I would argue that Capitalism is indeed a Religion of dogma. The most obvious dogma is blind faith in the invisible Market. The Americans who spend every Sunday in church actually place more faith, in their daily affairs, in the Market than in God.

At a deeper level, Capitalism is based on the dogmatic belief, contrary to science, that we are each separate individuals who interact only through discrete market transactions. All of the canonical literature of Capitalism - Adam Smith and even Locke and Rousseau - start out with the fiction of the individual Man on his own island. (The sexist language is intentional - in this fictional universe, women do not exist except as they act like Men.)

What is the alternative to the Religion of Capitalism? In a little-known essay, Edward Bellamy (famous for his novel - Looking Backward - which inspired a generation of activists) wrote of the Religion of Solidarity. He posited the truth, which is stated in many other religions and confirmed by science, that we are all part of something larger - what he calls the "Universal."

I hope to re-publish Bellamy's Religion of Solidarity. Your article, as well as Walter Benjamin's, is food for thought in presenting this alternative to the Religion of Capitalism. Thank you.