Cultural paranoia

I'm reading Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine. It's a depressing block of paper that details some of the incredible crimes perpetrated against communities and individuals in the name of economics, such as the actions of CIA-linked totalitarian governments in South America during the later half of the 20th century. In countries such as Chile and Argentina, Klein tells us, the left wing was systematically destroyed through torture and murder - 'shocked' - to allow the economic ideas of US capitalists to be implemented in place of the progressive politics that were developing in those places, and that constituted a 'threat' to the free market.

I won't attempt to summarise the book - it's essential reading in itself, but either way the Wikipedia entry does it better than I could - but it raises what seems to be a particularly crucial question on page 126:

Is neo-liberalism an inherently violent ideology, and is there something about its goals that demands this cycle of brutal political cleansing [...]?

Marx tells us that, for people to profit, there must be theft and inequality. As Klein points out, theft is usually violent - and, even where there is no physical violence, there is violation (of safety, of ownership, of trust, etc.). So does capitalism, the pursuit of stolen labour, itself necessitate violence and suffering?

To turn it into a thought experiment - could a community, of any size, operate a capitalist system without any of its members being subjected to violence, or being unhappy - say, not being able to afford adequate food, housing, clothing, education, healthcare, and so on?

If not, and I'm undecided about this, then I feel a lot of guilt.

Guilt, partly because I partake in a capitalist society, but primarily because I enjoy it - I earn and spend money, I compete with other people for jobs, I shop around, and I enjoy the things I buy - at every stage, I'm supporting the system that violates people and communities for profit. It's not just about buying ethical products - by buying any products, I'm supporting the system that puts those ethical products within a capitalist market.

This is, supposedly, how the proletariat is kept under control: the elite allows it to have the X-Factor and some new shoes, under the agreement that it won't make too much of a fuss about politics. Am I being pacified by shiny things - in this case, books, records, an MA?

This raises worrying questions about my core beliefs and values. If my values are capitalist - I like ownership and collection, say - then under a system that didn't exploit people I would have to redefine what 'I' meant. I could no longer think of myself in terms of competition and inequality.

So should the first step be to purge myself, or can I work toward the rejection of capitalism without burning all my possessions? There's no reason that books and records can't be socialist, but I don't think I can own them.

But I know that I would rather people no longer lived in horrible poverty than that I had any of my books and records. And yet I sit here right now listening to The Notwist and typing about a book I bought (well, technically, borrowed).

Have other people struggled with this? What have they come up with?