"Capitalism is not an economic system, but a world-outlook, or rather, a part of a whole world-outlook"
About this Quote
The subtext is a challenge to liberal modernity itself. "World-outlook" suggests that shopping, finance, individual rights, even scientific rationalism are not separate domains but coordinated habits of mind. Yockey is arguing that capitalism colonizes the moral imagination: it teaches societies to rank everything by utility, exchangeability, and personal advantage, then calls that ranking "freedom". The phrase "part of a whole world-outlook" is doing additional work, hinting that capitalism is only one symptom of a broader civilizational condition - the kind of total diagnosis that invites total remedies.
Context matters because Yockey was not a disinterested cultural critic. Writing in the mid-century wreckage of Europe and the early Cold War, he advanced a far-right, anti-liberal vision that treated both American capitalism and Soviet communism as twin expressions of a corrosive modern spirit. So the line carries an implicit recruitment pitch: stop arguing about economics and start fighting over the soul of the West. It's a clean, aphoristic sentence with a dangerous payoff - it makes politics feel like metaphysics, and extremism feel like clarity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Deep |
|---|---|
| Source | Imperium — Francis Parker Yockey. Line attributed to Yockey's political tract Imperium (appearance varies by edition; consult the full text of Imperium for exact placement). |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Yockey, Francis Parker. (2026, January 17). Capitalism is not an economic system, but a world-outlook, or rather, a part of a whole world-outlook. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/capitalism-is-not-an-economic-system-but-a-51094/
Chicago Style
Yockey, Francis Parker. "Capitalism is not an economic system, but a world-outlook, or rather, a part of a whole world-outlook." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/capitalism-is-not-an-economic-system-but-a-51094/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Capitalism is not an economic system, but a world-outlook, or rather, a part of a whole world-outlook." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/capitalism-is-not-an-economic-system-but-a-51094/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.

