Time and again, liberals claim to oppose fascism while enabling its rise. Their 'moderation' serves capital, not people. This isn’t incompetence, it’s class war.
'capitaliwm' is not a monolith and there are different variitjes from the industrial capitalism of the 19th century the was evolving into socialism to the modern financial capitalism, heir to mercantilism. The watchword in any case is political power. China today has private enterprises, but Chinese capitalists are kept from state power (although I have read that a few have ben allowed to join the party). And, a major factor in Putin's restoration of Russian society and economy was keeping the new oligarchs away from politics and state power. The state at its best protects the public from private excesss.
"We are now ready to explain why capitalism emerged as a historical system. This is not as easy as is often thought.
On the face of it, far from being a 'natural' system as some apologists have tried to argue, historical capitalism is a patently absurd one. One accumulates capital in order to accumulate more capital.
Capitalists are like white mice on a treadmill, running ever faster in order to run still faster. In the process, no doubt, some people live well, but others live miserably...
"The more I have reflected upon it the more absurd it has seemed to me... So imbued are we all by the self-justifying ideology of progress which this historical system has fashioned, that we find it difficult even to recognize the vast historical negatives of this system. Even so stalwart a denouncer of historical capitalism as Karl Marx laid great emphasis on its historically progressive role. I do not believe this at all... The balance sheet of historical capitalism is perhaps complex, but the initial calculus in terms of the material distribution of goods and allocation of energies is in my view very negative indeed."
"historical capitalism" is fascinating study, but by no means fixed and nor well understood. Marx credited capitalism for destroying feudalism. In that, he was the forefront of the liberal tradition of Smith and Ricardo. That it made a mess of human life and the environment is equally true. That is surely a negative.
However, so fucking what? We all know very well that the neoliberal finance capitalism that we live with is an abomination whatever its roots (actually, that is easy—unbridled greed). And we should also see how humanity can tame its most dangerous urges. This is modern China.
very clear and true, thank you!
'capitaliwm' is not a monolith and there are different variitjes from the industrial capitalism of the 19th century the was evolving into socialism to the modern financial capitalism, heir to mercantilism. The watchword in any case is political power. China today has private enterprises, but Chinese capitalists are kept from state power (although I have read that a few have ben allowed to join the party). And, a major factor in Putin's restoration of Russian society and economy was keeping the new oligarchs away from politics and state power. The state at its best protects the public from private excesss.
"We are now ready to explain why capitalism emerged as a historical system. This is not as easy as is often thought.
On the face of it, far from being a 'natural' system as some apologists have tried to argue, historical capitalism is a patently absurd one. One accumulates capital in order to accumulate more capital.
Capitalists are like white mice on a treadmill, running ever faster in order to run still faster. In the process, no doubt, some people live well, but others live miserably...
"The more I have reflected upon it the more absurd it has seemed to me... So imbued are we all by the self-justifying ideology of progress which this historical system has fashioned, that we find it difficult even to recognize the vast historical negatives of this system. Even so stalwart a denouncer of historical capitalism as Karl Marx laid great emphasis on its historically progressive role. I do not believe this at all... The balance sheet of historical capitalism is perhaps complex, but the initial calculus in terms of the material distribution of goods and allocation of energies is in my view very negative indeed."
--Immanuel Wallerstein, Historical Capitalism (1983)
h/t to Jason Hickel for sharing that quote
"historical capitalism" is fascinating study, but by no means fixed and nor well understood. Marx credited capitalism for destroying feudalism. In that, he was the forefront of the liberal tradition of Smith and Ricardo. That it made a mess of human life and the environment is equally true. That is surely a negative.
However, so fucking what? We all know very well that the neoliberal finance capitalism that we live with is an abomination whatever its roots (actually, that is easy—unbridled greed). And we should also see how humanity can tame its most dangerous urges. This is modern China.
some sexy goddamn writing write there I tell you hwat
Liberals are definitely Charlie Brown
Marxists are Snoopy