term created by the Norwegian Johan Galtung, in the 1980s. He used the term which he created to describe the destruction of our societies, the social fabric that ties us together, in effect.
It's not genocide because that's the elimination of people. And it's not violent. But it's about the erosion of trust and reciprocity, the bonds that exist between people if a society is to flourish. And in the case of sociocide, there is a deliberate attempt to kill society by undermining those relationships of trust.
But the fact of the matter is, we can only live in society. Whatever anyone says, this is all we have and all we know. The libertarian idea of the individual in isolation, living without the support of others and making their own fortune, is complete and utter nonsense in reality.
Nobody does that. Nobody can do that. That is not how humans exist. We are tribal. We always have lived in societies, and we always will. So, in that case, we need to make societies work because we are dependent upon each other, absolutely, whoever we are.
And taxes, I would suggest, make society possible. Tax lubricates the mechanics of our social systems, and tax is not just about money. Like all things to do with money, it's about reciprocity. It's about how we share to ensure we can provide what everybody needs. It binds us together in obligation to fulfil that duty of care, and it is the steering wheel of our economy and society because it says what we do and don't want to do, and what priorities we have. In other words, it creates, as I once put it, the 'Joy of Tax'.
So what about the wealthy when they're trying to avoid tax? They are seeking to opt out of their responsibility for society, and to society. They undermine reciprocity.
Their claim is that rules are for other people, or as Leona Helmsley once said before she went on to serve a prison term for tax abuse, "Tax is for little people."
Those who seek to avoid tax are trying to shift the burden of tax onto those least able to pay it.
They corrode trust in institutions, and they deny collective services, the resources they need, because, and I make this point very clearly, what they're trying to do is to remove tax from the fiscal cycle that is a necessary part of the management of those collective services.
The consequence is obvious. Inequality is widened. Resentment spreads. Communities fragment, and cynicism is normalised.
And this is sociocidal. Why? Because it isn't about technical cleverness with tax loopholes. Nor is it about smart accounting or legal practice. And it's certainly not about liberation in the way that tax havens claim they can provide. Instead, this activity of tax abuse is sociocidal because it's a deliberate assault on the common good.
It destroys the possibility of society itself. And we are seeing that all around us in the breakdown in the social relationships that people obviously crave, and wish that politics would recreate at present, but which it can't because the wealthy are denying us that opportunity by trying to undermine the democracy in which we live, and by trying to replace it with authoritarianism, feeding upon people's anger about the actions of the wealthy in themselves, and this is pleonexia in plain sight.
Now that's another word that isn't in common use, but which seems to be relevant in this context.
It has an ancient Greek origin. It's basically the insatiable greed for more. And that's not just about money, of course. It's about power, privilege, status, and all the other things that go with wealth. And wealth is hoarded as a consequence of pleonexia. It's hidden from the benefit of society. It is designed to break down that society.
The division within society is actually the goal of the person who suffers from this condition. And I think I do describe it as a condition, because it is an affliction that is destructive of the person who suffers from it, as well as those who suffer from the consequences of it.
Naming these things as sociocide and pleonexia is important in my opinion. We have to call out this behaviour. We could use just tax avoidance. We could use the term avarice or greed. But somehow giving them names which seem to be really identifiable with the problem that we are facing is important because we are naming those who are doing these things as not being innovators or wealth creators, and they're not astute or smart; they are sociocidal.
They are the destroyers of society because they are suffering from pleonexia, which too often seems incurable in their cases. Naming them exposes their true role.
So what should we do about this?
Well, quite clearly, let's call tax avoidance what it is. It is sociocide. It is the destruction of society. And to tackle this problem, we need to close tax loopholes. And most particularly, we need to strengthen tax enforcement. We do need well-resourced tax authorities because they are one of the fundamental underpinnings of a democratic society.
We have to make reciprocity central to tax systems and talk about that fact. And that means we do have to tax the wealth of the wealthy more. Otherwise, we cannot reduce inequality, we cannot stop wealth trickling up, and we cannot restore trust to show that no one is above obligation.
Sociocide is real. It happens when the wealthy avoid tax.
It is driven by their pleonexia, which a whole industry feeds into by praising those who have more than they will ever need.
It corrodes trust. It weakens democracy. And it fragments society, and so it harms us all. To rebuild the future, we must confront and end it.
Do you agree?
We want to know. There's a poll below this video.
If you would like to take part, please do.
We're asking you some very simple questions.
Do you think that tax avoidance is a deliberate assault on democracy?
Do you believe that those taking part of it are committing sociocide, trying to destroy the society that we live in?
And are they suffering from pleonexia - avarice and greed, in other words?
Or haven't you made up your mind yet?
Let us know because these polls do shape the direction of our future video-making and our opinions. Thank you.
Poll
Is tax avoidance a deliberate assault on democracy?
- Yes: the wealthy are attacking society with their sociocide (55%, 148 Votes)
- Or is this all about their pleonexia - greed, or avarice? (38%, 103 Votes)
- No: it's just legal minimisation of tax bills (6%, 15 Votes)
- I don't know (2%, 5 Votes)
Total Voters: 271
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Might tax dodging be a form of paracitism?
Might this paracitism require/use wealth and influence which subverts democracy?
Might we be facing financially engineered democracide?
If so, who might be a ong the “willing helpers” in such a democracide?
“Democracide” is the right word to describe what Starmer’s government is doing to this country. Democracy arose in the first place to maximise respect for the needs and wishes of others. The Starmer government has shown it has low respect for many others as its support for ethnic cleansing in Palestine overwhelmingly reveals! It’s forced U-turns on penalising the poor and disabled also reveal this!
It needs to be asked what the true reason is for tax avoidance and other negative behaviour by some people and it seems to me low respect for others. This can be seen in many other ways, for example, why isn’t there an adequate Living Wage imposed by law? Going wider why do we get low respect governments that shirk having a coherent understanding of money mechanics and then tell made-up lies about how money works in our economy so we get Soft-Fascism? Why indeed do politicians not point out that communists and fascists are low respect people and that a high respect society recognises that whilst market capitalism has many benefits it is prone to low respect behaviour and therefore needs strong regulation by government?
Because pleonexia gives rise to an over- focus on the acquisition of wealth it may be the case that an outcome of it is indeed sociocidal. But this may not be with intent – when we consider that someone has an illness, it is quite often means something in us is impaired. I think in some cases pleonexia fuels the sociocide in a passive way because pleonexia impairs things like empathy – a bedrock of humanity and our success as a species.
On the other hand, I was mulling something over the other day about the way wealth is behaving these days and considered the fact that the rich have actually acknowledged global warming which is why they are intent on further enriching themselves as much as possible before the planet turns on us. Having incredible sums of money (they believe) will enable them to prepare themselves for what is coming at everyone else’s expense.
A part of this strategy is about using AI to decouple capital from labour and to be honest doing what capital has always done – throw other human beings under the bus. Because they no longer needs us – we are not valid ‘economic units’ – nothing to earn, nothing to spend, let them die (well, they are not really interested in what happens to us, are they?). Because this is survival in ultra capitalist mode – so capital not only wants to dominate the economy, politics and power bases, it also wants to dominate catastrophe and come out on top of that too, on top of the human death wish.
Now this domination, this will – that is deliberate, proactive and thought through – a mens rea if you will .
So I think both your propositions above are active.
Having said all this though, I go back to David Graeber’s book ‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’ (2011) and how prescient it was. Having monetised debt and obligations and narrowed them down so much to just money (and money debts must be paid!) we have been forced apart as living beings.
A recipe for disaster.
These ‘ultra-capitalist survivalists’ might soon find their perfect life-style severely impacted by the absence of anyone to grow their food, maintain the roads, keep the water running in the pipes, fix the roof, mow the grass, build the cars and yachts and planes, wash the dishes, make the clothes, look after the babies, staff the hospitals, and do all the rest of the shit-work.
Yes but I’d add if you are treated with low respect as a child for whatever reason (parental mental health issues usually) you’ll probably go on as adult to treat others the same although this isn’t axiomatic. If individuals go for psychotherapy because they’re unhappy one of the central things a psychotherapist will concentrate on getting the individual to understand is they do have an assertive life force or survival instinct within them that allows them to “flip a switch” and start treating themselves with respect. This then gets followed by feeling better and starting to treat others with more respect.
While I agree that tax avoidance does attack democracy, I am not sure, for the majority of tax-avoiders, that is their intent.
I think the motivation is pure greed and the attack on democracy is, for some, just a welcome side-effect. For the rest, they couldn’t care less.
So they are indifferent to democracy?
Given the huge numbers of people involved in tax avoidance, I’m not sure you can generalise. But their behaviour shows that all of them prefer their own interests over the interests of society.
I think sociocide, pleonexia and democracide all apply. Fundamentally, I believe it is based on greed / avarice but with a high degree of arrogance and self-entitlement added.
I thought the article in the Guardian today ‘’People just lie’: How Riverford’s Guy Singh-Watson became the most brutally honest farmer in Britain’ was a good summary of the situation we face and worth the 5 minutes or so it takes to read it. He touches on the climate, farming, why food is so expensive (supermarket neoliberal policies), taxing the wealthy (inheritance tax for most farmers), the lunacy of Brexit, wages and cost of housing. Fundamentally, it encapsulates (largely) the point made about the sociocide, pleonexia and democracide we are being subjected to.
I entirely agree with you that a just state is ideal, and that we can move towards it by fair tax and other means. What worries me is that this is a new idea — 80 years in this country, from 1945. Scandinavia’s social democracies are newer, and I don’t think the US has got there at all — they don’t seem to believe that fairness to all is practical or desirable. And yet these extremely imperfect societies of the past did function, did change and evolve. So I think there are 2 kinds of people in this country who need to be worked on: the unreconstructed rich and those who moan about tax, and also the new right wing who pay lip service to justice and would increase inequality if given a chance. And maybe these 2 sorts need different approaches? On the NHS, for example, the first group might see that a healthy workforce is in their interest, while the second sort want to get rid of universal healthcare on ideological grounds.
I think it’s probably true that a great number of tax avoiders are driven by not much but greed, but I am fairly certain that that is not true of the super wealthy/super tax avoiders who tend to drive the social and economic views of the greater body of the wealthy. They seem to me to be well aware of the destructive impact of their financial behaviours on democracy and the seek to amplify them, because that facilitates plutocracy and erodes the ability of the not-wealthy to constrain them. Hello
Schofield surely has a point when he writes, ‘if you are treated with low respect as a child for whatever reason’ that you develop undesirable attitudes and patterns of behaviour. As the children of the morbidly rich are cared for by servants and then sent off to expensive and exclusive boarding schools, they are deprived of the esteem and security that normally flows from the loving care of parents. Indeed, they probably feel rejected. All that they can look foward to in life is being rich. Little wonder they grow up sociopaths.
Motivations for tax avoidance vary. The wealthy are as diverse a class as any other in both background and how they became The Wealthy. As long as we continue to structure our societies around capitalist growth, a ruthless, parasitic philosophy, the ruthless parasite will be celebrated. A recent example is how the convicted criminal sex predator Ghislaine Maxwell has been recently gifted a global mass media platform to rewrite her victims history and her and her associates part in it. Inheriting great wealth, as she did, creates a different social psychosis than making great wealth. One sees tax avoidance as a familiy tradition to be honoured for the greater family good whilst the ‘selfmade’ will have a more raw emotional reason, rooted in self hatred born of knowing yourself to have climbed so high in capitalism only by being the most parasitic of criminals and contempt (and fear) of those who simply serve society for the Common Good. This hatred comes from instinctively recognising altruism as an existential threat aka social rule of law governance. In both cases individuals are encouraged, by the way capitalist media celebrates their wealth, to believe that they are an innately superior race to the unwealthy.
In order to reinforce this capitalist Great Man myth they create a self serving and self protecting class that will, in the end, always create a stateless confederacy of like minded parasitic criminality. Recognising this is only the first necessary step in walking human and all life on earth back to a philosophy that chooses nurture rather than destruction of others to justify their existence.
… and pleonexia is simply a facet of paranoia, a condition it’s almost impossible not to recognise, almost in a majority within neoliberalist society -thus a specific construct brings about a specific condition.
I must admit I am less sanguine about paying tax now I understand it doesn’t fund government spending but is aimed primarily at keeping inflation low. I’m not convinced, with my pitiful little income as a part-time postie that that ought to be my responsiblity! I wonder how many of the wealthy tax avoiders think they are actually depriving the state of “spending money”.
Tax dodging and pleonaxia are anti social and anti nature and suicidal but the guilty are too shortsighted and obsessed with status to notice